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Hollywood Q&A

By Adam Thomlison

Q: I just started rewatching “Schitt’s Creek,” and noticed the name Sarah Levy in the credits. I know that Eugene and Dan Levy are father and son in real life as well as on the show, but who’s Sarah? Is she related?

A: The cute parallel of real father and son Eugene and Dan Levy recreating that relationship as Johnny and David Rose on “Schitt’s Creek” overshadowed this fun fact: Sarah Levy, Eugene’s daughter, is on the show as well, but she’s not playing a relative.

Sarah plays diner proprietor Twyla Sands on all six seasons of the surprise-hit sitcom, even though there is a daughter/sister character on the show that would have made more sense as a real-life parallel. And she admits that this was confusing for viewers at first.

“When the show first came out, everyone assumed I was the sister,” Sarah revealed to Hello Magazine. “I love that that wasn’t the case, because it has fully removed me from the hubbub of Daniel and Dad being father and son onscreen. I loved that people didn’t know that I was related in any way, because I was able to do my own thing.”

She also joked in the interview that Annie Murphy, who played the daughter on the show (and who went on to star in the sitcom “Kevin Can F**k Himself”), actually “looks more like a Levy than I do, hands down. She’s got the eyebrows for it.”

Q: What channel is “Yellowstone” on? I can’t seem to find it.

A: This question is exactly why Paramount Network is splashing out so much money on “Yellowstone.”

Paramount Network is the latest rebrand of a cable channel that used to be called Spike TV, and before that The Nashville Network. It launched the pricey drama “Yellowstone,” led by bona fide film star Kevin Costner (“Dances With Wolves,” 1990), in 2018 in an attempt to draw attention to its new brand.

And it certainly worked — “Yellowstone” is a massive hit.

The strategy was a success from the channel’s perspective, but maybe less so for the show: It has landed “Yellowstone” in the position of being one of the most talked-about shows on TV but hard to find for people who get curious about what everyone’s talking about.

We wouldn’t be having this conversation if it were on, say, Paramount’s sister broadcast network, CBS. Everyone with a basic TV package gets CBS, and most people know more or less what’s on it. Not everyone with a cable package gets Paramount Network, and even fewer probably know what it has.

While we’re on the topic, all of this is just about how to watch it on regular TV. The digital-streaming situation is even trickier.

You’d think that Paramount Network’s flagship series would be available to stream on the company’s own streaming service, Paramount+. And while that’s true in Canada and some other markets, in the U.S. it’s only available on the Peacock streaming service because of some specific rights agreements.

Paramount+ does, however, carry the “Yellowstone” prequel series “1923,” and will also have multiple other spinoffs that are currently in development.

Q: Does “Mystery, Alaska” use actual players from the NHL?

A: Yes, but not in the way you might expect.

Most notably, “Mystery, Alaska” (1999), the fan-favorite comedy about a small-town hockey team given the dream opportunity to play the New York Rangers on national television, didn’t get the real Rangers.

The fictional Rangers team is mostly made up of extras, with the exception of Dale Kushner, who played the team’s enforcer and all-around dirty player, Yeaton. Kushner was a real-life NHL player, but for the New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers — never for the Rangers. And he had retired from the sport a few years before the film was released.

“Mystery, Alaska” also featured former NHL stars Phil Esposito and Barry Melrose, but they were playing themselves in the context of their real second careers as TV pundits.

Despite this, the film has been praised for its realistic portrayal of hockey on screen. Journalist Collin Insley of Thehockeywriters.com chalks this up to the fact that, while it didn’t cast NHL pros, the film did use some people with real experience and passion for the game.

“Simply put, acting like a hockey player isn’t something that most actors can easily fake,” he wrote. He pointed out that, with the exception of film star Russell Crowe (“Gladiator,” 2000), the players on the local amateur team are “all Canadian and/ or grew up playing hockey.” (I should note here that, despite being supposedly set in Alaska, the film was shot entirely in Canada.)

This extends to Kevin Durand (“Xmen Origins: Wolverine,” 2009), who plays the towering player known in the film as Tree. He’s a known film star in his own right now, but at the time he was still an aspiring young actor (and hockey fan) from Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Have a question? Email us at [email protected]. Please include your name and town. Personal replies will not be provided.

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2023-02-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-02-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

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