Eugene Levy is not really a cartoon character. He just plays one on TV.
The former SCTV sniper, who sports the most animated eyebrows since Groucho Marx, is just one of the familiar voices on the new CTV cartoon comedy Committed. It debuts tonight at 7 p.m.
Levy is joined by his old SCTV pals Catherine O'Hara and Andrea Martin, as well as Kids In The Hall alumnus Dave Foley, as voices on the series.
Levy, a 54-year-old Hamilton native, plays stay-at-home dad Joe Larsen, a freelance writer who helps his frenzied wife Liz (O'Hara) keep an eye on their three active kids.
"The scripts read very true and seemed to actually capture the essence of what it's like to raise children," Levy says.
Has he ever been a cartoon character before?
"Not intentionally," he says. "Although there have been a couple of parts in films ... Speed Zone comes to mind."
In fact, Levy, who makes his home in Toronto between film gigs (he's currently shooting American Pie 2), isn't much of a cartoon buff. The last comic strip he read was Al Capp's old howler, Lil' Abner. He has seen and likes The Simpsons, but that's about it.
"I never even went to see the South Park movie," he says. "I wouldn't pay $9 to see these circles on a big screen."
Besides, Committed is more of a family sitcom than South Park. "It's not like a cartoon show," Levy says. "My job is to keep this guy straight and low-key. He spends all day behind a computer screen. He works in his pyjamas. You couldn't get any more low-key than this guy."
The same could be said for Levy, who talks and dresses more like a network executive than the wild man responsible for such goofy SCTV icons as Sid Dithers, Stan Schmenge and Earl Camembert.
Levy does get animated when the subject of Survivor and other reality shows comes up.
"I just don't watch it and I wish it would go away," says Levy, who used to savage these kinds of TV trends back in the fearless SCTV days.
"You just can't parody this stuff any more than they already are," he says, singling out couple-splitting shows such as Temptation Island for particular disdain. "This is how deep television has to go to get people interested? It's all about numbers and it's sad."
Levy has another show in development at Fox for next season. He describes Greg The Bunny as like "The Larry Sanders Show meets the Muppets."
Levy plays the producer/director of Sweetknuckle Junction, the kiddie puppet show within the comedy. Off the set, the puppets, or "Fabric Americans," as Levy says they prefer to be called, continue to interact with the human characters.
The show has a 13-episode commitment for next fall. "I've got my fingers crossed," Levy says.
He also has just been nominated for a Writer's Guild Award for Best In Show, the Christopher Guest-directed comedy in which Levy and O'Hara play a couple of doting dog owners.
"It's an odd thing to be nominated for something that's a cast-improvised movie," says Levy, who worked the same make-it-up magic on Guest's Waiting For Guffman. "Really, this nomination should go to the entire cast."
Surprisingly, Best In Show was the first time Levy had worked with O'Hara since SCTV.
"The big bonus with Committed was when I heard Catherine was on board as the wife," he says.
Unfortunately, with both O'Hara and Martin living in Los Angeles, there was no mini SCTV reunion. The actors all recorded their lines separately in Toronto and Los Angeles.
"Most of the time I'm in a studio by myself, just doing my lines," says Levy, finally slipping into shtick.
"It's very, very lonely."
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