30 Rock: Junior Season Slump

I don't know if this term goes beyond TV, but a lot of times, shows are referred to as having a "sophomore slump", especially when a show has a killer first season and a somewhat lackluster second season, whether it be by comparison or in absolute terms. The second seasons of Veronica Mars and LOST were relatively weaker (neither was awful, though LOST's second season is arguably its weakest, but the first seasons of both shows were incredible), while the second season of Heroes was pretty bad, and its good first season made it look all the weaker (let's not even go into the third season). 30 Rock's second season was an improvement on the first, and excepting a few post-strike episodes, the sophomore season was better than the first in nearly every way. Unfortunately, it seems that the now-completed third season is the show's slump year. The picture above epitomizes my main complaint, but there are others as well.

Guest stars galore is the best way to describe Season 3. 30 Rock has always featured some big name guest stars, and they have almost always been able to add a great deal to the show, but they have always supplemented the main cast. The story was still about Liz, Jack, Tracey, and the cast and crew of TGS. Carrie Fisher was a reflection of Liz. Matthew Broderick was a bizarre sidekick for Jack. And Eileen Strich helps explain Jack's mannerisms. This year, however, the purpose of the guest stars seemed to be to get ratings. I don't ever remember a huge marketing push for guest stars in the past, but this year, entire episodes centered around the guests. The second episode of the season, "Believe in the Stars" was entirely centered around a appearance from Oprah Winfrey (which was pretty brief), while the episode "Gavin Volure" was named after Steve Martin's character, who wasn't that funny (sorry, Steve).

Another big problem was the way the characters segregated into various factions; Liz and Jack became the focus of the episodes' A stories, while Jenna, Kenneth, and Tracey were given the B and C stories. Pete, Frank, Toofer, Cerie, Grizz, and DotCom were barely in half the episodes this year, and when they did show up, their roles were minimal at best. Part of the reason was that the role of TGS was greatly diminished this year. Instead, the show focused on Liz and Jack's relationships and the absolute craziness of Tracey, Jenna, and Kenneth.

The season was by no means awful, and there were plenty of funny episodes, but most of them were less than the sums of their parts. The best episodes were great because of various jokes, not because of the episodes themselves. This is an unfortunate departure from the previous seasons, which not only had great jokes, but the episodes transcended the jokes to become incredible wholes that satisfied for the combinations of jokes and stories. The episodes just didn't come together that well this year, nor did the recurring storylines. Jenna's story about her Janis Joplin knock-off film was relegated to B stories and didn't get mentioned nearly enough, while Liz's quest for a baby, which began in last year's finale, seemed to finish in the season premiere (which is strange, because the episode suggested that the story would run throughout the season).

Speaking of finales, I found this year's finale, "Kidney Now!" to be extremely bland. The two previous finales were both incredible, and last year's featured one of the funniest things I've ever seen (gay bomb!). This year, however, I just didn't dig it. I wasn't really that invested in the "Jack's real father" story, and I didn't like the charity joke. This year has done a lot of sitcom cliche parodies that have wandered dangerously into becoming the things they try to parody, and I didn't find the charity drive too funny. Hopefully next year will get back to form.

Up next: More lists...

The List: #10 30 Rock

#10
Number of Seasons (To Date): 2
Years Active: 2006 - Present
Network: NBC

30 Rock is probably the funniest show in production. Starring, created and produced by Tina Fey, the show is a semi-autobiographical portrayal of her time as head writer of Saturday Night Live. The "semi" part of that sentence is very important because of all the surreal humor and characters present in the series (or at least, I hope that these characters and situations are fictionalized).

Tina Fey is always funny; though she is usually the straight (wo)man of the series, but there have been a fair share of situations wherein she is just as crazy as those around her. But even at her craziest, the employees at 30 Rockefeller Center still make her look sane. The most outwardly crazy is newcomer Tracy Jordan (played by Tracy Morgan), a former movie star who is known for extremely erratic behavior (he ran down the freeway in tightie whities yelling, "I am a jedi!") and dropping "truth bombs".

The entire cast is hilarious in their insanity, whether it be Jenna Maroney's prima donna aspiring star or Jack Donaghy's (played incredibly by Alec Baldwin) controlling nature. Of course, funny actors aren't enough if the plots are crap, and they certainly aren't on 30 Rock. Combining traditional sitcom elements with the show's off-beat nature, the characters have to put up with a lot of insanely funny situations, ranging from Tracy designing a porn video game to Jack's cruel mother trying to undermine the loving nature of Liz Lemon's family.

Up next: #9...

30 Rock: Writing In Style

In addition to the great cast, headed by Tina Fey, 30 Rock is graced with a talented group of writers, headed by Tina Fey. Fey and her writers expertly create situations of highbrow comedy, melodrama, clever wordplay, and downright silliness that raises the show to levels of humor paralleled only by the likes of Arrested Development and a select few other shows. In what other show are we going to hear a word like "Churchillian" (an adjective form of Churchill) being applied to a ragtag baseball team from the wrong side of the tracks?

Some of the best and wackiest gags are cutaway scenes, sort of similar to those found on Family Guy. However, unlike the bits on FG, the ones used on 30 Rock are actually funny (ok, I have a bias against Family Guy; I will try not to descend into a rant) because the cutaways are either relevant to the plot and/or do not exceed 30 seconds in length. Furthermore, the events of the cutaways become canon, rather than being impossible events used for a cheap and quick laugh (sorry, I will calm down). For example, the Werewolf Bar Mitzvah music video was cut to when Tracy found the gold record among a pile of stuff. Later in the series, we heard the song at a party. Another great cutaway is this one (setup- Liz and Pete are discussing Tracy's upcoming appearance on the Conan O'Brien Show, and Pete reminisces about Tracy's previous appearance):



Genius.

The drama on the show is also a great source of humor. Or I guess I should refer to it as the continuing plot threads, since the show is never too dramatic (Freaks and Geeks and Scrubs, on the other hand, have actual drama mixed in with comedy). But Liz and Jack's respective searches for love are incredible. Liz's various failures early in the first season are reminiscent of classic sitcoms, wherein the relationship ends within the course of the episode for various reasons, including but not limited to one love interest being related to her (distantly), and the other being a lesbian (oh that Jack...). However, she does have a few long term relationship arcs that span a few episodes. The funniest (though at times annoying) one so far is Dennis, a man who she had dated before the series began (and was something of a cautionary tale), and suddenly reappears in Liz's life, causing Liz and Jenna quite a few headaches. Dennis is the last beeper salesman in Manhattan, is obsessed with hockey, and a bit racist. However, he always seems to find a way to keep his hold on Liz's heart (it usually involves food).

Jack, meanwhile, for all of his remarks about Liz's inability to hold down a man, doesn't seem to have much luck himself. Throughout the first season, he has a string of high-profile girlfriends who the audience never sees (these include Condelezza Rice, Beyonce Knowles, and Maureen Dowd). He is also in the process of divorcing his wife, Bianca, played by Isabella Rossellini (who has a line that may only be funny because she says it; they co-own an Arby's franchise, and when Jack demands that he retain it in the divorce, she exclaims, "Dammit Johnny, you know I love my big beef 'n' cheddar!"). His two on-screen relationships don't go so well; the first turns out to be a gold digger, while the second is a member of an organization Jack detests: the Democratic Party.

Some of the best stuff, though, is the self-referential humor. Like Arrested Development (if you couldn't tell, AD is more than just a show for me, it's a way of life... or not), there are some jokes that make light of behind-the-scenes events, and with an NBC show about the behind-the-scenes events of an NBC show, the possibilities are endless. The best example is the Snapple gag I referenced in the previous post. I don't want to give it away, but let's just say it has to do with product placement on shows (two shows I love, 24 and Heroes, have almost laughable levels of placement; possibly the best example was on Heroes when Claire Bennett excitedly yelled, "I get the Rogue?!" when her dad gave her a new car for no reason at all; what the hell is a Rogue?!). Another good example is when Tracy Morgan was forced to wear an ankle monitor, and soon after, Tracy Jordan shows up to the set of TGS sporting a brand new monitor. Finally, as part of NBC's "Green Week", wherein every prime time show had to have some sort of pro-environmental message, the crew of 30 Rock were able to get Al Freakin' Gore to show up and deliver a speech sending that idea up (personally, I thought that 30 Rock did the best job with this mandate; it was the only show that I saw that was able to stay true to itself while seamlessly integrating the message into the story).

Sadly, 30 Rock isn't nearly as popular as it should be. Like Arrested Development, the critics love the show, and it has a very devoted fan base, but said base is rather small (another similarity is that both shows won the Outstanding Comedy Emmy for their first seasons). I think that it has been doing better this year, but I'm not sure. If you've never seen this show, you have no idea what you've been missing.

Up next: It's going to be epic...

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...