Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy look back on first joint Emmy win after Schitt's Creek's big night

Levy and O'Hara first won Emmys together in 1982 for Second City Television.

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Published on September 23, 2020 09:55AM EDT

Sunday night wasn't the first time Schitt's Creek stars Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy won Emmys together. The first was in 1982 when they won awards for their writing work on Second City Television. Following Schitt's Creek's stunning evening sweeping all the comedy categories announced at the Emmys show this year, the pair reflected on their Emmys history with Jimmy Kimmel, who hosted the virtual ceremony.

"Well, for me I do remember that the clip that they picked was a piece that I wrote called 'Perry Como: Still Alive,'" Levy said. He's talking about the time he impersonated the "Killing Me Softly With Her Song" singer Perry Como for a sketch on SCTV. "Perry's in bed with a blanket pulled up, singing a song," Levy remembered. "I was lying on the floor with my face down with a mic in front of my mouth."

Levy said "the audience went crazy" when the clip aired, followed by an audible groan when the sketch wasn't announced as the winner of the category.

The memory that sticks out for O'Hara was when Milton Berle and Martha Raye presented the category they did win, best writing. "I think [Berle] announced the winner like 'SCTV, whoever the hell they are,'" the actress said. "Nobody knew us."

Not mentioned is the sketch SCTV would later air spoofing that particular moment. Berle seemed to have a hard time giving up the mic that night and interrupted actor-writer Joe Flaherty's acceptance speech. The parody sketch this inspired saw Flaherty beating up a Berle lookalike and shouting, "You'll never ruin another acceptance speech, Uncle Miltie."

For this year's Emmys — which honored Schitt's Creek's final season with writing, directing, acting, and Best Comedy Series awards —Levy's son, co-creator and star Dan Levy, remembers that time when the Canadian government had to minimize their Emmys party.

"We had a big party planned. In Canada, you can have a larger gathering because Canada's been doing good when it came to the COVID," Dan said. "And then obviously, in true 2020 fashion, the night before our Emmy party the government had to minimize the party size in half, which meant that we had a last-minute un-invitation ceremony that had to happen for our lovely crew who we were so excited to share the night with. It was a strange vibe going into the evening."

Levy clarified the government had to intervene as a safety precaution when the numbers in the province spiked. When it came time to make those un-invitation phone calls, Levy joked, "I was the first one to say 'not me.'"

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