News: "Second City" Comic Prepares To Make The Leap To "Saturday Night Live"

The famed Chicago comedy theater "The Second City" has been a training ground for NBC's "Saturday Night Live" for decades. A long line of comedy greats have headed east from the likes of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in the earliest days, to recent stars Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Seth Myers.

Now you can add Michael Patrick O'Brien to the list.

After a five year run at "Second City" as a writer and actor, O'Brien landed a dream job as the newest writer at "Saturday Night Live".

Legendary "Saturday Night Live" executive producer Lorne Michaels recently did a talent search at "Second City" And "Improv Olympic" and flew O'Brien and a couple others to New York for interviews.

He got the job, and even some homework. "Two commercial parodies for the first day of work", O'Brien said.

"SNL" returns to NBC with live shows beginning Saturday, September 26th.

A special half-hour prime-time edition of "Weekend Update" will join NBC's Thursday night comedies starting September 17th until "30 Rock" takes back its time slot in October.