IU Student Television's late night comedy talk show, "Not Too Late", announced that the host, junior Tucker Scanlon, was fired and the show would be canceled at the end of last season, but IUSTV's Twitter account announced Aug. 21 that the show would return.
The tweet didn’t seem to make much sense.
But Scanlon wasn’t really fired, and “Not Too Late” was never actually canceled.
Scanlon plays a fictionalized version of himself on air. The first season focused on Scanlon’s character’s rude and abrasive personality leading to his downfall. In the first season finale, the character was fired for demanding cash offerings from the crew and IUSTV “canceled” the show.
Scanlon said the second season was supposed to be a secret, but due to a mix up in communication, the tweet was sent out.
“People probably figured that it getting canceled was faked because of how cinematic it was,” Scanlon said.
The show, which is a mix between talk show and absurdist comedy, blends real interviews with a fictional story arch featuring characters such as Scanlon and some crew members. Viewers can watch new and old episodes for free on IUSTV’s Youtube channel.
“Not Too Late” was created by Scanlon, a production major with a specialization is screenwriting and post-production. The show has a typical talk show format with comedic segments and interviews with special guests.
Scanlon said guests are often not aware of what will happen in a given interview, a nod to the absurdist comedy talk show “The Eric Andre Show.” His other influences are “Saturday Night Live” and comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
Scanlon said he has already planned overarching storylines for the entire run of the show in a document that no one else has seen. He wants the show’s overall story to be a surprise even to the people working on it.
“Every episode is connected in different ways that you have to watch closely to pick up that will eventually be revealed in the finale,” Scanlon said.
Bryce Reif, IUSTV’s creative content co-director, said the second season will begin with Scanlon’s character producing episodes out of his basement with his roommates as crew members. Through a turn of events, Scanlon and the original crew reunite and realize how much they really need each other.
“The theme of this season is friendship and redemption,” Reif said.
Just because the show will eventually be going back to the studio setting does not mean it plans to stay there. Reif said the show will be experimenting with filming in different locations outside of the studio in its second season, like at the IU Dance Marathon.
One of the biggest changes to the show is the addition of a live audience. Patrick Dieterlen, another creative content co-director, said adding an audience will present some production challenges such as setting up seating and navigating equipment, but will ultimately benefit the show.
“I think having a live audience would definitely change the atmosphere of the show for the better,” Dieterlen said.
Dieterlen said he would love to get more diverse group of guests for the second season, including athletes and students from other organizations. He said he wants to get more professors on the show as well, especially after last season’s interview with Media School professor Steve Krahnke, who participated in a segment called “Be-Rate My Professor”.
“I think that it’s a really fun segment,” Dieterlen said. “Not a lot of students see their professors outside of class. Krahnke’s the only guest we had to censor on the show.”
The show campaigned last season to get actor Jesse Eisenberg to make an appearance.
“We’re gonna continue that until after we graduate,” Dieterlen said. “Or until we get him on the show.”
Scanlon said he is excited for the opportunity to refine his writing style during the second season. He would eventually like to write and perform comedy as a career.
“I'd wanted to write for such a long time, but then I didn’t start writing until the summer after my freshman year,” Scanlon said. “Since then, I just caught the writing bug. I write everything I can.”
