On Friday, April 9, Schitt’s Creek fans are invited to don their luxury garments, fold in the cheese, grab a stiff drink and ask thrice before tuning into a virtual event with show co-creator and star Dan Levy.
The University Lecture Committee at the University of Iowa will present An Evening with Dan Levy at 9 p.m. April 9, free and open to the public.
Levy, son of Canadian comedy legend Eugene Levy, collaborated with his father to create the CBC and Pop TV sitcom Schitt’s Creek in 2015. The show follows the dysfunctional Rose family, who suddenly lose their video store fortune and are forced to move into a rundown motel in the fictional Schitt’s Creek, a town patriarch Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy) bought years earlier as a joke.
Hilarity ensues as the neurotic Johnny, his eccentric former-soap-star wife Moira (Catherine O’Hara), persnickety son David (Dan Levy) and socialite daughter Alexis (Annie Murphy) struggle to coexist in relative squalor while navigating relationships, small-town jobs, community service, pyramid schemes, fashion disasters, local elections, a’capella drama, accidental polyamory and other misadventures, all while learning the value of humility, family and self determination.
The show found a large audience on Netflix and became a breakout hit, as well as a critical darling praised for not only its endearing performances and quotable one-liners, but positive and unassuming portrayal of queer characters, specifically David, who is pansexual.
“We made a decision to not include the conversation of homophobia or bigotry on our show,” said Dan Levy, who identifies as gay. “By projecting a sweeter, gentler world, I feel that it was a political statement. It seemed to have an incredible effect on people.”
The sixth and final season of Schitt’s Creek aired in spring 2020, its “sweeter, gentler world” a welcome refuge for fans during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The show swept the seven major comedy categories at last summer’s Primetime Emmy Awards — the first series ever to achieve such a sweep — with all its lead actors winning statues, and Dan Levy taking home the awards for Outstanding Comedy Series, writing for a comedy and directing for a comedy. The 37-year-old is the first person to win an Emmy in all four major disciplines — producing, writing, directing and acting — in a single year.
Since Schitt’s Creek wrapped, Levy stole the show as a supporting actor in the Hulu holiday film Happiest Season and hosted Saturday Night Live on Feb. 5. A month ago, Schitt’s Creek added another feather to its cap: the Golden Globe for Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy.
Students from UI, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa will moderate the discussion with Levy, which will be livestreamed from the University Lecture Committee website beginning at 8:45 p.m. on April 9.
So far in 2021, the committee has hosted free virtual talks with Olympic fencing bronze medalist and activist Ibtihaj Muhammad; Henrietta Lacks‘ granddaughter Jeri Lacks Whye and great-granddaughter Veronica Robinson; American conservative political commentator Michael Steele; and bestselling writer David Quammen.
