Aroooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Joe Flaherty through the years.
Joe’s hilarious impersonation of William F. Buckley Jr.
Variety’s obituary here.
Joe, at 82, was the oldest member of the original SCTV cast. He was 82, about 13 years older than the youngest, Catherine O’Hara. He is the third member of the original SCTV cast (seen below) to pass, following John Candy and Harold Ramis. The four living members are Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas.
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 tool 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.
