Actor Eugene Levy thought he was up against the real “Schitt’s Creek” when he was offered his latest job. The producers at AppleTV+ wanted him to host a travel show. There was one minor problem: Levy doesn’t like traveling.
“It's not that I hated traveling,” he insists. “I just didn’t love traveling. I never loved traveling. I don’t love the airport experience. I'm not a fan of sightseeing generally. So, when I get there, it's just like a long trip with much too much planned in a day, and it didn’t really mean that much to me. So, I'm not a great traveler. I don’t have a great sense of adventure. I'm not curious by nature. I'm not proud of any of this, but it's just a fact,” he shrugs.
“So, I always thought I was the wrong person for this job when it was originally pitched to me. I thought there were people who probably could handle a travel show better than me because I don’t have the attributes it takes to front a travel show.”
It was his intractable unwillingness that convinced producers David Brindley and Alison Kirkham of the series “The Reluctant Traveler” that he was definitely the guy for the job.
Levy, known for his comic improvisations on “SCTV” and films like “Armed and Dangerous” and “A Mighty Wind,” really struck pay dirt when he co-wrote, co-starred and co-produced the series “Schitt’s Creek,” which first aired on PopTV and glided over to Netflix.
There the show harvested a cornucopia of attention, earning two Screen Actors Guild Awards and 19 primetime Emmy nominations among other kudos. The Canada-born Levy had finished “Schitt’s Creek” when he was approached about the travel series. “When the first phone call came in about fronting this show I said, ‘They have the wrong person.’
“I said, ‘I mean it sounds like an exciting show for somebody, but this is not the person, so please (he told his agent) say no.’ And then I get a call back saying, ‘Well, they want to have a conversation with you.’ And I kept thinking, ‘OK, well then what’s the point? I’ve already said no.’ I said, ‘OK, I’ll talk to them and then I’ll explain to them myself.’
“So I get on the phone with (producers) David and Alison from Apple TV+, and I went through a list of reasons why I’m NOT the person who should be doing this. I’m sure there’s somebody better who could be doing a show about luxury hotels around the world. And I tried to keep it light,” he recalls.
“So I was getting laughs. Every reason I was saying, ‘I’m not the person,’ I’d get a laugh on the other end of the phone and I’m thinking, ‘Well good, this is working. Because I’m getting my point across and it’s all being -- it's all light. There’s nothing heavy about the conversation, so that’s good.’
“And then what I didn’t know until later was that after that call, David and Alison got on the phone and I think David’s the one who said, ‘That’s the show! Somebody who is NOT fond of traveling doing the traveling. That’s the onus of the show.’”
The different format was pitched to Levy, who says he finally cottoned to the idea. “I said, ‘OK, all right. I get that.’ I get that because I just didn’t think I was the qualified person to front a travel show in any capacity or regard, and now I get it. This is about a person who DOESN’T like to travel, traveling. So yeah, that I get.’”
Even so, Levy, 76, who is known for spooling out a panoply of comic personalities, found it difficult to be himself. “I've spent my life doing character work as a comedic character actor,” he says.
“Very comfortable being in character in front of a camera. But being myself is something that always made me a little nervous. So, that was a big factor in doing this as well. ... If there was a reason I didn’t want to go to a particular place around the world, to me, it was a legitimate reason. It's just not worth the trip to do that. I probably wouldn’t have that much fun or enjoy it that much. Obviously, when you travel with other people, family or friends or whatever, you do things because everybody's doing it — but in my heart — is it truly an exciting venture? No!”
The series helped change his mind. “This show is actually getting me involved in things that I'm finding are truly interesting and exciting — things that I would never have done if I was traveling on my own,” he admits.
The show, which begins streaming Friday, also taught him something about himself. “I'm actually revealing more of myself than I ever have in my life,” he confesses. “I'm a very kind of private person. But, I've been kind of opening up and revealing my inner thoughts on this show, something I rarely have done in my life.”
‘Paradise' found in England
The British-French crime series, “Death in Paradise” has proven so popular it’s entered its 2th season and given birth to a spin-off, “Beyond Paradise.”
The original series takes place on the tropical Caribbean island of Saint Marie and can be seen on BritBox and some PBS stations.
But “Beyond Paradise,” which premieres on BritBox Friday, couldn’t be much more “beyond” than the drowsy town of Shipton Abbott located in England’s southwest.
Of course, the British love to graffiti their bucolic landscapes with heinous crimes. Think writers Agatha Christie, P.D. James, Margery Allingham and Caroline Graham.
Kris Marshall resumes the role of D.I. Humphrey Goodman, which he played on “Death in Paradise” from 2014 to 2017. Here Goodman has polished up his badge to ferret out the multifarious malfeasances he finds in these British backwaters.
Scores of guest stars will populate the six-episode run, including the talented 49-year-old Jamie Bamber, the savvy half-Brit known here for “Battlestar Galactica,” “Monday Mornings” and “Dollhouse.”
Bamber was an academic majoring in literature (he read Dante in its original Italian) but says acting was always on his mind. “My mom had trained as an actress and she married my dad who was from Detroit, Michigan — a bit older than her and already had four kids. And her acting got very much put on hold,” he says.
“But she had trained in teaching as well, and she started a theater group in Paris when we lived there and directed plays for kids. So my first role – I think I must’ve been 5 or 6 — was as the Wicked Witch of the West – the best role of the piece as far as I'm concerned. So she definitely ignited that in me because I'm not a natural extrovert. I'm not a natural performer. I don’t sing. I don’t dance. But she definitely showed me the release and the sense of living that can come from acting.”
'Magnum' finds new home
Viewers may have been surprised to see “Magnum P.I.” cavorting on NBC Sunday and not its usual home at CBS. It proved to be a puzzle for the cast, too. Jay Hernandez, who plays the rebooted Thomas Magnum, says he was shocked to discover the show was being canceled.
“I was genuinely just confused as to why that (happened). ... I was surprised that it found another home. It's such a rare thing to happen. And watching the things that were taking place on social media with billboards and petitions and just seeing the amount of support that the show was getting from the audience, from fans, that was humbling to me,” he says.
“I kind of put my head down. We do our work, and sometimes you forget about the people and the impact that the show has. It's kind of easy to disregard at times.”
Eric Guggenheim, the show’s runner and executive producer, reports, “The effort to find a home for the show started, honestly, within minutes of us getting word that we weren't going to be back on CBS,” he says.
“I was on the phone with John Davis, one of our EPs (executive producers) and John was like, ‘Don't take another job. Don't sign another deal. Let's find a home for this.’ And NBC stepped in immediately.
“That began about a four‑ to six‑week period where we were kind of in limbo and discussing with NBC how to keep the show and how we would move forward. ... I didn't want to get my hopes up, because it's such a rare thing for this to happen. ... It doesn't happen very often. So it was incredibly exciting, and at the same time, I was trying to sort of temper my expectations.”
‘True Lies' series due on CBS
Producer Matt Nix was the guiding light behind the special op series “Burn Notice,” which enjoyed 111 episodes. He also oversaw “The Good Guys,” and “The Gifted.” But Nix has his work cut out for him now as he’s helming a reboot of the action movie “True Lies.” And he’s doing it for CBS.
The idea first came to him from director McG (“Charlie’s Angels”). “When McG first approached me about doing ‘True Lies’ as a TV series, to be honest, I was sort of intimidated,” confesses Nix.
"’True Lies’ was obviously one of the most iconic films of the 1990s. It was the first film that cost over $100 million, which would be like $160 million today. And of course, it's a film by the great James Cameron.
“So it kind of seemed like a tough act to follow. But at the same time, I found that I couldn't get the prospect out of my mind,” he says. “I kept imagining myself coming out of the movie theater in 1994, mind completely blown, and there I was with an opportunity to be a part of that. And how do you turn that down? You can't.”
He says the spirit of the movie guided him through the convolutions of the pilot.
“Remembering what it was to see ‘True Lies’ in 1994. It was exciting. It was funny. It was romantic. It was a giant action film, but it was also a character piece about a father trying to do his best. It didn't take itself too seriously, but at the same time, it had real heart. And I wanted to do something that had that same spirit.”
Then he had to convince the network that such a daunting project could be done. “CBS understood what I was going for right away and encouraged me in that direction,” says Nix.
“But the essence of ‘True Lies’ isn't spectacle. Now, don't get me wrong. I love spectacle, and we were able to do some big stunts and effects that I'm really proud of. We did the biggest car flip I've ever done, and I've done a lot of car flips.
“But the thing that really matters to me, and I think to all of us, about ‘True Lies’ is the spirit of the thing. It's a show about family, about a group of people that really care about each other and are working through real issues. It's a show about decent people who are trying to make a difference in the world.”
The series premieres on March 1.
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