30 Rock: The Writers' Room

I don't know why I resisted watching this show for so long. It was created by and starred Tina Fey, who always made me laugh on Saturday Night Live, even when the rest of the show was shit, and wrote and co-starred in the incredible Mean Girls (I know that there are a few of you out there who refuse to see it because it was marketed as a tweener comedy, but it's not [it had to be rewritten to escape an R rating]). Also, it wasn't out of my way to watch, since Scrubs and The Office aired on the same night and same channel. I think the first real exposure to the show I had was a short scene in the episode "Fireworks", which guest-starred Will Arnett. As you may remember from my posts about Arrested Development, Arnett played GOB, my favorite character. Arnett is a great comedic actor, but he sadly has gotten some pretty terrible roles (Let's Go To Prison, Blades of Glory) since finishing up AD, so it warmed my heart to see him funny again (bonus: the scene I saw him in had him playing opposite Kenneth, who is played by Jack McBrayer, who had a few scenes with Arnett on Arrested). Finally, convinced by a few of my friends who are responsible for me watching Arrested Development, Battlestar Galactica (the new one!), and The Venture Bros., I watched the season two premiere. Since then, I've been hooked.

Tina Fey plays Liz Lemon, the head writer of The Girlie Show, a live sketch comedy show on NBC (hmm..., sounds like her real-life role as head writer of SNL). The star of the show, Jenna, is Liz's best friend and former partner from their days in Chicago's Second City (sort of like Fey and Rachel Dratch, who was originally going to play Jenna). Jenna can be a bit of a handful, but with the help of her producer and friend Pete, the show is doing fine. Life is good (enough).

Then came Jack Donaghy. Jack is a high-ranking GE exec who is known for his work with microwave ovens. Believing that his extensive market research (he is able to thoroughly and accurately assess Liz minutes after meeting her) enables him to do well working with people on NBC, he becomes Liz's new boss. His first "suggestion" to improve ratings for The Girlie Show (which has a nearly all-female audience) is to bring on Tracy Jordan (who is played by SNL alum Tracy Morgan, and like Liz Lemon, may not be too different from the actor portraying him), a movie star famous for making really bad movies and being batshit crazy. Liz is against the idea, but concedes when Jack tells her that the decision to bring Tracy on. However, due to a series of events caused by Jack, Liz has almost no choice but to use Tracy in a sketch that is failing; Jenna is not on her game after being rattled by Jack, Pete has been fired, and the "feline actor" selected by Jack for the sketch is untamed. Tracy uses the opportunity to exclaim that he'll be coming into American homes every week.

From there, the show mainly follows the behind-the-scenes activities of the show, which is renamed TGS With Tracy Jordan. However, the characters' personal lives, most notably Liz and Jack, are also examined. In the writers' room, Liz deals with her strange staff, which includes Frank, a goof-off with a childish sense of humor, and Toofer, a prim and proper Harvard grad who is a "two-for-one" (hence Toofer) due to being a black Harvard grad. Jack's meddling, which starts off slightly villainous, but quickly becomes good-intentioned but poorly executed, also is responsible for a lot of stress in Liz's life. But her most constant sources of trouble are Tracy and Jenna. Tracy isn't just a few cards short of a full deck, he's playing with an alien set of cards. He needs a bizarre mix of medications prescribed by Dr. Spaceman (yes, that is the man's name), or he sees a creepy "Blue Dude" everywhere. He demands random things ("Where are the French fries I didn't order?!"), and completely upstages the insecure Jenna. Speaking of whom, even though Jenna may not be clinically insane, she does have some mental issues, which often cause extra trouble for Liz. In trying to keep both stars happy, Liz often has to lie to one about the other, whether it be to appease Tracy's conspiracy theories, or to reassure Jenna's ego.

Jack, meanwhile, has to deal with the higher-ups at GE when he isn't working with Liz and her crew. Played by Alec Baldwin, Jack steals most of his scenes. He is a man who gets off on business (his own words), frequently uses back-handed compliments (many of which are intentional), and is an uber-Republican. I don't know how much of the current character of Jack was ad-libbed and influenced by Baldwin, since in the early episodes, he was much more villainous, but I love what Baldwin does with his character. We love and hate Jack for pretty much the same reasons. We know that his suggestions can go either way with the show (some things he's mandated due to business reasons work out, while others fall flat), but we can't wait to see what he comes up with next. I was a big fan of the pos-mens, myself, since it led to the Snapple gag. Also, Baldwin's delivery can make pretty much any line funny.

And then there's Kenneth. Kenneth is responsible for most of the wacky humor on the show, the gags that seem to have nothing to do with the rest of the episode (see his scene at the end of "Tracy Does Conan", or his scene talking to his mother in Season 1). Kenneth is an NBC page who grew up as a poor farm boy from Georgia. A hopeless idealist, Kenneth cheerfully puts up with all of the crap the crew of TGS gives him because of his pure believe in TV as the one great American art form. He sort of becomes Tracy's errand boy and understudy, even though he doesn't understand half of the things Tracy requests of him or tells him.

These characters, along with the large cast of supporting players (I haven't even mentioned Josh, Grizz, Dotcom, Cerie, or Don Geiss) bring all of the crazy situations to life and keep us coming back every week. However, the style of the show is also an important factor in its popularity.

Before I conclude this post, I want to post this picture, since it reminds me a little of Jenna's Maxim shoot in "Hardball" (and because Tina Fey is so good-looking):

Up next: The writers behind the writers...