In 2018, during the week of Christmas, my blog topic [A Segue To Christmas: ‘SCTV’] featured videos from SCTV Network.
As an early Christmas present for myself, I recently completed having viewed all episodes of the comedy series Schitt’s Creek.
It premiered on Pop TV in 2015 and ran for six seasons and concluded in 2020.
Created by father and son Eugene and Daniel Levy, the latter envisioned a series about characters who are wealthy but lose it all, or nearly all, and have to start over again.
Schitt’s Creek is about the Rose family adjusting to their new life. They own this small town, called Schitt’s Creek, which the father bought for his son years ago as a joke. Well, the joke is on them.
Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy) is a former video store magnate who was defrauded by his business partner. His wife, Moira (Catherine O’Hara), is a former soap-opera actress who is wanting her star to shine again. Their adult children, David (Daniel Levy) and Alexis (Annie Murphy), are looking to branch out independently.
The Roses are reduced to living in a motel run by its clerk Stevie Budd (Emily Hampshire).
The Roses—especially the parents—are often challenged by mayor Roland (Chris Elliott) and his teacher wife Jocelyn Schitt (Jennifer Robertson).
Along the way, the adult children do find romantic partners—for David, it is business partner Patrick Brewer (Noah Reid); for Alexis, it is veterinarian Ted Mullins (Daniel Milligan)—and they may or may not be enough.
The first two seasons take their time developing. And the characters, and their stories, grow very nicely as Schitt’s Creek soars.
One of my favorite scenes has Johnny and Moira having dinner with old friends. The friends disparage Schitt’s Creek for being lowly, backward, and unworthy. But Johnny, with having an epiphany, speaks of how these old friends abandoned them yet the people of this small town have been there for the Roses since they arrived. It is a nice moment that speaks to one being able to recognize who are his true friends.
Schitt’s Creek did not catch on right away. What catapulted it were repeats made available for streaming on Netflix. (Yes, I streamed the episodes from Netflix.) The fifth season garnered key Emmy nominations, for the 2018–19 television season, for Outstanding Comedy Series, Lead Actor Eugene Levy, and Lead Actress Catherine O’Hara. (Winners were Amazon Prime Video’s Fleabag and its star Phoebe Waller–Bridge and Bill Hader of HBO’s Barry.) But with its sixth and final season, the 2019–20 television season, Schitt’s Creek became the first regular television season to win for all four series-regular performance categories (Lead Actor Levy; Lead Actress O’Hara; Supporting Actor Levy; Supporting Actress Murphy) along with Series, Directing, and Writing. (Daniel became the first to win for performance, Directing, Writing, and as co-producer for Series.)
Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara also won Emmys, as writers, for SCTV Network. Eugene, 74, and Catherine, 66, have been two of the most daring comedic actors of the last four decades.And they are terrific once again on Schitt’s Creek. One can tell, with this series, why the two—along with Eugene’s son Daniel Levy, 37, and Annie Murphy, 34—were prized. Schitt’s Creek is fresh and funny.
Although I cannot assume all readers of Progressives Chat recognize and observe Christmas, I want everyone to have a safe and enjoyable holiday period.
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