Martin Short walked the Emmy red carpet this week and did what Martin Short has done for five decades: he turned a routine press line into the best two minutes of anyone's night.
Clips of him joking with photographers and playfully needling Steve Martin have racked up millions of views, and the comment sections have turned into a single, unified chant.
Only Murders in the Building gave Short his biggest second act, playing the flamboyant theater director Oliver Putnam across five seasons on Hulu.
The role earned him an Emmy nomination and introduced him to viewers who only knew him as the guy from Father of the Bride or the SCTV alum with the endless talk-show stories.
But the show's future is murky, and that uncertainty has fans nostalgic for the era when Short headlined his own series.
That era was 1989, when NBC handed him The Martin Short Show, a sketch and variety hybrid that lasted just one season.
It's remembered now as a cult favorite, the kind of swing that networks rarely take anymore.
Short followed it with Primetime Glick, where he played the gloriously awful interviewer Jiminy Glick, a character so beloved that he still trots him out for awards shows and late-night appearances.
The appetite for a Short-led comedy isn't just nostalgia.
Look at the numbers: clips from his talk-show appearances regularly outperform official promotional content, and his chemistry with Martin and Selena Gomez is the engine that keeps Only Murders humming.
He's also 75 and working more than most performers half his age, with a memoir, a live tour, and a steady stream of guest spots.
What makes Short unusual is that he's funny in a way that doesn't depend on shock or cruelty.
His comedy is showbiz-brained and deeply silly, built on the premise that he's a slightly delusional legend who is also somehow the most sincere person in the room.
That combination travels well across generations, which is why Gen Z is currently discovering clips of him and Ed Grimley on TikTok.
So what would a Martin Short sitcom even look like in 2025?
Fans have floated everything from a mockumentary about a fading variety star to a Glick reboot set in the podcast era.
Short himself has been coy, telling interviewers he's open to the right script but not interested in grinding out 22 episodes a year.
That's the tension: the audience wants volume, and the star wants quality.
For now, the safest bet is more of what's already working.
He's touring with Steve Martin, he keeps popping up in prestige TV, and every red carpet becomes a highlight reel.
The demand for a weekly Short fix is real, but so is his instinct for picking projects that let him swing big rather than show up.
The honest take: a Martin Short sitcom would be a gift, but the industry probably doesn't deserve him.
He's spent 50 years proving that the funniest guy in the room doesn't need a laugh track, and watching him steal scenes from younger stars is its own reward.
If a network is smart enough to build a show around him, fans will show up in droves.
Final Thoughts
If not, they'll keep re-watching Glick clips and waiting for the next red carpet.