‘Mulaney,’ with improv among actors, could take time to hit stride: Martin Short

Reporters scrambled on stage last July at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles following the formal session for the new comedy “Mulaney.”

A number of us gathered around Martin Short, co-starring on the series, which premieres Sunday, as egocentric game show host Lou Cannon. Cannon is the Hollywood big shot who hires up-and-coming comedian John Mulaney — played by up-and-coming comedian John Mulaney — to be his assistant.

Up close, it was evident that the native of Hamilton, Ont., was proudly wearing his Order of Canada pin on his lapel. Short received the honour in 1994. “Thank you. Canadian knighthood,” he overstated to the American reporters. “But, listen, I wanna hear about you people!”

Short’s character, Lou Cannon, hosts something called, “Celebrity You Guessed It.” He agrees the title sounds like a Canadian game show. “Oh, completely,” says Short. “Even the title is kind of perfect.”

The comedy chameleon got under the skin of everybody from Jerry Lewis to Katharine Hepburn during his glory years on “SCTV” and “Saturday Night Live.” Was he borrowing traits from any real-life game show personality, say, fellow Canadian and longtime “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek, in portraying Cannon?

“No, there’s no Trebek,” Short says with a laugh. “But, you know, we’ve seen all types, especially if you’ve been in show business as long as I have, you’ve met a lot of narcissists.”

Short says he was a big fan of the “Stefon” sketches Mulaney wrote for Bill Hader on “Saturday Night Live” but didn’t meet the standup comedian when he last hosted NBC’s comedy showcase in 2013. That didn’t happen until Short’s fellow Order of Canada colleague, “SNL” boss Lorne Michaels, hosted a meeting at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

That’s where the idea for the series — loosely based on Mulaney’s real-life adventures as an “SNL” writer — was laid out. Short was happy to climb aboard. Mulaney’s “SNL” colleague Nasim Pedrad and Elliott Gould are also in the series, seen on Global and Fox.

Short says he’s happy to be the side dish on “Mulaney,” not the series’ main star.

“What I love being is an actor,” he says. Mulaney, 32, has the stamina and demeanour to handle “a stressful call from Fox and go on the set and improvise with me and I get to breeze in and breeze out. I like that.”

He’s found the creative process to be very collaborative on the comedy. There was no defensiveness, Short found, when it came to suggestions about his character.

The series started as a pilot at NBC. That network passed and the project was picked up at Fox. Short sees the series making a natural progression but acknowledges comedies take time to gel.

Trim and remarkably youthful-looking at 64, Short’s first American TV series was the law drama “The Associates” way back in 1979. One of the creators of that series, the great Jim Brooks (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Simpsons”) told him the secret to television is “make it to the second season so you can figure out what it should be.”

Short was told that it took until the “third season, second episode,” of “Mary Tyler Moore” before Brooks turned to Toronto-born writer-producer Stan Daniels and said, “I think we’ve got it.” He expects “Mulaney,” a show where there’s a fair bit of improvisation among the actors, to take some time to find its stride.

Short, who enjoyed a meaty dramatic turn on “Damages,” says he rarely watches much of anything on TV these days. “I’m amazed at how everyone has time to watch all these things,” he says, dropping names faster than his unctuous movie critic sketch character Jiminy Glick. “Steven Spielberg tells me he hasn’t missed an episode of ‘Breaking Bad.’ ‘Really? How do you have the time?’”

Short has shone for years as a talk-show guest but never more so than in his frequent visits with David Letterman. “I think he’s going to be so desperately missed that no one even understands,” says Short of Letterman’s impending retirement, which will come at the end of this season. “He’s a real genius.”

He has high hopes for the man replacing Letterman as host of “The Late Show,” Stephen Colbert. “He’s a Second City alumni, you know, from Chicago,” points out Short. “He’s a brilliant guy and a lovely guy.”

Asked if he might sneak into “Schitt’s Creek,” the upcoming CBC comedy series starring “SCTV” pals Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy, Short says, “I hope so, but I’ll tell you something. Friends of mine saw an episode and a half and said it’s hilarious.”

While he still summers in Ontario’s cottage country, Short didn’t sound like he’d be returning to Toronto to host the Canadian Screen Awards, or “Screenies,” again this March. He hosted the revamped Gemini and Genie Award presentations in 2012 and 2013. “I think, you know, two could be enough. We’ll leave them asking for more.”

When a couple of American reporters ask, “What the heck is a ‘Screenie’ Award?” Short explains it as Canada’s Emmys and Oscars all rolled into one.

He modestly put forward another name for them: “The Martys.”

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Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.