‘SCTV’ star, comedian, Pittsburgher Joe Flaherty has died at 82 after illness

TORONTO — Comedian Joe Flaherty, a founding member of the Canadian sketch series “SCTV,” has died. He was 82.

His daughter Gudrun said Tuesday that Flaherty died Monday following a brief illness.

Flaherty, who was born and raised in Pittsburgh’s Homewood-Brushton neighborhood, spent seven years at The Second City in Chicago before moving north of the border to help establish the theater’s Toronto outpost.

He went on to star alongside John Candy and Catherine O’Hara in “SCTV,” about a fictional TV station known as Second City Television that was stacked with buffoons in front of and behind the cameras. Flaherty’s characters included network boss Guy Caballero and the vampiric TV host Count Floyd.

He won Emmys in 1982 and 1983 for his writing on “SCTV” and continued to work in TV and film for decades.

He was introduced to later generations through memorable turns as a jeering heckler in the 1996 film “Happy Gilmore” and as an old-fashioned dad in the critically acclaimed NBC comedic drama “Freaks and Geeks,” which ran from 1999 to 2000.

In a 1999 interview with TribLive TV columnist Rob Owen around the launch of “Freaks and Geeks,” Flaherty described the creative freedom he felt during his stint on “SCTV.”

“We didn’t have a producer, nobody told us what to write, who to appeal to. We just wrote for ourselves,” he said. “We were the inmates running the asylum. We created our own little world, and it paid off. … I wish we could do it again.”

Flaherty’s father was a production clerk at Westinghouse Electric. Flaherty was raised in Homewood and studied acting at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.

Flaherty maintained deep ties to Toronto, serving as an artist-in-residence at Humber College.

“Dad was an extraordinary man, known for his boundless heart and an unwavering passion for movies from the ’40s and ’50s,” his daughter wrote in Tuesday’s statement. “Cinema wasn’t merely a hobby for him; it profoundly influenced his career, particularly his unforgettable time with ‘SCTV.’ He cherished every moment spent on the show, so proud of its success and so proud to be part of an amazing cast.”