On the streets of New Jersey recently, Dan Levy, creator of “Schitt’s Creek,” was shooting his new sitcom, “Big Mistakes.” He said the idea for the show “came from a fear that I have of being trapped. I like my freedom!”
In “Big Mistakes,” a New Jersey pastor and his sister, a teacher, accidentally get trapped in a relationship with organized crime. “I just know that if I ever were tasked with helping a criminal organization, I would be the biggest liability,” Levy said. “So that, to me, felt like a very funny place to start.”
Taylor Ortega plays his sister (“It’s just chemistry. You either have it with somebody or you don’t, and she is brilliant”), but Levy says his biggest casting coup was landing Laurie Metcalf to play their mother. He said he knew that “even if everything else fails, she will be great.”
To watch a trailer for “Big Mistakes,” click on the video player below:
Co-created with Rachel Sennott for Netflix, “Big Mistakes” is Levy’s first series since “Schitt’s Creek,” the comedy in which he starred and co-wrote.
Asked if he felt, while writing the new series, that he had to live up to “Schitt’s Creek,” Levy replied, “No. I wouldn’t let it in. I don’t think you can. And you really have to lock the door on that and almost accept the fact that, if that is the big crown jewel, fabulous. How wonderful! Everything else has to be something that makes me feel good.”
In its sixth and final season, “Schitt’s Creek” swept all seven major comedy awards at the Emmys.
Curiously, it was the first time Levy written for television. “I was an MTV VJ!” he said, adding, “I don’t think I was a good VJ.”
Why not? “Because I was too nervous, and I had social anxiety, and my job was to interview people,” he said.
But Levy says his eight years with MTV Canada in Toronto proved invaluable: “I learned to write for myself. I learned to edit. I learned to produce. I learned to be in front of the camera. It prepared me for the totality of what it is to show-run.”
Soon after he left MTV, Levy started developing “Schitt’s Creek” with his father, Eugene levy, who along with Martin Mull came up with the name.
Did anybody tell him not to call the show that? “Everybody did!” Levy laughed. “You either loved it or you hated it, but it was what it was. It was exactly what the story was. What else do you name that show? ‘Family Misfortune’? I don’t know, that doesn’t sound entertaining to me.”
His father was equally adamant: “I think my dad was the one that was like, it’s this or nothing.”
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation picked up the show about video store magnate Johnny Rose and his family, who’ve lost their fortune, and wind up living in a small town motel.
Catherine O’Hara, who died suddenly in January, played matriarch Moira Rose, a flamboyant former soap opera star. “The fruit wine commercial, I knew when we shot that, that even if the show was a disaster, please let that clip go viral. Please someone find it and put it on the internet,” Levy said.
To be in the presence of someone like O’Hara was, he said, “awe-inspiring.”
Last month, we returned with Levy to the fictional Schitt’s Creek – in reality, the town of Goodwood, Ontario (population: 689). Levy hadn’t been since they’d stopped filming here. “It’s wild to be back,” he said. “At first, when you bring a TV show to a small town, and then tell them all that the town is called Schitt’s Creek, you risk offending people. And everyone was so nice.”
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The Rose Apothecary is now Goodwood Mercantile, where they sell crafts (and “Schitt’s Creek” souvenirs) made by local artists. They also put out a condolence book for Catherine O’Hara.
Levy says O’Hara’s death stopped any consideration of a “Schitt’s Creek” sequel. “No. We can’t,” he said. “I was thinking about it. Yeah. It’s tough. It’s tough going back.”
Speaking of his emotional reaction to memories of O’Hara, he said, between tears, “We had the best time. We had the best time. She had the best time. … It’s an amazing thing to be a part of something that she loved so much. You know, it feels very special. It’s what you have to hold onto, is the memories of it all.”
And her gift to us: an incredible clip reel. “Listen, for someone who is not on the Internet, she knew how to meme!” Levy laughed.
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with Dan Levy (Video)
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Story produced by David Rothman. Editor: Jason Schmidt.
