Watch: Eugene Levy Recounts His Career, and Gets Emotional When Friends and Family Pay Tribute

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to sit down with Eugene Levy -- virtually, of course -- and recap his career as part of the Newport Beach Film Festival's Lifetime Achievement Award. I didn't get a chance to tell him how much "SCTV" meant to be, but I was a big fan as a kid. "SCTV" was a parody of a TV network, and as a young TV geek, I was all in.

Of course, Levy has been a consistent part of popular culture for more than forty years, spanning multiple comedy franchises from “SCTV” in the 1970s and 1980s, all the way up to Pop TV’s “Schitt’s Creek,” the Emmy-nominated comedy hit that recently ended its run after six seasons.

Now, the accolades are following. Levy just earned his second consecutive Emmy nomination as lead actor in a comedy, for “Schitt’s Creek.” Last year brought him back into the Emmy race for the first time in 36 years.

“It’s always nice when people recognize what you do, and like what you do,” Levy tells me in this video as he accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award from home (due to the COVID-19 pandemic). “It’s rare to have a show like ‘Schitt’s Creek’ at this point in my career, in the so-called ‘twilight’ of one’s career. And to have created it with my son makes it even sweeter, certainly. It’s the show that I’m the most proud of, in anything that I’ve done and to have it come now is just fantastic.”