SCHITT’S CREEK Inside the modern classic
HOW SCHITT’S CREEK, A LITTLE FEEL-GOOD TV SHOW, BECAME A GLOBAL SENSATION – AND TURNED ITS CAST INTO THE TOAST OF TINSELTOWN
“If you told me last year what my schedule was going to be like these past few weeks, I never would’ve believed you,” says Annie Murphy, 33, who, for six seasons, has played the lovably vapid former wild child Alexis Rose on hit Netflix show Schitt’s Creek. Recent events for Murphy and her castmates, Catherine O’Hara, 65, Eugene Levy, 73, and the show’s co-creator (and Eugene’s son) Dan Levy, 36, include the Critics’ Choice Awards (where Nicole Kidman hit them up to gush about how much she loves the series) as well as appearances on Ellen, The Tonight Show and at the SAG Awards, where they were nominated for Best Ensemble in a Comedy, and O’Hara for Best Female Actor. “It’s been amazing to see how the philosophy, the joy of the show, has found people,” Dan says of its rising popularity. When Schitt’s Creek – the story of a rich family who lost all their money and had to move to a small town they’d once bought as
a joke – debuted in 2015, it had a small-butsteady fan base, but it’s now a worldwide sensation getting ever more popular, and celebs like Elton John and Jennifer Lawrence openly rave about it. Fans are so diehard that Dan says they’re already asking for a reboot. “It went from people finding it entertaining and saying, ‘Yeah it’s a funny show,’ to saying, ‘I need this show.’”
The four stars opened up to WHO about the history of Schitt’s – and what it was like to be on a comedy series that proves humour, humanity and the love of family are more important than ever. When Dan and Eugene first shopped the idea for the show, everyone passed except CBC in Canada and Pop TV in America. For that they’re grateful.
“Everything happens for a reason,” says Dan, a former MTV host turned screenwriter. “As someone creating television, you realise how important it is to find a network who will support your idea 100 per cent. The reality is you never know if a show’s going to be a hit. We certainly didn’t know it about our show.”
Eugene agrees. “But once people got hooked onto the premise that the stories were about who people are, not what they are, it mushroomed from there,” he says. Adds Murphy: “I always knew it was going to be a hit. With the names Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy attached to it? Come on!”
The cast are amazed at all the new-found attention. “I used to mostly get people named Kevin who’d come up to me and ask me to
yell ‘Kevin!’ in their faces,” says O’Hara (who portrays the supremely stylish matriarch Moira, a former actress with a penchant for drama), referring to her famous line in Home Alone. “Now it’s mostly about Moira and Schitt’s Creek. I’ve never gotten this kind of attention in my life. It’s crazy.” Adds Eugene, who plays the stoic and protective father, Johnny: “The awareness of it is hitting an all-time high. You can feel it on the street, bumping into people who are telling you how much they love it. It started in Season 4 and has been a nice uphill ride ever since.” It’s not just North American and Australian audiences who are lapping it up either. “I was in Japan recently, and fans came up to me,” says Dan. “And Italy. I remember thinking, ‘This is absolutely insane.’”
Though the show is about rich city people who move to a small town, the goal was never to mock the locals – it was to highlight their humanity.
“Isn’t it funny we would expect them [to be portrayed as yokels]?” says O’Hara, of the Schitt’s Creek townsfolk who are welcoming and embracing their new residents. “‘Small towns equal small minds?’ No. That’s not true.”
“It really is the four of us who are the butt of the joke,” Murphy adds. And this was Dan’s intention when writing the show. “Somehow that has become the ‘expected’ thing to do – to have the small-town people be ‘less than’ the big-city folks. We wanted to flip that on its head and have the Roses be the people who had to change, to have to learn and grow,” Dan says. “The town itself is so progressive in its thinking and its level of acceptance that the Roses can’t help but become better people because of it.”
The cast believe there’s a link between their show’s popularity and the current political climate.
Dan, who plays David Rose, a high-fashion former art-gallerist who finds true love for the very first time with his new business partner Patrick (played by Noah Reid), says he noticed the show becoming more popular as news around the world darkened. “When you can provide any kind of joy for people in a time where there is not a lot of joy to be
found in the news … it was interesting to track that shift with the changing political landscape,” he says. He adds that the town of Schitt’s Creek is the type of world we should all strive to live in. “It’s a pretty high-functioning place. It’s shown that if you embrace people’s differences and support people for their differences and ultimately empathise with people instead of turning on people, you’re only going to be left with a positive experience, a really supportive place to develop and find yourself.”
The show ends for good on April 7 – and future plans for the cast are already under way.
“I personally wouldn’t want to top this experience right away,” says O’Hara, who admits she’s insisting that whatever character she plays next wears stylish clothes like Moira. “I couldn’t carry off a lot of Moira’s wardrobe, but once you’ve worn well-built clothes that make you stand and feel so much better, it’s hard to go back.”
Eugene says he’s happy to just play some golf. “I have my foursome that I’ve been away from for a while. And I’ll spend some more time with my wife, Deb, maybe do some travelling. It’s nice to get up in the morning and just have ‘Where do we go to lunch?’ be the main thing on your plate.”
Dan, who created upcoming Fran Drescher comedy Indebted, and recently signed a three-year deal with ABC to develop and produce scripted shows, is going to continue to act as well, as is Murphy, who is moving to LA from her native Canada. “I know I’ve already peaked, and it’s all downhill from here, but I want to keep working,” she says. “So if you have any friends in film school … I am here!”