Tina Fey Might Have Canceled ‘The Other Two’ Before Max Did
Tina Fey says that Lorne Michaels’ writers rooms created an “army of monsters” – a phrase which sounds suspiciously like a scrapped Coneheads parody starring Tracy Jordan.
The beloved cult comedy The Other Two released its final episode today, as the series about the absurdity and insecurity rampant in the entertainment industry abruptly bids farewell after three seasons on Max. The announcement that today’s episode would be the last in the series came just yesterday, leaving fans flabbergasted and confused at the unexpected Irish Goodbye. Within minutes of the announcement, rumors began to leak of a toxic work environment behind the scenes of The Other Two caused by the show’s creators, former Saturday Night Live co-head writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider.
Don't Miss
Seemingly out of nowhere, the unexpected send-off for a show beloved by industry insiders is now overshadowed by reports of multiple staff complaints about Kelly and Schneider, as well as the revelation that the two were, at one point, barred from appearing on the show’s set while the studio conducted a formal investigation into their behavior. Well, much like Milf Manor and Herschel Walker’s entire senate campaign, we have to give credit where credit is due – Tina Fey called it.
“Nobody indulges writers like Lorne Michaels” Fey teased during her acceptance speech at the PEN America Literary Awards this past March, where she was honored with the Mike Nichols Writing for Performance Award. “SNL is the only job in television where you are allowed to write whatever you want every week. Literally no one ever tells you ‘no,’ and you get your check no matter what.”
She continued, “And I think we can see that after 47 seasons of this, we can admit that it’s a mistake. Lorne, you have unleashed an army of monsters into the world.” Then, she delivered a jab at her fellow former head writers that wouldn’t properly land for another three months, saying to her old boss, “You know it, I know it, and the crew of The Other Two knows it – oh I was supposed to change that. I was supposed to change that. That’s inappropriate. Oh well, it’s not livestreaming.”
This is far from the first time Fey has called out bad behavior within the industry long before the scandal properly broke – Fey continuously called out Bill Cosby on both SNL and 30 Rock for years before the #MeToo movement very briefly brought him down. Obviously, the allegations against Kelly and Schneider are nowhere near as serious, but many outlets including The Hollywood Reporter are now publishing behind-the-scenes stories from writers and crewmembers on The Other Two that paint Kelly as an abusive and unreasonably demanding boss who was continuously enabled by his creative partner Schneider.
Worth noting is the fact that, following the aforementioned investigation in which Kelly and Schneider were banned from their own set, the studio formally cleared both creators of wrongdoing and allowed them to return – however, one source quoted in The Hollywood Reporter’s story said ominously, “Other writers tell stories about The Other Two writers’ rooms like other people tell ghost stories.”
In just two short seasons when Lorne Michaels retires, we're expecting a very, very large campfire to accommodate all the SNL and Broadway Video horror story tellers.
