Scenes from a 1995 TV pilot starring Del Close, Amy Poehler and Matt Dwyer: RVTV

Before Parks and Recreation, before SNL, before the Upright Citizens Brigade set up shop in New York City, Amy Poehler was a fresh-faced college grad studying with the rogue improv mastermind Del Close and performing with The Second City.

In 1995, Poehler and Close starred together in a pilot called RVTV, along with fellow Second City performer Matt Dwyer.

The Second City archives unearthed these scenes from the previously unreleased pilot earlier this week.

Dwyer, who now hosts the podcast, “Conversations with Matt Dwyer,” on the Feral Audio podcast network, told Splitsider (which then showed up as an addendum in The Second City’s YouTube description), “I honestly do not recall where the concept came from. I know it was written by Adam McKay and Tom Gianas, who both went on to write for SNL and of course film and TV. Tom co-directed it. We shot it for a week up in Toronto.

“Also, Del improvised constantly and was throwing in tributes to old greats like his Ken Nordine. I think Amy and I may have improvised less, but as with any group of improvisors working together, improvisation is going to happen. Del was constantly throwing in references to Lenny Bruce and the others of that era. The target audience for that show probably would have no idea who he was talking about, but I personally loved it. It was a a great deal of fun and I remember both Amy and I were thrilled to be working with Del. Del was an icon to all of us.”

Roll the clip!

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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