Why I ♥ 30 Rock

Posted by Kyle October 27th, 2006 at 03:59pm In 30 Rock SNL

The excellence of the third episode of 30 Rock has been alluded to in other posts this week, but I thought it deserved its own special post, written by me. As some of you may remember I was at the taping of the pilot in March. I watched the pilot closely, but I did not make an appearance on my 27″ TV. If I see it in HD maybe I’ll be able to make out my head in the crowd. I’ve been looking forward to this show for a long time. If Tina Fey was going let SNL escape her iron grip, she had better make it worth my while. Especially since SNL has sucked hard this season. I’ve been watching SNL fairly consistently since I was 13 and I don’t remember a time when the show has been considered “good this year,” even if people later looked back on the episodes with fondness. Maggie once said “It has the singular ability to appear as if were in a state of constant decline” which is the greatest description I’ve ever seen of the hate/hate relationship my fellow SNL-watchers have with the show. I’ve liked it through some pretty low times, but it looks like Tina’s absence is hitting the show hard. I also think the new director is a problem. The show will get better, but it’s hard to imagine it will get worse than the John C. Reilly episode (my nomination for worst of the past 10 years: Robert DeNiro episode).

Anyway, our beloved Tina has moved on. And I was worried. Remember when Andy Richter left Conan to seek his fortune and then Fox canceled his show? That was sad. Andy will be back mid-season with Andy Barker, P.I., but for a while it looked like he gave up something pretty good only to get the rug pulled out from under him. And the first two episodes of 30 Rock didn’t live up to the hype. Alec Baldwin stole the show, because that’s what Alec Baldwin does. But if he hadn’t been around, the show would have been pretty lifeless.

Then came the third episode. Liz finally had a great storyline. Jack set her up on a date and neglected to mention it was with a woman. It was a good twist on the emerging pattern of Alec Baldwin always being right. He was right that they were perfect for each other, except for the small problem that Liz isn’t gay. It was smart and dealt with Tina’s themes of insecurity in a more self-deprecating than self-bashing way. In the first few episodes you had to wonder how Tina got anything done since everyone hated her and she was worse at her job than the guy who invented the GE Trivection Oven.

The other standout—and the character that makes the show click for me—is Jack McBrayer, as Kenneth Ellen the NBC page. I saw Jack at the UCB theater a few years ago, and he was a young, pretty funny improv comic. I remembered him mostly for his southern accent. But on 30 Rock he’s going up against Alec Baldwin and winning more than just poker. Baldwin got the brilliant last word “In 10 years we’ll all either be working for him… or dead by his hand” but McBrayer made himself a star this week.

And now let’s talk a little about that other show. You know the one I’m talking about. The one that keeps showing too much of the sketches. The extent of the “show” on 30 Rock this week was a fight about the number of bear costumes Judah Friedlander could use in his Robot vs. Bears sketch. I hope Aaron Sorkin is watching the show too. He could learn something about economy.