Coming up Roses: Schitt's Creek has finally blossomed into an award-winning success. Photo / Supplied
Coming up Roses: Schitt's Creek has finally blossomed into an award-winning success. Photo / Supplied
As cult sitcom Schitt's Creek was showered with awards at Sunday night's Emmys ceremony, the cast sat together glowing with delight. They were able to do so – while wearing masks and socially distanced – because they were in Canada, which is deemed to have responded to the pandemic more efficiently than the US.
With American nominees forced to huddle before their lonely Zoom cameras, it was a reminder of the outsider status of Schitt's Creek, and also that they do things their own way north of the border.
That same sense of playing by a slightly different rule-set is discernible in Schitt's Creek itself. It struck an Emmys clean sweep by winning nine gongs and claiming all the major comedy categories: best actor, actress, supporting actor and supporting actress (all "in a comedy series"), and the "overall outstanding comedy series" prize.
The extraordinary thing is that Schitt's Creek has achieved this success while defying comedy convention. On paper, it's true that it sounds like just another fish out-of-water chucklefest. It tells the story of the megabucks Rose family, who are defrauded out of their fortune. Forced to start over, they are reduced to living out of a motel in the punning one-horse town after which the show is named.
An American network would no doubt have taken these raw ingredients and rustled up something devilishly cruel. The Roses would be upbraided for their greed and crassness, the townsfolk mocked as unsophisticated yokels. Schitt's Creek, however, resists such temptations.
Video-store magnate Johnny Rose (American Pie star Eugene Levy), former actress wife Moira (Catherine O'Hara) and their kids David (Dan Levy – Eugene's son and the creator of Schitt's Creak) and Alexis (Annie Murphy) are depicted as fully rounded human beings. They are capable of selfishness, but warmth and kindness too. They are also in the rich sitcom tradition of outsiders trying to fit in, making them spiritual cousins of Alan Partridge, David Brent and even The Vicar of Dibley.
The same generosity of spirit characterises the portrayal of the townsfolk. These include Chris Elliott as Roland Schitt, the grizzled mayor, and Emily Hampshire as Stevie Budd, the clerk at the motel to which the Roses have been exiled. Schitt's Creek celebrates diversity too – David is a pansexual who marries a man – but without making a song and dance about it, as an American comedy might.
Schitt's Creek could similarly teach British comedy a few things about cherishing and celebrating diversity without hitting the audience over the head with laboured messaging. With David and characters such as real-estate agent Ray Butani (portrayed by Canadian-Indian actor Rizwan Manji) and international playboy Emir (Turkish-Canadian actor Ennis Esmer), difference is presented as part of the rich fabric of everyday life. That's in contrast to UK comedies such as Brassic or Kate and Koji, which seem to approach representation across the spectrum as a glaring and slightly alarming novelty.
Emmy-winner Catherine O'Hara, the star of Schitt's Creek. Photo / AP
The feelgood glow extends behind the scenes. Dan Levy had grown up in the shadow of his father – a giant of Canadian showbusiness – and was struggling to break into the industry. He eventually landed a job presenting an MTV Canada aftershow segment for reality hit The Hills. This gave him a profile locally, and the confidence to suggest that he and his father go into comedy together.
"The idea for Schitt's Creek really came out of one of those brainstorming sessions that I had one day in a cafe," he told Variety magazine last April ahead of the broadcast of the series' sixth and final season (the cast have refused to rule out a seventh run).
The Levys tried to sell Schitt's Creek to major American networks such as ABC. Nobody was interested. And so they took the concept back to the relative backwater of Canadian television and its state-run service, CBC.
It was an instant hit there – and then achieved international success when Netflix snapped it up in 2017. And as outsiders, the Levys were able to maintain their independence and stay true to their belief that Schitt's Creek should be about human drama first, comedy second.
Schitt's Creek is streaming on Netflix in New Zealand. Photo / AP
"The setup was always that this family would realise that money is not the be-all and end-all," Dan Levy told Variety. "The goal was [that] at the end of this show, this family will realise the value of love."
He and his father have succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. Schitt's Creek is funny, often uproarious. But it also conveys the message that it's the people with whom we share our lives that matters the most. In difficult times, it's the ultimate small-screen pick-me-up.
