Was it driving you crazy, too? What the heck was Edith Prickley doing in a
Broadway musical? I couldn't remember her real name...of course it's Andrea
Martin.
And for a second there, did you think the male lead with the red hair was
the Dave character actor from "The Late Shift"?
I *loved* the SCTV when it was in its glory. Here's a recent article:
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http://www.nydailynews.com/2002-03-21/New_York_Now/Television/a-14502...
From: NY Daily News | Arts and Lifestyle | Television |
Thursday, March 21, 2002
Where They've Gone:
An 'SCTV' Guide
Cast members' careers have
stretched from H'wood to 'Oklahoma!
By LANCE GOULD
Daily News Feature Writer
If "SCTV" had parodied "Oklahoma!", it probably would have been renamed
"Okinawa!", starred Billie Jean King and Julio Iglesias and featured cameos
from Bob Hope, Merv Griffin and Jerry Lewis.
As it is, the production of "Oklahoma!" opening tonight at the Gershwin
Theater stars Andrea Martin, an "SCTV" veteran, and she'll be playing it
relatively straight.
<Photo>
'SCTV' alum Andrea Martin is set to play it straight in 'Oklahoma!'
Martin is just one of the alums of the cult Canadian sketch-comedy show who
suddenly seem to be everywhere.
"This is an opportunity to develop somebody with depth, and sketch comedy
doesn't allow you to do that," says Martin about playing Aunt Eller in the
musical. "It's not three minutes, as sketch comedy is. It's three hours. And
the focus of this is not to get a laugh after each line ‹ it's to tell the
story."
Martin, who was nominated for a Tony in the musical "Candide" and won the
Best Featured Actress award in 1993 for her role in the Broadway musical "My
Favorite Year," is best known for her work on "SCTV," particularly as Edith
Prickley, the over-the-top manager of the fictional "SCTV" television
station. But she wants to put Prickley's leopard-skin pillbox hat and
horn-rimmed glasses well behind her.
She stopped taking roles in sitcoms, hired the acting coach who helped
Hilary Swank and Helen Hunt win Oscars, and focused on changing her image.
<Photo>
Eugene Levy (l.) stars with Seth Green and a ratty puppet in 'Greg the
Bunny'.
Many of her "SCTV" castmates also have been undergoing career
transformations.
With the monster success of "American Pie," Eugene Levy has developed from a
journeyman comic character actor into a star. His new TV series, "Greg the
Bunny" (which starts Wednesday on Fox), is generating a media buzz. Levy
also is at work on his third improv collaboration with Christopher Guest ‹ a
lampoon of folk singers.
Martin Short morphs into his obese alter ego, Jiminy Glick, every Saturday
in Comedy Central's "Prime Time Glick," a critical hit that began its second
season last month with guest Tom Hanks.
<Photo>
Martin Short in 'Prime Time Glick'
Harold Ramis has become one of the premier comedy directors in Hollywood.
Ramis, who co-wrote "Animal House," also wrote and directed the Robert De
Niro-Billy Crystal hit "Analyze This." The sequel, "Analyze That," starts
shooting in New York in two weeks.
Catherine O'Hara has co-starred in Levy's improv movies with Guest ‹ she was
the well-traveled Cookie Guggelman Fleck in "Best in Show" ‹ and recently
did a cameo with Ramis in "Orange County."
Of the show's other regulars, Joe Flaherty played dads in the short-lived
but critically hailed TV shows "Freaks and Geeks" and "Go Fish," and Dave
Thomas was in last year's slapstick romp "Rat Race." Rick Moranis, who had a
successful film career, has unofficially retired from show business. (John
Candy, arguably "SCTV's" biggest star, died in 1994.)
With the resurgence of many of its players' careers, interest in "SCTV"
(which ran from 1976 to 1984) has risen. A long-rumored DVD project is in
the works for late fall. And NBC aired old "SCTV" episodes after "Late Night
With Conan O'Brien" for about a year until "Last Call With Carson Daly"
started in January.
When it was on the air, "SCTV" was in the shadow of its NBC stablemate
"Saturday Night Live." "SNL," because of its live broadcast, had an
immediacy that hurt "SCTV" by comparison.
"On 'SCTV'," says Short, the only regular to make the jump to "SNL," "you'd
write for six weeks, perform for six weeks and edit for six weeks. On 'SNL',
you can be a star on Saturday night, go to the [post-show] party and enjoy
your accolades ‹ and if you don't have an idea on Sunday night, you feel
like a total failure. It was more of a roller coaster."
More demure than "SNL," "SCTV" rarely touched on topics like sex or drugs,
and it took place in the fictional town of Melonville, almost as far
culturally from New York as Kabul.
Still, the show was subtly dark and could offer devastating showbiz satires.
"SCTV's" parody of the play "Evita!", called "Indira," featured Martin as
the Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi and Flaherty as her adviser,
yodeling country singer Slim Whitman.
"We didn't have a lot of network interference," recalls Levy. "When they did
have complaints, we would listen to them, nod and say 'Good point,' and then
when they'd leave, we would go back to what we were doing. If they
threatened to pull the plug on the show, we said, 'Let them do it.' We were
young and kinda stupid."
"SCTV," which was nominated for 13 writing Emmys (winning twice), is being
recognized in Canada. The cast will get spots on Toronto's Walk of Fame in
May, joining Wayne Gretzky, Gordon Lightfoot and other pillars of Canadian
culture.
"We became disproportionately large in Canada because of our notoriety,"
says Thomas. "We're sort of like old legends in Canada now."
Adds Martin, "It truly was just to make each other laugh and have a vehicle
to express ourselves. It really was just that, honestly. We had no
aspirations at all that anything was going to happen.
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