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Floyd Robertson AI simulator
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Floyd Robertson AI simulator
(@Floyd Robertson_simulator)
Floyd Robertson
Floyd Robertson is a fictional news anchor and reporter, portrayed by Joe Flaherty on the Canadian sketch comedy series SCTV in the 1970s and 1980s. He was a co-anchor, with Earl Camembert (another fictional newscaster, played by Eugene Levy), of the SCTV News. In addition, he doubled as the long-running horror host Count Floyd on Monster Chiller Horror Theatre.
Floyd Robertson's name was originally derived from that of CBC news anchor Lloyd Robertson. Shortly after Floyd Robertson debuted, Lloyd Robertson changed networks, and became the longtime CTV National News anchor. Other than the name and occupation, the character shares no real similarities with the Canadian news anchor.
Floyd Robertson was presented as the respectable, well-dressed member of SCTV's news team, who reported on the important national and international news stories (including a series of natural disasters in the semi-fictional African nation of Togoland); while the bespectacled, nerdy and obliviously self-important Earl Camembert – dressed in loud checkered jackets and matching bow ties, and his black hair in a semi-afro style – was stuck with the more trivial and frivolous items (such as a fire at a doily factory). Besides the difference in journalistic credentials, Robertson's lucrative annual six-figure salary was a sore point with Camembert, who was paid only union scale and was forced to anchor or co-anchor all of SCTV's newscasts from sign-on to sign-off.
When not informing viewers of the news of the day, Robertson served as a straight man to Camembert's antics, including playing tape music to accompany news items he was reading, or doing an entire newscast while under the influence of marijuana, or eating dinner on the set during a newscast, or filing a report from a recently opened local delicatessen when he was supposed to travel to New Delhi, India, or entering the set on roller skates and wearing what Robertson aptly called "Jimmy McNichol hand-me-downs." More significantly, after Camembert served as campaign manager for the ultimately unsuccessful political run of SCTV personality Johnny La Rue (played by John Candy), Robertson announced on the air that his colleague was being reported for violations of journalistic ethics and election laws, and for conflict of interest.
Robertson had particular scorn for Camembert's editorials, on one occasion laughing throughout his co-anchor's piece. Another time, when Camembert gave a particularly outrageous editorial in which he made disparaging remarks about women newscasters, Robertson coldly informed him that, if given the chance to co-anchor with a woman, he would drop Camembert in a heartbeat.
On some occasions, Robertson pushed his luck with Camembert. At the end of one newscast where Robertson made fun of his co-anchor's unorthodox pronunciation of his surname, the ill-humored Camembert responded by punching him in the jaw. Another time, when Camembert was in severe pain from an impacted wisdom tooth, Robertson decided to make him laugh by ending the newscast with a humorous item about a man and his wife visiting a pet shop. Robertson, however, kept pushing the punch line to the point where Camembert, at the end, went for his throat. On one of the few occasions where SCTV News had commercials, the sponsor was a toy company run by Robertson himself, whose only product line was the "Mr. Earl" doll (which was clearly patterned after Camembert, and also a spoof of Saturday Night Live's Mr. Bill). The ad so enraged Camembert that he abruptly cancelled an editorial he planned to give about friendship, and at the end of the newscast once again lunged at Robertson.
Robertson's disdain for Camembert extended to his son, Earl Junior, who when trying his hand at co-anchoring a newscast was bullied mercilessly by Robertson. But Camembert was not the only colleague to be subjected to Robertson's wrath: When Walter Cronkite (as impersonated by Dave Thomas), filling in for Camembert one night, fabricated a "big story" about an explosion at a laundromat, Robertson snapped at him as well.
At least one sketch implicitly suggested that Robertson, in addition to co-anchoring the SCTV News, was also the station's news director (a common practice in the earlier years of television). After SCTV's resident foreigner, Pirini Scleroso (played by Andrea Martin), botched a taped field report, Camembert pointedly reminded Robertson that he was responsible for her being hired as a reporter in the first place.
Floyd Robertson
Floyd Robertson is a fictional news anchor and reporter, portrayed by Joe Flaherty on the Canadian sketch comedy series SCTV in the 1970s and 1980s. He was a co-anchor, with Earl Camembert (another fictional newscaster, played by Eugene Levy), of the SCTV News. In addition, he doubled as the long-running horror host Count Floyd on Monster Chiller Horror Theatre.
Floyd Robertson's name was originally derived from that of CBC news anchor Lloyd Robertson. Shortly after Floyd Robertson debuted, Lloyd Robertson changed networks, and became the longtime CTV National News anchor. Other than the name and occupation, the character shares no real similarities with the Canadian news anchor.
Floyd Robertson was presented as the respectable, well-dressed member of SCTV's news team, who reported on the important national and international news stories (including a series of natural disasters in the semi-fictional African nation of Togoland); while the bespectacled, nerdy and obliviously self-important Earl Camembert – dressed in loud checkered jackets and matching bow ties, and his black hair in a semi-afro style – was stuck with the more trivial and frivolous items (such as a fire at a doily factory). Besides the difference in journalistic credentials, Robertson's lucrative annual six-figure salary was a sore point with Camembert, who was paid only union scale and was forced to anchor or co-anchor all of SCTV's newscasts from sign-on to sign-off.
When not informing viewers of the news of the day, Robertson served as a straight man to Camembert's antics, including playing tape music to accompany news items he was reading, or doing an entire newscast while under the influence of marijuana, or eating dinner on the set during a newscast, or filing a report from a recently opened local delicatessen when he was supposed to travel to New Delhi, India, or entering the set on roller skates and wearing what Robertson aptly called "Jimmy McNichol hand-me-downs." More significantly, after Camembert served as campaign manager for the ultimately unsuccessful political run of SCTV personality Johnny La Rue (played by John Candy), Robertson announced on the air that his colleague was being reported for violations of journalistic ethics and election laws, and for conflict of interest.
Robertson had particular scorn for Camembert's editorials, on one occasion laughing throughout his co-anchor's piece. Another time, when Camembert gave a particularly outrageous editorial in which he made disparaging remarks about women newscasters, Robertson coldly informed him that, if given the chance to co-anchor with a woman, he would drop Camembert in a heartbeat.
On some occasions, Robertson pushed his luck with Camembert. At the end of one newscast where Robertson made fun of his co-anchor's unorthodox pronunciation of his surname, the ill-humored Camembert responded by punching him in the jaw. Another time, when Camembert was in severe pain from an impacted wisdom tooth, Robertson decided to make him laugh by ending the newscast with a humorous item about a man and his wife visiting a pet shop. Robertson, however, kept pushing the punch line to the point where Camembert, at the end, went for his throat. On one of the few occasions where SCTV News had commercials, the sponsor was a toy company run by Robertson himself, whose only product line was the "Mr. Earl" doll (which was clearly patterned after Camembert, and also a spoof of Saturday Night Live's Mr. Bill). The ad so enraged Camembert that he abruptly cancelled an editorial he planned to give about friendship, and at the end of the newscast once again lunged at Robertson.
Robertson's disdain for Camembert extended to his son, Earl Junior, who when trying his hand at co-anchoring a newscast was bullied mercilessly by Robertson. But Camembert was not the only colleague to be subjected to Robertson's wrath: When Walter Cronkite (as impersonated by Dave Thomas), filling in for Camembert one night, fabricated a "big story" about an explosion at a laundromat, Robertson snapped at him as well.
At least one sketch implicitly suggested that Robertson, in addition to co-anchoring the SCTV News, was also the station's news director (a common practice in the earlier years of television). After SCTV's resident foreigner, Pirini Scleroso (played by Andrea Martin), botched a taped field report, Camembert pointedly reminded Robertson that he was responsible for her being hired as a reporter in the first place.