‘Schitt’s Creek’ celebrates the holidays by forging new memories
Christmas comes early for fans of Canada’s most displaced family as Johnny (Eugene Levy), Moira (Catherine O’Hara), David (Daniel Levy) and Alexis Rose (Annie Murphy) decide to celebrate the holidays for the first time since arriving in “Schitt’s Creek.” The special episode, also featuring Rizwan Manji and guest star Paul Shaffer, airs Tuesday, Dec. 18, on CBC Television.
Thanks to very effective use of dream sequences and flashbacks, viewers get to see inside the old lives of the Roses: the huge mansion, the parties, the fancy friends, and how their new life seems to fall a bit short of their old expectations. But as you might expect, their hearts are in the right place as Johnny tries to get a little of that old feeling back by throwing a Christmas party like the old days. Well, sort of.
It’s as charming and heartfelt and ridiculous as you might expect from a show that features a wig wall in a motel room.
“There is something that is inherent with the Christmas season, period,” says Eugene (“American Pie,” “Best in Show”). “It’s amazing what it does to people. There is an emotional underpinning and a very positive vibe that people have and to be a part of that ... all the great comedy series that I remember all have a Christmas episode that you could go to every single year ... they’re all very funny, but they all have a very strong emotional underpinning.”
And, of course, the same holds true for “Schitt’s Creek.” As funny as the series is, there is a warmth and comfort that tends to spring forth through the absurdity. A large part of that might be due to the familiarity that not only the audience feels with the characters, but with the actors with each other. After all, O’Hara and Eugene have worked together for decades, and, of course, the Levys are family.
“It was something that we had come up with in the writers room and was something that I had always wanted for the show,” says Daniel (“The Great Canadian Baking Show”). “But it was something that for a couple seasons we didn’t think we earned yet. The great thing about a television holiday special is that so much of it is reliant on the audience’s intimate knowledge and enthusiasm for a show and every other season hadn’t quite gotten there yet.
“But because Season 4 was such an emotional year for all of our characters, it felt like to bridge Seasons 4 and 5 with a holiday special, we’d get to tell the kind of stories you want from a holiday special,” adds Daniel.
There’s no doubt the episode will leave you wanting more.
“Dan and Andrew (Cividino) co-directing really gave this a lovely holiday polish,” says Eugene. “Visually it’s kind of special and colorful and has a feel-good look to it and our show doesn’t usually have that gloss to it, so it’s an episode that is wrapped with a lovely Christmas ribbon. And personally, I love classic Christmas episodes and if this is one that people will want to bring out every year, then we’ll have really accomplished something.”