For some reason, it just occurred to me the other day that I hadn’t seen this guy in forever. A quick check of the IMDB shows that he’s had a couple of voice gigs in the last few years, but no real big screen roles since the early nineties. Where’s the Hollywood love for the comic genius behind Dark Helmet and Louis Tully? With Dave Thomas’ guest shot on Arrested Development, could we see a resurgence of old school SCTV alumni that will bring Rick back to the spotlight?
Look at his last 3 movies prior to the voice roles:
**
Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997) (V) … Wayne Szalinski
Big Bully (1996) … David Leary
Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (1995) (uncredited) … Wayne Szalinski
**
Man, without Spaceballs 2, or some other genuinely good role, it looks like his career may be over…
Weird that this thread opened today…Netflix just delivered the first volume of SCTV Season One, and last night my son and I were watching an old video of Strange Brew.
Ha! Does anyone else think it’s funny that one of his last movies was called “Honey I Shrunk the Audience”?
[sub]Hello?[/sub]
He seems to have pretty much given up on acting after his wife died of cancer in the early nineties. Shame, I always liked him.
Just to clarify, I actually am a pretty big fan of his… he was great in Ghostbusters and Parenthood, especially. I just think it’s ironic that that’s the title of one of his last movies (although I think it’s more of an audience-participation thing).
He is into Country Music now.
Honey, I shrunk the audience was not a theatrical release. It’s a 3-D movie shown at Disneyland/Disney World.
Wait a minute, is this really him?
Yep, it seems to be him.
Yes, I am up in Montreal on business, and Rick, a Canadian living in NY, was featured in the paper this morning with an article about his country album, The Agoraphic Cowboy.
He talked about how he didn’t like acting - it was just a vehicle for him to express his writing. So he checked out and just did this because it was fun to do.
Some of the lyrics they quoted were really funny. He does a send up of that old Hank Snow/Johnny Cash song “I’ve been Everywhere” called “I’ve been Nowhere” which was good.
thanks for the update.Nice to hear(!) about someone who had the nerve get a life
I meant the nerve to get a life,of course
He did one of the best intros ever when he hosted SNL. I hope he realizes that he has (still) lots of fans.
A sampling of the lyrics from this Web site, from the song called “Nine More Gallons”
Two more times a lady
Three more hundred blows
Four more easy pieces
Five more days on the road.
Seven more days a week now,
Eight more lives a cat,
Nine more gallons,
And I’ll have me a hat.
Funny.
Bah. That could be any number of SCTV stars who also performed songs in Little Shop of Horrors.
Talk about synchronicity – my morning radio show, The Monsters in the Morning, did a phone interview with Rick Moranis this morning! They were all huge fans of his work in Strange Brew, Spaceballs, Ghostbusters, and Little Shop of Horrors, and he was extremely gracious and friendly as he fielded their questions about his movie career (and recent lack thereof). He said he walked away from acting because he couldn’t stand to be away from his kids for long periods at a time, and he has one in college now and another getting ready to go, so that might prompt him to act again. He also talked a bit about his brand-new country album The Agoraphobic Cowboy, and they played a sample from “Nine More Gallons.” The lyrics were funny, but more than that, it sounded like he is a serious musician and loves what he’s doing (as opposed to it being a vanity project or just a joke).