In anticipation of tonight’s double-episode Key and Peele series finale, writer and co-executive producer Jay Martel wrote a piece for The New Yorker called “So Long, L’Carpetron: A Farewell to Key & Peele†that’s a great look back on the show’s evolution – both on television and the internet – through the eyes of one of its showrunners. Here’s an excerpt:
What I loved was watching the germ of an idea, discussed while waiting for the bathroom, turn into a gorgeously shot and hilarious sketch. I loved working with our writers, our production crew, our director, Peter Atencio, and our editors, who brought their own unique personalities to bear on the material. In every phase of the process, there were opportunities to turn an average sketch into a great one (and also to do the opposite, but I’m deluded enough to believe that I never engaged in that kind of reverse alchemy). Witnessing that transformation never got old. I also never got tired of arriving on the set to discover Jordan and Keegan, virtually unrecognizable in applied facial hair and wardrobe, instilling life into characters that, until then, I had known only on the page.
Read the rest over at The New Yorker, and be sure to watch the big Key and Peele finale on Comedy Central tonight at 10:00pm.