It’s Joe Flaherty’s birthday, or it would have been. He would have turned 85 today. He was the oldest of the SCTV group.
Pretty scary, eh, kids?
Joe’s hilarious impersonation of William F. Buckley Jr.
Variety’s obituary here.
Joe became the third of the seven original cast members to pass away, following John Candy and Harold Ramis. Catherine O’Hara recently became the fourth to pass. Only two of the guys are still with us: Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas. The other living member is Andrea Martin, who went on to a pretty good career in film and TV, but really found her niche as a huge Broadway star (6 Tony nominations, with two wins). Levy and Martin are still working constantly, but Dave Thomas has sort of dropped off the radar lately.
That original 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.)
Did you know that Martin Short and Andrea Martin became in-laws when they married siblings?
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!
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By the way, Prime Video in Canada is now streaming all six seasons of SCTV.
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.
Love how he nails Buckley – the fussy pencil squeezing, the windy pretentiousness, the near Marty Feldman eyes. I hope someone showed this to the real Bill.
I’d give this original cast the edge over the original SNL cast, though it’s a tough call. I just think Newman, Curtin, & Morris were more on the average side than special, while SCTV didn’t have any weaker cast members like that. Even without Moranis initially, they still were funnier than their SNL counterparts. SNL’s bees vs Count Floyd, no comparison. Emily Litella was mildly entertaining, but Joey Heatherton was LOL funny every time. SNL had the genuinely hilarious Coneheads, but SCTV had 5 Neat Guys. Too bad they never met. Beldar Conehead vs. Flaherty’s drunk Neat Guy would’ve been TV history.
Agreed. For me SCTV was pretty much the pinnacle of TV comedy. All of it was good, and some of it was even genius.
I agree. Unlike SNL, they never had bad years, or dozens of lame sketches to fill out the time. They made their exit when the time was right. There have been many great TV comedies, and I’ve loved others, but my true loves have always been SCTV and The Adventures of Pete and Pete.
Hey Scoop. I am wondering why the rest of the SCTV cast refused to work with Gerrit Graham on that road show. I mean, it was really fortunate if that is the reason Flaherty became a performer, but what was wrong with Gerrit Graham? He didn’t threaten to eat a girl in a bad way, did he?
Based on personality, not talent.
The good count tells the story at 13:12 of the Couch Candy video. “Gerrit was, fairly, an asshole. Total asshole. Oh, he was so bad. He was such a jerk. … Talented guy, but … he was so self-absorbed.”
(That was before SCTV. It was the rest of the Second City stage cast on that assignment.)