Exit 57 is a 30-minute sketch comedy series that aired on the American television channel Comedy Central from 1995 to 1996; its original timeslot was Sundays at 10:00 p.m.,[1] but was later moved to Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m.[2] The cast was composed of comedians Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Jodi Lennon, Mitch Rouse, and Amy Sedaris, all of whom had previously studied improv at The Second City in Chicago.
In 1999 Sedaris, Dinello, Colbert and Rouse also created the Comedy Central show Strangers with Candy.
The sketches all take place in a fictional setting, vaguely named Quad Cities, in reference to the real-life region between Iowa and Illinois.
[8] Jodi Lennon, who attended the Second City training center with Rouse, was asked to audition for the show.
[9][10] Colbert, Dinello, Rouse and Sedaris, called their The Second City's director, Mick Napier, to help them with the show's structure.
[10][13][14] Napier alongside, Cindy Caponera,[15] Paul Kozlowski,[13] A. Whitney Brown,[16] and David Pasquesi,[17] contributed additional material.
Comedy writer Michael O'Donoghue once wrote a sketch for the show, but it was rejected due to its violence.
[11] For the sketch "You Are Fired", Colbert based his character on Second City producer Kelly Leonard, who did not like having difficult conversations with his staff.
Soon they are picked up by a passing driver, who changes the radio station at the mention of a serial killer, and takes Polaroid pictures of his increasingly uncomfortable passengers.
In a 1995 review of the show, The Boston Phoenix, wrote: "They're big on white-trash parody and fare particularly well with character-driven comedy and dialogue —a good sign."
[1] For the same publication, Warren Berger compared the show to Saturday Night Live, "but edgier and with a Kids in the Hall bent".