25 years on from SNL and Simpsons star Phil Hartman’s tragic death, his brother wants to get him a posthumous Oscar-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro

SNL star Phil Hartman (L) left behind work his brother Paul (R) wants to turn into an Oscar-winning animated short (Picture: Phil Hartman)

The brother of late actor, comedian and artist Phil Hartman, best known to his many fans for his work on shows including Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons, is hoping to seal his sibling’s legacy with a posthumous Oscar.

Hartman died 25 years ago today, Sunday May 28, in tragic circumstances after his wife Brynn Omdahl shot him in the early hours of the morning as he slept. After confessing to the killing, she later died from a self-inflicted gunshot.

Hartman was aged 49 at the time, and at the height of his powers, with films like Small Soldiers, Jingle All the Way and Sgt. Bilko to his name, as well as TV series such as NewsRadio and Pee-wee’s Playhouse.

Since his death, his brother Paul has already successfully campaigned for Hartman to receive stars on the Walk of Fame in both Canada and Hollywood – and now he has his sights set on adding an Academy Award to the list of his honours.

Phil Hartman’s Flat TV was a recording – previously released as an old-school comedy album – that Hartman made just before getting his SNL gig in 1986.

Paul told Metro.co.uk at the Cannes Film Festival: ‘It was meant to be an animation voiceover demo, and it got lost in the process.

Celebrated comedian and actor Phil Hartman died 25 years ago today (Picture: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

His audio recording and drawings are now the basis for Phil Hartman’s Flat TV (Picture: Paul Hartman)

Hartman and his brother Paul together before his death (Picture: Paul Hartman)

‘When [Phil] died, I ended up with a portfolio and a doodle file that was all kinds of cartoon characters that he did. And Brian Lemay, the director who’s done all the animation, used as many of Phil’s animated characters as he could in the process, and then designed additional characters that Phil didn’t have [as] pieces that would fit into the scheme of things.’

As with many of these sorts of projects, the tapes had initially been lost before a copy was found in the garden shed of the engineer, Britt Bacon, who did the original work with Hartman.

Following the audio recording’s release, Paul decided that Phil Hartman’s Flat TV had the scope for a bigger project.

‘I got Phil his star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, I got him his Hollywood star. And I thought, “This is an opportunity to potentially get Phil an Oscar in the animated short category.” So, I enlisted Brian Lemay in that process, and he has expertly channelled Phil’s artistic sensibility and cartooning style and done about eight minutes of the 45 minutes that exists and that we’re trying to complete.

‘That’s kind of where we’re at right now.’

Paul and co-executive producer Tracy Lamourie are keen to stress just why Flat TV is so special, as the only unedited version of Phil’s comedy in existence at the time.

‘It was truly pure Phil without anybody else interfering with his mindset,’ explained Paul.

The team is also planning on a documentary too to release about the project, ‘centring around the turmoil we’ve gone through and the whole process’.

Paul added: ‘It hasn’t been easy. There’s been lots of challenges. We stopped production for a while. We’re hundreds of thousands of dollars into this thing, with no real economic potential for gain unless we add a documentary to it – money isn’t made on shorts.

‘It’s been interesting to see Phil’s comic sensibilities come to light through animation, and I think that’s something that he would really enjoy.’

Paul has spent years on projects honouring his brother’s legacy as a way to ‘heal himself’ (Picture: Paul Hartman)

Tracy Lamourie and Dave Parkinson are also on board Phil Hartman’s Flat TV as executive producers (Picture: Kristy Sparow/Getty Images for The PJ Party )

Recalling Harman’s drawing gifts as a child, Paul labelled cartooning as ‘such a big thing for him’.

‘In high school, he used to make extra money drawing on people’s notebooks, drawing these elaborate cartoon scenes that wrapped around the whole binder. He would do it for 20 bucks. Somebody out there hopefully has one of those pieces!’

Phil Hartman’s Flat TV was done before the comic’s work on The Simpsons, but Paul sees similarities between the two in that it’s about ‘the same kind of dysfunctional family and the television that affected their lives’.

He has spent years working on projects honouring his late brother’s career, something he acknowledges as a ‘knee jerk reaction to his death’.

‘I had to find ways to heal myself and these kinds of projects occupied my life for a long time – and this is kind of the last thing as we reach the 25th anniversary [of his death] as of Sunday. It will never be anything other than a sh*t sandwich, and it was a repetition of death as my father died a month before and that was the last time I saw Phil alive.

Hartman and Paul with their brother John (C) (Picture: Paul Hartman)

‘Every picture I have of myself as a kid, I’m with Phil. We shared a bedroom together and my life was a series of firsts with him. And to say the impact of his death was nothing would be just… it’s controlled my life for a number of years.

‘I’m now at that stage where it isn’t so traumatic when the dates approach of his birthday and the anniversary of his death – it used to wreck me for two weeks before and two weeks after.’

Paul actually has the distinction of appearing (sort of) in his late sibling’s project Flat TV.

‘One of the characters was modelled after me. He’s the teenage son Billy who changes his name to Xeno, which was my nickname,’ he chuckled.

Paul says his early life was ‘a series of firsts’ with his brother Phil (Picture: Paul Hartman)

‘And it’s kind of dark, that portion, of it because it was a direct jab at me and some of my lifestyle choices at the time. That part of it is incredibly well done though because it’s a dream sequence and it kind of changes the whole pace of the thing from TV to family drama.’

The team behind Flat TV and its Oscar bid is keen to move things on as quickly as they can, with Paul revealing it could be finished by Cannes next year if they find the financial backing.

‘Phil was very well loved by everybody he ever worked with, as well as in Hollywood. A lot of people don’t know this is available yet, this was our first year at Cannes and I’m just starting the conversation, but I think this is something that people are going to be actually very excited about,’ chimes in executive producer Tracy.

She cites hearing people talk of Hartman as a ‘great influence’ on their careers from his early work in the legendary improvisational troupe The Groundlings and beyond.

‘When they find out this unedited work exists from the mind of Phil Hartman that nobody’s seen, I think there’s going to be quite a bit of excitement about it,’ she added.

Hartman impersonating President Bill Clinton, a favourite from his SNL days, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1996 (Picture: NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

They are open to various different ways of funding the project too.

Paul shared: ‘If we have to crowdfund, we’ll do that. Or selling positions and advertising companies that want to attach their name [to Flat TV], or however we have to do it, we’re willing to do it. As it stands right now, Brian Lemay and I, and Tracy and Dave Parkinson are the executive producers – our positions are for sale!’

He is also happy to reflect on the beloved work his sibling left behind and share his favourites.

‘I loved his stuff on Saturday Night Live – Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer is a big one of mine.’

Hartman did eight seasons on SNL, performing as over 70 characters, which also included Eugene, the Anal Retentive Chef and impressions of the likes of Bill Clinton, Frank Sinatra, Charlton Heston and Sir Michael Caine.

He appeared alongside cast members including Jon Lovitz, Mike Myers, Chris Farley and Adam Sandler during his time on the iconic show.

Discussing The Simpsons, Paul continued: ‘Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz were both characters that were retired by Matt Groening and that is such a compliment in show business. I mean, Billy West could have easily done Phil, anybody could have been plugged in there, but they chose to take the classiest route ever in animation and retire Phil’s characters.

‘Troy McClure was Phil all the way. I mean, he was a smarmy character, and he could smarm better than anybody.’

The Simpsons retired Hartman’s characters, including Troy McClure, after his death as a mark of respect (Picture: The Simpsons)

There are other highlights too for Paul.

‘The character that he played in the Michael J Fox movie with Kirk Douglas, Greedy, was classic. Phil could do that so good. Sgt. Bilko was another one. He was just reaching his stride and he would have gone so far – and I think that’s the thing that hurts the most.’

As the team looks to the future with Flat TV, Tracy emphasises: ‘I really just hope that people realise there’s an opportunity to get involved with something that is a true legacy production, from somebody that did a lot of good in this industry that people really care about – and he left this behind.’

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