The Rise of ‘Schitt’s Creek’ The series (on Netflix)

Clockwise from left, the stars of “Schitt’s Creek”:
Annie Murphy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara and Daniel Levy.Credit...
Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times

One of the shows we've been enjoying on Netflix is the Canadian show "Schitt's Creek," an hysterical comedy of a rich family all with wacky personalities that loses everything and has to move into a rundown motel in a town they bought (and forgot about) many years before. It's full of funny, crazy characters.
  In January 2020, the New York Times published a comprehensive article about the show and how it came to be the success it is today. Here's the article. After you read it, go watch the show!

The Rise of ‘Schitt’s Creek’ 
The series is wrapping up just as it achieved something like mainstream success. For its creators and stars, that’s the perfect time to go.

By Lara Zarum
Published Jan. 7, 2020 New York Times
Updated Jan. 11, 2020

TORONTO — “You take such good care of your hands,” Daniel Levy marveled as he waited for the director to call “action.”

It was the last day of spring, and the last week of filming for the sixth and final season of “Schitt’s Creek,” which premiered January 7 on Pop. During a lull between takes, Levy, one of the show’s creators and stars, admired his scene partner’s nails. “I’m a little obsessed,” said the actress, Genelle Williams, who was playing a chef.

His response was swift: “So we all should be!”

VIDEO TRAILER FOR LAST SEASON: https://youtu.be/1mzdm3gzraI


Levy wears many hats: showrunner, actor, writer, editor, costume designer. Later that day, during a break on set — a glass-walled cafe ringed by trees in Toronto’s East End, which was standing in for a catering business — he sat scrolling through his phone, putting together a playlist for the show’s wrap party the next night. Levy’s music selection was both an annual tradition and a welcome distraction from the end of an era.

“It’s hectic,” he said, “which has actually helped a lot.”

The Roses, the formerly wealthy, fish-out-of-water family at the heart of “Schitt’s Creek,” are notoriously allergic to sentiment. But the people who play them — Daniel Levy (David), Annie Murphy (Alexis), Catherine O’Hara (Moira, the imperious matriarch) and Eugene Levy (the paterfamilias, Johnny) — were less so as the show neared its end. A weepy read-through of the final two episodes left O’Hara looking “like Alice Cooper,” she said. Others found themselves breaking down more randomly.

“Annie and I just text each other out of the blue,” Daniel Levy said. “‘So I cried today at the grocery store. How are you?’”

But even though “Schitt’s Creek” is wrapping up just as it has achieved something like mainstream success, the stars and creators remain convinced that it’s the right time to say goodbye.

2020 Farewell Tour dates have already been announced for Los Angeles,
Chicago, Washington DC, Boston, Orlando, Phoenix and more 

“Isn’t that the perfect way to go?” Eugene Levy said. “We’re on an upward trajectory, and we will be still on an upward trajectory when this series actually wraps.”

Sweet but never saccharine, the show has tracked the evolution of the Roses — who arrived in Schitt’s Creek full of disdain, with nothing but the couture on their backs — as they’ve been absorbed into the tiny town in the boonies. “Schitt’s Creek” premiered in 2015 on CBC in Canada and Pop TV in America, but it wasn’t until it landed on Netflix in 2017 that American viewers began to catch on.

Thanks to a daffy charm — a winning combination of its characters’ caustic wit and the show’s fundamental warmth — and enthusiastic word-of-mouth support, the series rose from humble origins to the pinnacle of TV acclaim. In July 2019, a few months after the creators announced its next season would be its last, “Schitt’s Creek” was nominated for four Emmys, including best comedy.

O’Hara and Eugene Levy — Daniel’s father onscreen and off — were already familiar faces when “Schitt’s Creek” premiered. But the show’s success has been a launchpad for the younger Levy, who signed a three-year overall deal with ABC Studios in 2019.

Murphy, mostly unknown before “Schitt’s Creek,” said the sitcom also has changed her life. “The show has opened a lot of doors,” she said, “and I’m trying to look at the future not as a daunting bleak abyss of hell, but an exciting adventure.”

The final season is the most ambitious yet, Daniel Levy said. The Roses have finally settled in the town they never thought they’d call home — in fact, they’re thriving both professionally and in their relationships. But will their achievements propel them beyond Schitt’s Creek?

Levy began thinking about an ending some time in Season 3. When Pop gave the show a two-season extension after Season 4, that struck him as a good opportunity to map out the conclusion he had in mind and go out on a high note.

“From start to finish our show will be exactly what it was intended to be,” he said. “The biggest mistake you can make in TV is shifting the focus away from characters and the storytelling to servicing audience expectations. The audience is there because you’ve done something right.”
FOR THE FULL ARTICLE: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/07/arts/television/schitts-creek-final-season.html