Obviously, my answer is a resounding yes. First off, I hate television. Secondly, I love television. And finally, I hate that I love television which makes this show the end-all and be-all for people like me. 30 Rock is a crowning achievement in a world of mediocre comedies and reality shows that don’t seem so real. For the first time in a long time, I laugh for almost an entire half-hour at something that isn’t a cartoon. The concept is fairly simple: it’s a television show about making a television show at NBC Universal. Doesn’t seem very complicated on its face; but the consistently over-the-top humor takes necessary jabs at the ways television rots our souls and minds — from the writer’s desk through the ivory executive towers.
I haven’t cared for Saturday Night Live in many, many years. However, I always enjoyed Tina Fey. As Liz Lemon, the hard-driving producer/director of a weekly comedy show, she proves herself as a writer, an actor, and a cheerleader against the evil empire which, ironically, pays the salaries of the actors on the show. The phenomenal ensemble cast, which includes fellow SNL alumnus Tracy Morgan, “Ally McBeal” regular Jane Krakowski, Scott Adsit and pre-eminent character actor Judah Friedlander, the show takes the green room to the people and exorcises the demons of backstage drama and politics. Particularly amazing is Golden Globe-winner Alec Baldwin whose sardonic turn as network executive Jack Donaghy never misses a beat as he delivers the funny — frequently doing so with the help of his foil cum sidearm Jack McBrayer as sexually-ambiguous NBC page Kenneth.
The formula has yielded 24 half-hour episodes that are without a doubt the funniest thing the network has seen since Seinfeld. Every episode pushes the envelope without reveling in playground humor. Not that the show doesn’t go there; but when it does, it only adds to the consistency of the show. It takes the deep ambitions and desires of show business people to make the best show possible and turns the gun on them all, leaving no one unwounded.
This is the show of my dreams.
Perhaps the following monologue from the show best explains what makes it a unique and beautiful snowflake in a hail storm of nonsense. “Do you know why I put up with this job, Mr. Donaghy?” asks Kenneth, the omnipresent page boy of his doting boss. “Why I fetch these folks lunches and clean up their barfs? Because THEY make television. It’s more than jazz or musical theater or morbid obesity. Television is the true American art form. Think of all the shared experiences television has provided for us….from the moon landing to the Golden Girls finale. From Walter Cronkite denouncing Vietnam to Oprah pulling that trash bag of fat out in the wagon. From the glory and the pageantry of the Summer Olympics, to the less-fun Winter Olympics….I am living my dream.”
Fortunately for the world, NBC Universal has picked up 30 Rock for a second season so that we can have the shared experience of laughing out loud at the people who create the thing we all love to hate so much.
30 Rock comes on Thursday nights at 9:30/8:30c on NBC. Click here for more information about the show.
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