The original SCTV cast member was 82 years old

Joe Flaherty, a two-time Emmy Award-winning writer and Second City graduate who starred as Jay Caballero, Count Floyd, Big Jim McBob, and Sammy Maudlin as an original cast member on the popular Canadian comedy series. SCTV, He died. He was 82 years old.

His daughter, Gudrun Flaherty, told The Canadian Press that he died on Monday after a short illness.

“My father was an extraordinary man, known for his boundless heart and unwavering passion for films of the 1940s and 1950s,” she said in a statement. His vision of the golden age of cinema not only shaped his career; They have also been a source of endless fascination for me. These past few months, as he faced his health challenges, we had the precious opportunity to watch many of those classic films together — moments I will cherish forever.

A native of Pittsburgh, Flaherty was also known for his stint as A-1 Sporting Goods owner Harold Weir (father of Linda Cardellini and John Francis Daley’s characters) on the 1999-2000 NBC series. Freaks and Geeks And his role as the Western Union man in Back to the future part two (1989).

and in the Canadian-American sitcom 1990-1993 Maniac mansioncreated by SCTV His teammate, Eugene Levy, played scientist Father Fred Edison while also writing and directing the show.

A master of sketch and improv comedy, Flaherty got his start with the Second City comedy troupe at its Chicago headquarters before moving to Toronto in 1973 to help open a new outpost in Canada.

From there, go to SCTVwhich debuted on the World Wide Web in Canada in 1976 and included other original players Levy, Catherine O’Hara, John Candy, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, and Harold Ramis.

Flaherty thrived in all six seasons of the show until 1984, playing characters such as Caballero, the suspicious and disgraced owner of the fictional SCTV station; Floyd Robertson, the serious broadcaster of Melonville Nightly Newsand Count Floyd, the vampire host Chiller monster horror theater; the flamboyant, maudlin talk show host; And McPop, Farm report The host and movie reviewer who, along with Candy Billy Sol Hurok, made celebrities “have a really good blast.”

Meanwhile, Flaherty shared nine Emmy nominations for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Musical Program SCTVwinning in 1982 and 83.

“We had no product, no one told us what to write, who to appeal to, we just wrote for ourselves,” he said in a 1999 interview. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We were the prisoners running the asylum. We created our own little world and it paid off. …I wish we could do it again.”

The son of a production clerk for Westinghouse Electric, Flaherty was born on June 21, 1941, and grew up in the Homewood section of Pittsburgh. As a teenager, he studied acting at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.

“I definitely think of myself more as an actor than a comedian – my training was in drama, I only fell into comedy by accident,” he said. Globe and Mail In 2002. “And I think people are surprised when they meet me, because they expect me to be entertaining and funny, like stand-up. I’m not that way.

Flaherty left Westinghouse High School to spend four years in the US Air Force, attended Point Park College for a year and worked as an artist before moving to Chicago to take a job as stage manager at Second City in 1969.

In the wings, he told Jane Candy (John Candy’s daughter) in the 2020 segment: “I watched it and I loved it.” Couch candy Displays. “Little sketches, funny bits, satirical bits, and then they were improvising. I thought: Wow, this is great. I have to be a part of this.”

Flaherty was promoted to writer and performer and worked alongside the likes of Brian Doyle-Murray, Ramis, and John Belushi. Four years later, he, Doyle Murray and others headed to Toronto to set up shop there, and he had a hand in recruiting Candy and Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd and others.

As did Flaherty National Lampoon Radio Hour In 1973-74 with Belushi, Radner, Bill Murray and Chevy Chase, they spent a year in Los Angeles to help open a second city in Pasadena before returning to Toronto.

NBC’s success Saturday Night Livewhich bowed in October 1975, made satire a hot commodity and helped SCTV Get the green light.

“Politically, he was accused. Saturday Night Live Just took off. He helped us. The producers at Second City decided to start a TV show. “They wanted to keep the actors happy and give us a chance to do more,” Flaherty said in 2004.

While he was working on the first season of SCTVHe pulled double duty on another Canadian TV show, David Steinberg Show.

on SCTVFlaherty has done impressions of Bing Crosby, Alan Alda, Kirk Douglas, Gregory Peck, Peter O’Toole and others. And when Count Floyd wasn’t being teased like this Chiller monster horror theater Clicks as 3D blowjob doctor house for slave chicks And Blood-sucking monkeys from West Mifflin, PennsylvaniaHe was thanked by Alice Cooper special forces album and a rendition of Rush’s song “The Weapon” on the band’s 1984 Canadian tour Grace Under Pressure.

Flaherty et al SCTV The performers reunited in 2008 for the first time in 24 years at Second City Toronto for a charity fundraiser, then came together a decade later at the Elgin Theater for Afternoon with SCTVa live event hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.

He famously harassed Adam Sandler’s character in the film Happy Gilmore (1996), he had recurring roles in Police Academy: The Series And King of Queens He taught comedy writing at Humber College in Toronto.

He also appeared on the big screen in Tunnel vision (1976), 1941 (1979), used cars (1980), Strips (1981), Heavy metal (1981), Go berserk (1983), Follow this bird (1985), One crazy summer (1986), inner space (1987), Who is Harry Crump? (1989), Stuart saves his family (1995), Detroit Rock City (1999) and Freddy got fingered (2001).

Survivors include his younger brother, Paul Flaherty, to whom he wrote SCTV And other offers such as Dolls tonightHis children are Gabriel and Gudron. He was married to Judith Flaherty for 20 years until their divorce in 1996.

Mike Barnes contributed to this report.