Catherine The Great

Catherine O’Hara is one of the finest comic performers of my generation. She stood out on SCTV (I remember when it was Second City Television), no mean feat given the wealth of talent on that show.

She covered so much ground, and did so with smooth authority. She could play anything and pretty much anyone. Her work with Christopher Guest was perhaps her greatest achievement. Best In Show remains my favorite. W.C. Fields famously said never work with children or animals. Catherine (alongside the brilliant Eugene Levy) did both, and seamlessly pulled it off.

Catherine was hired by Dick Ebersol for the 7th season of SNL. Ebersol was, of course, trying to poach whatever existing talent was available (which explains why he later hired Larry David from Fridays to be a writer). Ebersol was trashed, but I don’t blame him. Why not? It was a dry time comedically. Follow the talent.

The story I was told, by three different people who were there, was that Catherine was put off by Michael O’Donoghue’s bizarro speech to the staff after Jean Doumanian’s SNL hit the rocks. Years later, Catherine said it wasn’t true, that SNL simply was not right for for her. Given the chaos of that show, as opposed to the family atmosphere of SCTV, I believe her.

I lost track of her later stuff, simply because I lost track of everybody’s later stuff. That’s on me. Still, Catherine O’Hara was a unique force. All hail Catherine The Great.