In Cindy McCreery’s writers’ room class, Moody College of Communication radio-television-film (RTF) students have an opportunity to experience the realities of a television writers' room. Upon registering for the class, they only know they’ll be honing their abilities as writers - the genre is a surprise for the first day of class.

“I started the class in 2012,” McCreery said. “It was only for graduate students then, this is the first year I’ve done it for undergraduates, and each year we do something different.”

This semester, students were delighted, but also somewhat apprehensive, to learn they’d be writing sketch comedy in the style of "Saturday Night Live".

“Because of the 'SNL' archive here at the Harry Ransom Center and my involvement in that and having access to those scripts, it seemed like a really good practical opportunity for every student to make something,” McCreery continued.  

McCreery's class wouldn’t just be writing this semester though. They’d also shoot a full Moody College edition of the late-night staple with the help of students in RTF Assistant Professor of Practice, David Schneider’s production class, creating a full episode called “RTF Live!”

“The thing is, it's always scary to admit that you want to go into comedy because it's so hard to do,” said Tanvi Rudraraju, a junior RTF major who’s minoring in professional sales and business development. “But I've always been told I should do comedy and I've always, in my heart, wanted to do comedy because that's the type of genre I lean into. Plus, I signed up because of Cindy. Why wouldn't you want to take a class with her?”

To kick off the semester, McCreery took the class to the Harry Ransom Center (HRC) for an up-close look at The Lorne Michaels Collection. Jenny Romero, the Center’s Robert De Niro curator of film, showed the class a variety of unseen "SNL" footage, from Kate McKinnon and Bowen Yang’s audition tapes to “Weekend Update” rehearsals where the cast pauses between read-throughs to discuss what jokes are landing and which aren’t.

Soon, students realized their class would function in a similar manner, especially during table reads with one another.

“At first, everyone was testing the waters, but I think now we're more comfortable with each other,” Rudraraju said. “I think everyone’s presence makes all the difference. The more people working on a project like this, the better it gets. My first drafts are horrible, but because of other people's input, you get more comfortable about your choices.”

This was precisely what McCreery hoped students would take from the experience.

“The class really isn’t about the sketch writing,” McCreery said. “The whole point is to learn how to work in a room, to be collaborative and to make something as a collective. In other workshops, the point may be to write your own thing, it’s yours, you get feedback on it and decide how you want to address the notes but, in this class, it’s a collective effort and everyone pitches in. In all the years I’ve done this class, I’ve never had a semester where every single student was so into the idea.”

Back at the HRC, students had a behind-the-scenes look at the controlled chaos that is the show’s control room. Later, students viewed scripts and the infamous and colorful note cards that feature the names of the night’s sketches, which, naturally, the class would also have.

Suzannah Wells, a junior RTF major, says that the behind-the-scenes visit to the HRC was inspiring and that she appreciated seeing how the show comes together and how the team makes each live episode happen. She recognizes what a unique opportunity it is to draw inspiration straight from the source.

“There’s no other way this would have happened,” she said. “It’s so much fun to have been thrown into a whole production and being able to get these opportunities strictly through my class.”

During typical class days, students would read one another’s sketches aloud and provide feedback, building on the original concepts. These readings gave some the opportunity to act, solidifying their spots on the show's cast. Though they weren't anticipating it, Rudraraju and Wells ended up being players in many scenes and the anchors of “Midweek Update,” the student show’s take on “Weekend Update.”

“I was in theater in middle school and high school, so I missed acting,” Wells said. “We're working on the production side of it, writing, drafting and redoing stuff, but now I'm acting in almost every sketch.”

Rudraraju laughs at the fact that the two of them unintentionally landed so much screen time.

“It’s probably going to be super annoying for everyone to watch us in everything but it’s fun to just goof off and have a good time," Rudraraju said. "She’s the Amy Poehler to my Tina Fey."

While guest speakers are common in many Moody College classes, it’s not common for a comedy legend like Jim Downey to drop by. Downey wrote many of the most notable "SNL" sketches through the years, including “More Cowbell”, multiple political-themed sketches, and was instrumental as a “Weekend Update” writer during Norm Macdonald’s era.

Following an event at the HRC, Downey stopped into the class to tell stories of working with "SNL" greats through the years and listen to student ideas.

“He would start to tell us about a sketch he made and then say, ‘it’s easier if I show it to you,’ and then we’d just watch it on YouTube,” Asher Rigo, a senior who’s double majoring in RTF and psychology, said. “I’ve never been more engaged listening to a person than I was just sitting there and being glued to Jim Downey. I snuck a couple of photos to show my dad because we used to stay up on Saturday nights to watch the show.”

Wells agreed that the opportunity to hear from Downey was once-in-a-lifetime.

“We weren’t sure he was actually going to come but then he sat there in our three-hour class and listened to all our pitches,” Wells continued. “It was so insane and I don’t know if I’d ever get that opportunity anywhere else. I just felt so much pride in our work after that.”

Though the writing process took most of the semester, filming the sketches, the digital shorts and the commercial parodies took many hours and a few late nights.

“It's not often that you get to do all these steps in one class,” Rigo said. “Most classes have one step, so maybe you work on production in one, or you work on pre or post-production in another, or maybe you make one film and that's the entire thing. But to write so much and then oversee the making of the sketches and to have the two classes come together to do that, it's double the collaboration, and it’s twice as cool!”

McCreery says that the show, or the class, would not have worked without the help of Schneider and his students.

"I don’t think this collaboration would have been as successful without David’s guidance and his student’s dedication to the project," McCreery said. "David is a huge fan of 'SNL' and he, and his students, were so enthusiastic right from the start."

Together, the classes made sets come to life, constructing some from scratch and using others that are already complete, like the “Reporting Texas TV” news desk for “Midweek Update.” They even had their own in-studio audience.

“I went in and met with the production class at the very beginning of the semester,” McCreery said. “David and I tried to make it clear to everyone in both classes that their work doesn’t have to be perfect and that there are no bad ideas. This is all about having fun, learning and finishing the final project.”

McCreery says that each student in the class was able to have one of their ideas or sketches featured in the final show. Jokes ranged from those poking fun at the ordering experience at Dutch Bros Coffee (inspired by Wells' day job, called "German Sisters" in the show) to "Misfortune Cookies," a sketch Rigo says he wrote in high school. Students said that writing comedy, and bouncing ideas off one another, made them better writers overall.

“I think we got really lucky with this group of people,” Rudraraju said. “I think people here are just super nice, they’re really supportive but they’re honest with you so even if one of your jokes gets cut, you understand that it’s for the betterment of the entire sketch.”

Though some are nervous to see themselves in the episode, and they all hope the show gets laughs, they each took away a better understanding of what it’s really like working in a writers’ room.

“I wanted them to try and fail and to keep working together,” McCreery said, “In a real writers’ room, you have to put yourselves out there. You might not feel like this is your thing but these students were so great.”

“RTF Live!”, though not technically live, premiered to a full house, and plenty of laughs, on Thursday, April 30 in CMB studio 6B as part of the Spring 2026 End-of-Semester Screenings.