From time to time, certain characters became "regulars" either in their own sketches or they would pop-up throughout the series.
Mr Canoehead
The most popular, and famous, character ever created by The Frantics
is Mr Canoehead, billed as Canada's Greatest Aluminum Crimefighter.
While
portaging through a park, a bolt of lightning struck Mr Canoehead and
welded the canoe to his head. Also present was his brother Ted (Peter),
who only appears at the beginning of the sketches. Eight sketches were
created for Mr Canoehead and in 7 of them he "battled" (and battered)
wrong-doers
from a rogue nun to a villain with a computer for a head (Ultramind).
Usually,
he would defeat them by swinging his head around and whacking them in
the
head, uttering his battle cry "Eat Gunnels!"
Episodes 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12
The Women of 4 on the Floor
Unlike Kids in the Hall (where the 5 male actors played female
characters),
4 on the Floor employed women to portray (most of) the female
characters.
The Frantics always get top-billing but from time to time, the female
actors
would get the spotlight. They tend to be forgotten and overshadowed by
the guys but many of the sketches depend on their characters. The women
also got some great lines and characters too. The female actors were:
Sheila
McCarthy, Maggie Butterfield, Jeannie Walker, Rosemary Dumsmore, Martha
Cronyn, Jackie Mahon and Maria Vacratsis.
Star Nosed Mole
The puppet mole only appeared 3 times. Once in a sketch where he was
obsessed with buying a brown car. It had to be brown. Not beige, tan or
ecru but brown. He also showed up in two music videos. Once in "Brown
Car"
(makes sense) with Paul and Rick and once in "It's A Rodent." Dan was
about
to call the mole a rodent but the mole corrected him saying he was a
Talpidae.
Dan provided the voice for the mole, and probably the puppeteering too.
Episodes 1, 5, 8
Chooch
Chooch, played by Dan, was your big, dumb jock. He wore a black T-Shirt
with CHOOCH across the front, so you would know who he was I guess.
Chooch
showed up in a sketch with Waldo the Magnificent as the guy at a party
who knew exactly how Waldo did his tricks. In another sketch, he
accused
Rick of stealing weights from the YMCA where Rick was spending his
honeymoon.
Episodes 1, 8
The Shabatinskis
This was a common surname of a number of characters. The first
occurrence
was Father Shabatinski in Mr Canoehead vs a Rogue Nun. He was your
usual
Catholic priest, nothing "sepcial" about the character. Flying Father
Shabatinski
was a character where he was trying to stop a pigeon from jumping off
of
a ledge and he just started flying. Wilbur is another member of the
Shabatinski
family, but he's never seen. Mostly because he's dead...the victim of
Mr
Smiley/Mr Rolo. Father Shabatinski also delivered medical supplies to
Mother
Arcadia but there's no indication if it's a different Father
Shabatinski
that the one who enlisted the help of Mr Canoehead. All of the
Shabatinskis
are played by Dan.
Episodes 4, 5, 6, 13
Quenelle Haggard
Quenelle is a mysoginyst. He's mean and makes jokes at his girlfriend's
expense. He does propose to Mary, and she accepts. Why, I don't know.
However,
it was short lived because Mary dumped him at a restaurant. Before
that,
we do meet Quenelle's parents. If you believe that you're a product of
your parents, then you wouldn't be surprised that Quenelle's parents
are
rude and insulting people. This was the only time we saw Quenelle be
nice
to Mary. The character was also played by Dan.
Episodes 4, 8, 9
Lou & Hymie
Lou (Rick) and Hymie (Paul) are a couple of losers. They dress bad,
probably smell bad, and think they are God's gift to women. When women
are repulsed by them, they think it's actually their sexual energy
driving
them away. At the end of every sketch they declare that whenever
they're
around "chicks go mad." They appeared in five sketches altogether.
Episodes 1, 3, 8 (twice), 12
Mr Interesting
Clad in leiderhosen, wearing a ridiculous hat and carrying a cane,
Mr Interesting would walk on-screen and declare who he was. Invariably,
he would dispense some piece of wisdom that starts out innocent enough,
that he finds interesting, then ends it with something screwball. An
example
would be "If you were to take all the sand on a beach and lay the
grains
end to end, you'd be working for the government." There were a total of
seven Mr Interesting sketches. This is another of Dan's characters.
Episodes 1, 3, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13