The Rise of ‘Schitt’s Creek’

TORONTO — “You take such good care of your hands,” Daniel Levy marveled as he waited for the director to call “action.”

It was the last day of spring, and the last week of filming for the sixth and final season of “Schitt’s Creek,” which premieres Tuesday on Pop. During a lull between takes, Levy, one of the show’s creators and stars, admired his scene partner’s nails. “I’m a little obsessed,” said the actress, Genelle Williams, who was playing a chef.

His response was swift: “So we all should be!”

Levy wears many hats: showrunner, actor, writer, editor, costume designer. Later that day, during a break on set — a glass-walled cafe ringed by trees in Toronto’s East End, which was standing in for a catering business — he sat scrolling through his phone, putting together a playlist for the show’s wrap party the next night. Levy’s music selection was both an annual tradition and a welcome distraction from the end of an era.

“It’s hectic,” he said, “which has actually helped a lot.”

The Roses, the formerly wealthy, fish-out-of-water family at the heart of “Schitt’s Creek,” are notoriously allergic to sentiment. But the people who play them — Daniel Levy (David), Annie Murphy (Alexis), Catherine O’Hara (Moira, the imperious matriarch) and Eugene Levy (the paterfamilias, Johnny) — were less so as the show neared its end. A weepy read-through of the final two episodes left O’Hara looking “like Alice Cooper,” she said. Others found themselves breaking down more randomly.