Comedy TV fans experienced the end of yet another era back in April when Schitt's Creek wrapped its deliciously nutty six season run. The series, which was co-created by and co-starred the father / son team of Dan and Eugene Levy, had been a cult favorite for several seasons on Pop before its run on Netflix led to a much wider audience, but just as those new fans were settling in, the Levys decided to call it quits. Now, Dan Levy has spoken out about why Schitt's Creek ended with Season 6.
Dan Levy did a Hot Ones interview to talk about Schitt's Creek and when he was asked about the decision to end with Season 6, echoed a sentiment that all lovers of good television have had at some point, noting:
The storytelling of television is so important and you know, I’m such a fan of television. I understand how quickly the legacy of a show can be tarnished by overextending itself. For me, it was so important that people walk away at the end of our show loving it as much as they did when they started. So a lot of that was just deciding, ‘This is as far as we can go right now with quality.’
Wow. Thank you, Dan Levy. Thank you for having a very popular show but still being able to reasonably look at what you'd already done with Schitt's Creek and what you hoped to do with it, and making a concrete choice to end the whole shebang while you were still going strong.
As much as it always sucks to have a beloved series end, especially when you're still enjoying it and feel like it knocks it out of the park on a weekly basis, there are few things worse in television than being devoted to a show which starts off strong, gives you a few good seasons, and then declines in quality. When that begins to happen, it's always hard to figure out your next move as a viewer. You remember the good ol' days and want them back, so it's always tempting to stick around and see if the show regains its footing.
But, also, there are a lot of great shows and we do not have unlimited time with which to consume them all, so if you keep watching and the series never rebounds it can certainly feel like a waste of time. That's not to mention the idea of possibly having your fond memories of when the show was still setting you on fire all the time completely ruined by weak / disappointing final seasons.
As Dan Levy said, the best option is for a show to finish its run when people are still high on it, and that usually comes from the creatives behind it knowing exactly how they want to end it and heading toward that finish as soon as they feel it coming on, so that the whole idea doesn't get long in the tooth and end with an audience-shattering whimper. Levy also noted:
Keeping the quality up, making sure the stories are strong. Because I would hate to take a show past its expiring date and have people say, ‘Yeah, I watched it until Episode 6 and then it sort of got [worse].’
Yeah, we've all been there. Right? It was sad to see Schitt's Creek go, but at least we got yet another fantastic season of small town laughs. You can watch Seasons 1-5 on Netflix right now, with Season 6 arriving on October 7. For more on what to watch in the coming weeks, be sure to check out our guide to fall TV!
