The Canadian comedy series Schitt’s Creek has taken the Emmy Awards by storm, winning the first seven trophies of the night, including best comedy series.
All four leads snagged acting trophies — Hamilton-born star Eugene Levy and Toronto-born star Catherine O’Hara won for their leading roles, while Toronto-raised Daniel Levy and Ottawa-born Annie Murphy both got supporting actor nods.
Daniel Levy also won a writing award and a directing trophy he shares with Andrew Cividino for the show, which ended its sixth and final season in April.
The Levys co-created the show, which also got two Emmys earlier this week, for costuming and casting.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show set a new record for most wins in a single season for a comedy series. The nine trophy wins beats the previous record of eight held by Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in 2018 and 2019.
CBC also congratulated the show’s cast and crew for the historic win in a statement Sunday night,
“We are so honoured to have worked with this infinitely talented team and proud to have commissioned this groundbreaking comedy that celebrates family and inclusive values with brilliance and unparalleled humour,” said Sally Catto, CBC’s general manager of Entertainment, Factual and Sports.
“Schitt’s Creek became an anchor for a new era of scripted comedy at CBC, and is truly one of the greatest comedies ever created.”
Eugene Levy and O’Hara played the parents on the fish-out-of-water show, about a formerly wealthy family who moved to a small town the father once bought as a joke.
Daniel Levy played their son, and Annie Murphy played their daughter.
“Schitt’s Creek,” which aired on CBC and Pop TV, was up for a total of 15 Emmys this year.
Last year the Ontario-shot show had four Emmy nominations but didn’t win any.
“I will forever be grateful to Eugene and Daniel Levy for bestowing upon me the opportunity to play a woman of a certain age — my age — who gets to fully be her ridiculous self,” O’Hara, 66, said Sunday in her acceptance speech from a private party in Toronto, where the cast got together for their victory lap.
“They gathered the most beautiful, fun-loving people in Toronto — cast and crew — and then, by example, led us all to be the best we could be for each other.”
She then slipped into the dramatic elocution and old-timey vocabulary of her character Moira as she also thanked the hair, makeup and hair team for making her character who she was.
“May I please wish you all a sound mind and sound body,” O’Hara said.
“And though these are the strangest of days, may you have as much joy being holed up in a room or two with your family as I had with my dear Roses.”
Eugene Levy also won two Emmys in the early 1980s, for writing on the sketch comedy series “SCTV Network,” which also starred O’Hara.
O’Hara also won an Emmy in 1982 for writing on the sketch comedy series “SCTV Network,” which also starred Eugene Levy.
— With files from Global News
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