What is the ultimate compliment to a comedian's comic genius and creativity (I mean, besides the marketing deals and royalty checks?) Getting your own series, of course.
And boy, was Martin Short ever complimented by getting a Saturday morning cartoon show like "The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley". I was always a big fan of Martin and when I saw this I immediately thought, "this is some kind of a joke!" But when I saw it, I never realized how funny a joke it actually was!
As indicated by the title, Short supplies the voice for his most famous creation, the hyper-kinetic Ed Grimley - a man whose every action is a convulsion, every word an exhaustive gasp and every rudimentary thought treated like a brainstorm. He was a living cartoon anyway, so why not just take that next logical step?
In this show, Ed lives in a apartment building next door to the beautiful Ms. Malone who is voiced by Catherine O'Hara as a cross between Marilyn Monroe and a heavy breather. He, of course, would do anything for her, which served as a catalyst for many of the series' episodes, as his simple actions would have nearly catastrophic results.
But, of course, every episode had Ed desperate to catch his favorite TV show - "The Count Floyd Show", starring SCTV's own Count Floyd (Joe Flaherty) in live action segments that proved Murphy's Law time and again.
This, of course, was even more popular with grown-ups than kids, especially fans of Short and SCTV, of which I am both. But since we are an elite group, no wonder the series didn't last very long. Oh well, there's always video....
Ten stars for "The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley"; a most excellent television show, I must say....
