Dan Aykroyd, the former hell raiser and soul mate of the famously dead John Belushi, is sitting in the cosy home he shares with his wife and two young daughters in a small Canadian town talking about family values.
Specifically, he is discussing the positive affirmations in the sitcom Soul Man, which marks his prime-time series acting debut.
The one-time miscreant of comedy, now a mellow 45-year-old, plays a Blacktop Vampire biker turned Episcopalian minister in a role which very much reflects his own life.
"We touch on Christ's frailties, weaknesses, the worldly temptations Christians face, in a way which is humorous," he says of the series. "At the same time I am promoting social and family values.
"Plus, I get to stand up in the pulpit and quote a little scripture - where else are they going to let me do that?"
Aykroyd confesses that he was 'very nervous' about signing on to the sitcom, wondering whether he could pull off the role of a religious leader and father to four rambunctious children.
This is despite a career that's lasted nearly 25 years, from his fame-making stint on American sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live - where he imitated such icons as Richard Nixon - to more than 35 movies, with roles encompassing a Ghostbuster, a Conehead, a widowed father in My Girl, the son in Driving Miss Daisy, for which he got an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor, and a psychotic hit man in last year's Grosse Point Blank.
Soul Man was created by Matt Williams, David McFadzean and Carmen Finestra, the makers of Home Improvement, a similarly values-oriented sitcom.
On Soul Man - taken from the name of the 60s song written by Isaac hayes and David Porter and later recorded by the Blues Brothers (Aykroyd and Belushi) - Aykroyd shares executive producer cridits with the creating trio and Elliot Shoenman.
Indeed, for comic potential and a certain familiarity, the minister's past membership in the bikie gang was Aykroyd's idea.
"I brought my love of motorcycles," notes the owner of three Harley-Davidsons and numorous antique cars, "and the concept that this guy who used to be a sinner who's gone straight."
Anything autobigraphical in that? He wasn't quite in a mtorcycle gang but, "I had all these experiences," Aykroyd notes elliptically, "but never extensively, never to where I actually got caught."
He smiles wanly: "I think every Canadian kid broke into a cottage once in a while."
What steered Aykroyd to a better path? "I guess just getting (acting) work and also the concept of what's right and what's wrong."
The product of an upper middle-class family - his grandfather was a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman; his father, a transportation official in the administration of Pierre Trudeau - Aykroyd studied in a Catholic seminary in his early teens, although he now describes himself as semi-lapsed.
However, these days, he lives the comfortable family life his sitcom espouses. He recently moved from Los Angeles to Kingston, Ontario, about 250km east of Toronto, seeking a quieter life with his wife of 14 years, Donna Dixon, and girls Danielle Alexandra, eight and Belle Kingston, five.

A regular gig on Soul Man complements his new-found stability, so he is well pleased with taking the TV plunge.
"The old rule that if you're in a television show or a sitcom, the movie career is frozen - that doesn't apply anymore," Aykroyd says. "You see people like Helen Hunt, coming from Mad About You, doing films. Tim Allen now has a terrific film career. George Clooney...now maybe I'll broaden my audience a little (with) the younger generation."
In addition, he says, "I don't think I would have taken this if (the character) was just a guy at an ad agency or a guy running a gas station. I really like this platform, the concept that the overriding part of this character's life is his commitment to his flock."
Aykroyd's own commitments are many. He's just finished writing a treatment for Ghostbusters 3 and making the long-awaited Blues Brothers sequel, Blues Brothers 2000, an all- singing, all-dancing musical escapade which just goes to prove, you can't keep a wild man down.

- Article written by Rachel Browne, from the April 12-18, 1998 issue of The Sun Herald's "TV Now Magazine"

Transcribed by Rick Haslewood, 24/05/98