Eugene Levy and the Real Reluctance to Travel on The Reluctant Traveler

Of the many tableaus TV fans expected to see this season, Eugene Levy breaking down while sitting in a Glasgow synagogue wearing a tartan-patterned yarmulke probably wasn’t top of mind on list.

But there he was, searching for where his mother’s family of Eastern European refugees had prayed a century ago, in one of the many insightful and slyly warm moments of The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy.

“He didn’t know exactly what he was going to get into,” says David Brindley, executive producer of the Apple TV+ series. The Hollywood Reporter.

“I think it was in him to want to do these (types of) things. He just didn’t know it,” adds writer David Reilly.

On Friday, ABC announced that Levy and his son and Schitt’s Creek contributor Dan Levy will co-host the Sept. 15 Emmys. The appearance will provide a capper to an unusual year in which Eugene Levy can be seen on screen performing everywhere from Sweden to Spain – reluctantly – before taking to the stage at the Peacock. Theater at LA LIVE.

“The title of the show is not a joke,” he wrote in an email to THR of the “reluctant” modifier. In keeping with that theme, Levy didn’t politely answer a question about hosting the Emmys when asked a few days before the official announcement.

But if his AppleTV+ appearances are any indication, it’s likely to be a tongue-in-cheek and… semi-enthusiastic affair.

Stanley Tucci with his CNN travel show showed you the life you wish you had. Anthony Bourdain has discovered the mysteries of life you’ve been wanting to understand. Eugene Levy brings you into his life – a life that, like our own existence, is alternately active and sedentary, curious and indifferent.

Levy — veteran Canadian comedian and Christopher Guest collaborator — has never liked stepping out of his comfort zone. So of course there’s a streaming show where he does just that, jetting all over the world to encounter local traditions.

In the second season, Traveler he himself received two Emmy nominations, for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special, as well as Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program, the latter for the Scotland episode. And this juxtaposition is why: The series takes you to mostly exotic places with the cutest guide.

“You really feel like you’re out with your friend,” says Reilly. This season, Levy urged Joan Collins to steer him toward the unsavory side of St. Tropez, skeptically made disturbing moose calls in rural Sweden and slyly received penalty pointers from Liga star Héctor Bellerín at Sevilla.

Reilly and Brindley are two of the people who make this human atmosphere happen. All interactions on the show are organic; narration is written, with input from Levy. (The writers use a quasi-documentary approach, peppering him with off-camera questions after each interaction to get to his truest feelings.) The resulting tone is philosophical with a hint of madness.

But at least part of it is an act – a person, right?

“People often ask, ‘Is he really reluctant?’ ” says Brindley. “Yeah. He really is. You ask him now what country he wants to go to in the world after he’s done 15 episodes and he can’t name one.”

That can’t be true.

“After two seasons of work The Reluctant TravelerI can honestly say that there is no place in the world that I really want to go to,” Levy writes.

Oh.

However, that doesn’t mean he can’t have fun on the road and bring us with him. The Scotland episode cuts into the synagogue moment with Levy sitting in an ornate castle doing Sean Connery impressions, visiting a tailor to have a custom kilt made, and at a ceilidh, dancing in a kilt and making jokes about ventilation.

“He has this quality where, because of his open nature, he can fit in anywhere, while feeling slightly out of place everywhere,” says Reilly.

Levy also visited the home where his mother grew up — which, he emailed, “hit me on a much more emotional level than I ever anticipated it would.”

After traveling to dozens of locations from Costa Rica to Finland, you might worry that the series will soon run out of destinations. Finding season three seats, already ordered, could be a challenge.

The show’s staff say they still have a lot of work to do. Levy’s only red line: a hot air balloon.

“The idea of ​​going up in a basket with nothing but a balloon on top of it was a step too far,” Brindley says of what happened when they proposed it to him this season.

But is this the only prohibition? Are you sure Levy has another one?

“Antarctica,” he wrote. “Too cold. seasick. No cafes.”

A version of this story first appeared in an August independent issue of The Hollywood Reporter. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.