It’s Joe Flaherty’s birthday, or it would have been. He would have turned 84 today. He was the oldest of the SCTV group.
Pretty scary, eh, kids?
Joe Flaherty through the years.
Joe’s hilarious impersonation of William F. Buckley Jr.
Variety’s obituary here.
Last year, Joe became the third of the five original male cast members to pass away, following John Candy and Harold Ramis. Only two of the guys are still with us: Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas. The other two living members are the females, Andrea Martin and Catherine O’Hara. That cast is pictured below.
Although SCTV was originally a Canadian show, that original cast featured three Americans: Ramis (Chicago), Martin (Portland, Maine) and Flaherty (Pittsburgh). That was the maximum allowed, because the rules prevalent at the time demanded that at least 50% of the performers had to be Canadian.
(Canadians Martin Short and Rick Moranis joined the cast later.)
Below, Joe Flaherty discusses the early days of SCTV with Jen Candy, John’s daughter. What a great, nostalgic visit with a charming man! When the hour was up, I wanted another two hours. I was deeply disappointed that Jen never got him on for a second appearance. (Curse you, pandemic.)
As Joe points out in that interview, he took an unusual path toward Second City stardom. He was the classic late bloomer. After some college, the Air Force, and acting classes, he was already 28 when he joined Second City Chicago – as a stage manager! It was quite a while before he got to perform, and that happened only because the rest of the cast refused to work with Gerrit Graham on a road show, so Joe was plugged in as a desperation choice.
Thus, eventually giving birth to Count Floyd.
Arooooooooooooooooooo!
I know him as the dad on Freaks & Geeks.
The howling vampire has got to be the one of the funniest concepts ever. And I loved the frequent Pittsburgh-isms like “Bloodsucking monkeys from West Mifflin Township”.
So much talent on that show it was ridiculous.
I liked how William F. Buckley destroyed the arguments of the kid.
So what would be a traditional Count Floyd Day dinner? Kielbasa and poutine?
Cabbage rolls and coffee . MMM MMM good.
Still the best sketch comedy show in history. Despite having DVD box sets of all the shows, I started watching a compilation of SCTV parody commercials on YouTube yesterday and finally had to force myself to stop after volume three. It’s amazing how many fully-rounded characters are played by a handful of comics, to the point that they can interact with themselves and be believable. Example: the ads for Tex & Edna Boyle’s Prairie Emporium that progressively reveal the story of Tex killing himself, then Edna trying to sell while grieving as her sister, Edith Prickley, takes over Tex’s part and hectors Edna to get over it and move on. They seem like completely different people, but they’re both Andrea Martin.
And let us not forget Catherine O’Hara’s unforgettable creation: Lola Heatherton, who actually managed to be hilarious AND sexy.
Amen. And I had forgotten how funny the Tex and Edna (AKA the Countess Boylena) stuff was.
Off top but bummer about Haliburton. The second he went down on non-contact you knew it was an Achilles. Damn you Thetis. The Pacers are screwed for next year the same way the Celts are with Tatum.