Late Night with Seth Meyers introduced a new segment last night called “Second Chance Theatre” that gives sketches cut from Saturday Night Live another shot. The premiere sketch was “Jennjamin Franklin,” a sketch Will Forte tried for years to get on SNL. Take a look.
Meyers is the newest addition to the late night talk show lineup, and it seems like it’s taking a while for his show to find its footing. “Second Chance Theatre” is a great addition to the show and something I’ve been looking forward to for a while. I’m not really sold on “Jennjamin Franklin” as a sketch, but having the opportunity to see sketches that almost made it to SNL is the reason to watch Late Night that I think the show’s been missing.
Forte had previously talked about Jennjamin Franklin on episode 455 of The Nerdist Podcast. (If you don’t feel like listening to whole 80-minute episode, skip ahead to the 35 minute mark.) He told host Chris Hardwick that he tried repeatedly to get the sketch onto the show, which is unusual since most sketches only get one chance to be pitched, sometimes two.
The episode of the podcast went up back in December, and Forte said that he and Meyers already had plans to talk about the sketch and to have it performed on Late Night if Forte ever appeared on the show. That’s exactly what happened. Forte and Meyers sat down for an interview before the sketch aired.
There’s clearly some disagreement between them over the quality of the sketch, and I think I’m pretty firmly in agreement with Meyers that it needs work. Still though, I’m really interested to see this segment continue.
[Update] NBC also released this extended discussion about the sketch after it was performed.
(via Late Night with Seth Meyers)
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