After its critically acclaimed final season and historic sweep of the Emmy Awards, no one could stop talking about the hit TV series “Schitt’s Creek.” Centered around a rich family who loses all of their fortune overnight and are forced to go live in their remaining asset — a small town called Schitt’s Creek — the show guaranteed all of its fans undying laughter for six seasons. 

Last week, the cast of the show got to bring some of that laughter to Northeastern in a live virtual event hosted by the Council for University Programs, or CUP. Dan Levy and Annie Murphy, who played two of the main characters of the show (David and Alexis Rose) participated in a Q&A with students moderated by another cast member, Emily Hampshire, who played Stevie Budd. 

There was clear excitement in the Zoom call — the castmates were happy to be able to reunite and talk. “This is very nice of all of you to let us get together and hang,” Hampshire said, introducing the event. 

Students got to submit questions before and during the show using the chat function on Zoom, which was exploding with comments the entire time. One of the most highly anticipated requests was for Murphy to sing “A Little Bit Alexis” — her character’s iconic musical moment from season five.

While hesitant at first, Murphy decided to give the students a taste and sing the chorus of the song, which turned into one of the most celebrated moments of the event.

A few lucky students got the opportunity to ask the actors a live video question. They were the winners of a contest created by CUP in which students had to send a video of their best impression of one of the characters in the show. 

One of the winners asked them about their reactions to the show’s rise in popularity during quarantine last summer and whether they were surprised by it. Levy, also a producer and writer for the show, said he is continuously surprised by the show’s popularity since they started with a really small audience, but he also understood why there was a sudden spike in interest. 

“I feel like we’re seeing a rise in terms of what people are responding to on TV, which is feel-good TV,” Levy said. “I feel like we happened to be around at the right time and offered people a safe, warm and cozy place to spend some time in, in what would otherwise seem like a very dark, strange and disorienting year.” 

“Schitt’s Creek” started as a small show on Canadian television network Pop TV. Their audience ratings only grew toward the final seasons of the show, and it reached new levels of popularity after the show became available on Netflix in October 2020.

The actors reminisced about how, at the start of the show, they had to run around the small town in Ontario they were shooting at, asking for permission to record, which often annoyed the locals. As the show went on and its audience grew, the locals warmed up to them and would even pull up lawn chairs to watch them shoot. 

“People really started paying attention right at the end, but I’m glad that they found us,” Levy said. 

The event took an emotional turn when the cast was asked what they had learned from the experience of shooting the show and the show itself. Hampshire shed a few tears listening to Murphy and Levy express their gratitude for “Schitt’s Creek.” 

“The show was truly the most wonderful time I’ve ever had in my life,” Murphy said. “The best six years of my life.”

Levy mentioned, to the agreement of his castmates, how the show helped him grow as an actor since he had barely had any experience with acting and television prior to the project. 

“It definitely sort of paved the path for me in terms of how I want the rest of my career to be and how I want the careers of anyone around me in a working capacity to be as well,” Levy said.

After the actors’ heartwarming display of love for the show, the event was wrapped up in a funny and light-hearted “lightning round” game of “Schitt’s Creek”-inspired “would you rather” questions. The actors were asked to choose between specific elements of the show’s fictional world. 

“Would you rather move to the Galápagos or only wear clothes from the Blouse Barn?” Hampshire said.

In true David and Alexis fashion, Levy and Murphy disagreed. Murphy said she would only wear clothes from the Blouse Barn while Levy said, “I’d definitely move to the Galápagos.”