Schitt’s Creek was a good show that employed many members of the Levy family. Three, to be exact, between creator/star Dan and his Hollywood veteran father Eugene and his sister Sarah, who played Twyla on the show. Television was flush with Levys. But then the show ended in 2020, and the television landscape was suddenly Levy-less. It had remained that way, mostly, save a talk show guest spot or a quick swing through the Emmys to collect a slew of trophies, from last April until this afternoon.
This afternoon, the Levys returned. First, at 12:02 PM ET, an email from Apple TV hit entertainment-type inboxes around the world. The email was titled “Apple orders Eugene Levy docuseries The Reluctant Traveler” and contained this paragraph by way of explanation:
The Reluctant Traveler will see Eugene Levy visit some of the world’s most remarkable hotels, as well as explore the people, places and cultures that surround them. Self confessedly not your average travel show host – he’s not usually adventurous or well versed in globe-trotting – he’s agreed the time is right for him to broaden his horizons. Levy will be packing his suitcase with some trepidation but hoping his experiences might lead to a whole new chapter in his life – that’s as long as he doesn’t have to battle his motion sickness, and still gets dinner at 7.
This sounds… kind of delightful? Eugene Levy is awesome and has been for decades now. And there should be more travel shows about people who don’t like to travel, because traveling can be a real pain in the neck. Being other places is cool, I guess, but getting there? And not having all your stuff while you’re there? Blech. So I support everything going on here. Looks good. And we’re getting one Levy back on television, which is nice. A solid Monday.
Then, just over an hour later, at 1:11 PM ET, an email from HBO hit entertainment-type inboxes. It was titled “HBO Max Orders Unscripted Cooking Competition Series THE BIG BRUNCH From Dan Levy And Boardwalk Pictures” and featured this paragraph by way of explanation:
Created by Levy and centering around one of the most versatile and underestimated dining experiences, The Big Brunch is a cooking competition series that celebrates the most inspiring undiscovered culinary voices from every corner of the country. Chefs will be offered the opportunity to share their stories and their business dreams, while also competing for a life-altering prize. All while finding innovative and personal ways to redefine what it means to dine between 11am and 3pm.
Which is also great. I love brunch. It’s a good meal, especially if you, like me, do not like waking up early on the weekends but still want to eat an omelette and/or a waffle. I also like “life-altering prizes,” generally, as long as they mean life-altering in a good way and not, like, someone whacking you real good in the kneecap with a crowbar and giving you a limp for the next decade. But they probably don’t mean that. Worth keeping an eye on, though.
Anyway, this means we now have two more shows starring members of the Levy family than we did yesterday. That’s fine and cool. Unless it’s the start of a trend. If they keep up this pace every weekday this week, that’ll be 10 shows. If they keep it up for all of November, that’s 60 shows. Even if they take a long weekend off for Thanksgiving, it would be, like, 52 shows. That’s too many shows! The Levys are taking over television! Someone needs to stop them before we run out of room and have to start canceling other shows to make space. We’re so close to getting The Righteous Gemstones back. We need to be careful here. We can’t run around taking risks.
So, in summary, congratulations to the Levy family on their two new shows, both of which sound fun. But also, I’m watching you, Levy family. Two shows is enough. For now. We can reassess later. But we’re atop a very slippery slope here.
