Joe Flaherty

Joe Flaherty: (on the origin of the SCTV character Count Floyd) You know how Count Floyd came about is that we wrote a movie parody and we said, "How do we frame this on our television show? Is it a movie of the week?" And I said, "Why don't we make this one of those late-night movies." In the '60s and '70s, a lot of stations would book these cheap, bad science fiction movies but have a host come on. And the host, who might be Frankenstein or someone, would say "Ooo, that was a good one."

Joe Flaherty: (on the fans that loved SCTV) You'd get letters from prisoners and try to figure out: "Who's this show appealing to?" I remember our first national review was in High Times and they said, "This is a great show to watch." And we thought, "Oh well, at least somebody's watching."

Joe Flaherty: (On which of his SCTV's co-stars make him laugh) All of 'em, really. But Marty Short can really get me going. Gene Levy can make me laugh hard. One of the things about our show is that we all enjoyed each other immensely. Andrea Martin is a very funny person in real life. But it's Marty, really, because he's always on.

Joe Flaherty: (On the SCTV character Count Floyd) The Count wasn't a real stretch. I was doing pretty generic Bela Lugosi bad vampire on purpose. It was supposed to be lame. I didn't put fangs on; it was a guy who was just going through the motions. I drew on the widow's peak with eyebrow pencil, and wore a turtleneck, not a tux.

Joe Flaherty: (On the SCTV character Guy Caballero) Guy wasn't that difficult to imagine. I took it from Lionel Barrymore's character in Key Largo. Barrymore was in a wheelchair for his last few films. In Key Largo he was the boss of a hotel, wore a white suit, and gave out orders with lots of bluster.