Joseph “Joe” Flaherty 1941 – 2024 Rest In Peace Mr. Flaherty and Thank You so very much for the laughs you gave us and the lasting Comic legacy you’ve provided us with.
Loved Joe on SCTV. I thought Joe would be the big breakout star. Guess I was wrong, that was John Candy.
No sadness here at his loss; happens to everybody eventually. He had a lifetime of whimsy and creativity, and a relative moment of a coda. But he had a fourth of his lifetime, to reflect and be proud of all the joy he accomplished leading up to that. My god, look at that obituary - starting with Second City, and a finale teaching comedy writing - giving back, baby! I'm more envious of those who have yet to find out about him, and see his best work. When he enters the Dark Realm and he walks up to Beelzebub...he's gonna rip off his mask, revealing it's really St. Peter, who says: "Dude - we've been waiting for ya! Now grab your halo, and get to the Writers Room as fast as ya can! They're stuck on this sketch that needs punching-up!"
Given that he grew up in Pittsburgh, I oft wondered if Mr. Flaherty modeled, at least in part, the persona of SCTV News anchor Floyd Robertson on a longtime Pittsburgh TV anchor, Bill Burns, who from reading his bio and certain anecdotal stories sounded similar in some ways to Joe's characterization of Floyd, in much the same way Eugene Levy had patterned the persona of Earl Camembert on Buffalo, NY TV news legend Irv Weinstein. Alas, with Mr. Flaherty now gone, it seems that in terms of that, he took whatever basis he had with him to the grave. Even though, as Count Floyd, he was loosely based on the likes of "Chilly Billy" Cardille and TV announcer George Eisenhauer . . .
He was great. I, as many others grew up watching him and the comedic greats on SCTV and loved seeing him in smaller roles like in Back To The Future, Happy Gilmore and Detroit Rock City to name a few.
This is so sad to hear. The first time I saw Count Floyd on Monster Chiller Horror Theatre, I knew immediately where Joe Flaherty grew up, and it was so fun to see the occasional Pittsburgh reference in many of his sketches. Bill Cardille's Chiller Theater was a huge show in these parts, and definitely a part of every Pittsburgh kid's TV viewing during my growing-up years. From Wikipedia: "The title Monster Chiller Horror Theatre was taken from the Chiller Theatre, a longtime local horror film show on WIIC (now WPXI) television in Pittsburgh, Joe Flaherty's hometown. While host Bill Cardille (also known as "Chilly Billy") was nothing like Count Floyd (Cardille wore a coat and tie and spoke in his normal voice), the Dracula-esque persona adopted by Floyd may have been based on another Pittsburgh TV horror show host. The 1958-59 Friday night program "The Thirteenth Hour," broadcast over KDKA-TV Channel 2 featured the vampire-like "Igor," actually KDKA staff announcer George Eisenhauer whose costume bore no small resemblance to Count Floyd's. "...Occasionally, Count Floyd would be joined by a vampire-caped sidekick known as The Pittsburgh Midget, played by Flaherty's brother Paul Flaherty, an obvious counterpart to diminutive Stefan, the Castle Prankster, played by Stephen Michael Luncinski on Chiller Theatre." And of course, who could forget when Count Floyd had to improvise the plot of the horror classic "Blood Sucking Monkeys From West Mifflin, Pennsylvania" right on the spot? Thanks Joe, for the laughter. The world needs more smiles, not less. You will be missed. RIP.
I never thought of that! Bill Burns was definitely a local legend at that time, and I could see the similarities for sure...
Depending on how you count, Rick Moranis might edge out John Candy as the bigger star. In a leading role, he had the biggest hit of any SCTV member with Honey I Shrunk the Kids. Candy still has the biggest hit in any size role with Home Alone, although Moranis is not far behind with Ghostbusters. Candy's biggest hit as a lead appears to be Cool Runnings, but that's significantly smaller than Honey. Candy did appear in almost twice as many movies though. Their complete box office totals on The Numbers show Moranis with $1,765,186,281 and Candy just $7 million ahead. But they're missing Strange Brew, which made $8.5 million and would put Moranis over the top. There are a lot more reasons those numbers could be inaccurate though, as box office data is inconsistent and not well-maintained online from before the '90s. They did appear in at least three movies together, Brewster's Millions, Little Shop of Horrors and Spaceballs. Candy famously was offered Rick's part in Ghostbusters but turned it down.
What a fantastic show 'SCTV' was. Brilliant comedy, much wittier than ' Saturday Night Live' ever could be. And Flaherty was great in it. The whole cast was terrific.
