Wednesday, January 03, 2007
INDY, WATCH OUT FOR THE DONUT HOLE!
So, 64-year-old Harrison Ford is gearing up to don the fedora again as Indiana Jones. Hmmm, what will they call it?
ROCK MY WORLD
I'm in love. Yes, with my wife (Hi, honey! Stop spying on me!), but also with NBC's "30 Rock". Tina Fey and Lorne Michaels have produced what may be the perfect sitcom, with the one-camera, no-laugh-track feel of "Arrested Development" combined with the inside-the-business vibe of "Entourage" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm". At heart, though, "30 Rock" is a post-modern "Mary Tyler Moore Show".
Fey plays the Mary Richards role, a single woman in the city, working on a TV show (sketch comedy instead of news), exasperated at being surrounded by so many egomaniacs and imbeciles. The Lou Grant character is handled with stunning comic brilliance by Alec Baldwin. Like Mr. Grant, Baldwin's Jack Donaghy superficially regards Fey's Liz Lemon with an "I hate spunk" contempt, but secretly he roots for her, despite what he perceives to be her endless weaknesses. Baldwin plays Jack (his title: Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming) as if he's osmosed all the managerial wisdom of Jack Welch, Stephen Covey, and Sun-Tzu to become the Super-Executive, although perhaps he's also accidentally absorbed a little too much Bill O'Reilly. Filling the Ted Baxter part is Tracy Jordan, the star of Lemon's "The Girlie Show," played by another SNL alum, Tracy Morgan. Tracy is an out-of-control moron-from-the-hood, barely held together by his posse and the rest of the crew, especially the Harvard-educated Toofer (Keith Powell), his nerdy black comic foil. The Murray Slaughters in the cast are TGS staff writers Pete Hornberger, played by Scott Adsit, and Frank Rossitano, played by Judah Friedlander. Finally, Jane Krakowski plays the slutty Sue Ann Niven role of Jenna Mulroney, female lead on "The Girlie Show".
Like Mary, Liz is hopeless when it comes to men. Her on-and-off boyfriend, Dennis (Dean Winters), is a bridge-and-tunnel knucklehead who is so stuck in the 80's that he sells pagers for a living. One of the funniest scenes in the first few episodes is when Dennis, who had worked his way back into Liz's good graces after she had prepared a long list of his "Pro's and Con's", is caught by Dateline NBC's pedophile hunters. "THAT is definitely a CON!" Liz hollers at him. After temporarily dumping Dennis, Liz allows Jenna to drag her to a nightclub, where she is less than impressive. "You think she looks like Jessica Simpson?" screeches Liz at some investment bankers as she points at Jenna. "You could put a blond wig on a ferret and you would think it looked like Jessica Simpson. And besides, Jessica Simpson would think you were old and gross!" In another episode, Jack sets up Liz on a blind date with someone named Thomas, who ends up being Gretchen Thomas, a lesbian. "Do people often assume you’re a lesbian?" asks Gretchen. “I don’t know,” Liz replies. Cut to a flashback of her dikey gym teacher in middle school hugging her, saying "Don't let the other kids stop you from being who you really are," and her dentist telling her "You need to brush more, young man."
Aside from it's similarities to MTM, "30 Rock" also shines for its quirkiness. There is a running gag about Liz having a disastrous relationship with Conan O'Brien ("the tall, gawky red-head who always played the guitar," as Pete calls him), and Jack briefly dated Condoleezza Rice. "What are you wearing?" Jack coos over the phone. "Black dress, black stockings...oh, a funeral. Sorry." Kenneth (Jack McBrayer), the slightly dim-witted but always cheerful NBC page from Georgia has some classic moments as well. Sent on an errand to fetch Tracy's psych drugs, he finds the same drug store chain on all four street corners. "Frankly you were not very helpful, LaDonica," he politely tells the large, sneering black woman behind one of the wrong pharmacy counters. Later, Kenneth displays his clogging prowess to an empty Conan O'Brien studio. "You're a weird guy, Kenneth," says Conan as he leaves for the night.
At the moment, "30 Rock" seems to be fated to a shorter than deserved run. It was moved from Wednesdays to follow "My Name Is Earl", "The Office" and "Scrubs" at 9:30 pm on Thursdays, which might help, but it is still being endlessly and stupidly compared to "Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip", also on NBC and also about an SNL-type variety show. Where "30 Rock" is a 30-minute sitcom, "Studio 60" is a one-hour, Aaron Sorkin-written, multi-layered, talky dramedy, and so far very few critics seem to understand that. Here's hoping that NBC can find a home for "30 Rock", and that like the "Mary Tyler Moore Show", it's a long, long way to being taken off the air.
Fey plays the Mary Richards role, a single woman in the city, working on a TV show (sketch comedy instead of news), exasperated at being surrounded by so many egomaniacs and imbeciles. The Lou Grant character is handled with stunning comic brilliance by Alec Baldwin. Like Mr. Grant, Baldwin's Jack Donaghy superficially regards Fey's Liz Lemon with an "I hate spunk" contempt, but secretly he roots for her, despite what he perceives to be her endless weaknesses. Baldwin plays Jack (his title: Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming) as if he's osmosed all the managerial wisdom of Jack Welch, Stephen Covey, and Sun-Tzu to become the Super-Executive, although perhaps he's also accidentally absorbed a little too much Bill O'Reilly. Filling the Ted Baxter part is Tracy Jordan, the star of Lemon's "The Girlie Show," played by another SNL alum, Tracy Morgan. Tracy is an out-of-control moron-from-the-hood, barely held together by his posse and the rest of the crew, especially the Harvard-educated Toofer (Keith Powell), his nerdy black comic foil. The Murray Slaughters in the cast are TGS staff writers Pete Hornberger, played by Scott Adsit, and Frank Rossitano, played by Judah Friedlander. Finally, Jane Krakowski plays the slutty Sue Ann Niven role of Jenna Mulroney, female lead on "The Girlie Show".
Like Mary, Liz is hopeless when it comes to men. Her on-and-off boyfriend, Dennis (Dean Winters), is a bridge-and-tunnel knucklehead who is so stuck in the 80's that he sells pagers for a living. One of the funniest scenes in the first few episodes is when Dennis, who had worked his way back into Liz's good graces after she had prepared a long list of his "Pro's and Con's", is caught by Dateline NBC's pedophile hunters. "THAT is definitely a CON!" Liz hollers at him. After temporarily dumping Dennis, Liz allows Jenna to drag her to a nightclub, where she is less than impressive. "You think she looks like Jessica Simpson?" screeches Liz at some investment bankers as she points at Jenna. "You could put a blond wig on a ferret and you would think it looked like Jessica Simpson. And besides, Jessica Simpson would think you were old and gross!" In another episode, Jack sets up Liz on a blind date with someone named Thomas, who ends up being Gretchen Thomas, a lesbian. "Do people often assume you’re a lesbian?" asks Gretchen. “I don’t know,” Liz replies. Cut to a flashback of her dikey gym teacher in middle school hugging her, saying "Don't let the other kids stop you from being who you really are," and her dentist telling her "You need to brush more, young man."
Aside from it's similarities to MTM, "30 Rock" also shines for its quirkiness. There is a running gag about Liz having a disastrous relationship with Conan O'Brien ("the tall, gawky red-head who always played the guitar," as Pete calls him), and Jack briefly dated Condoleezza Rice. "What are you wearing?" Jack coos over the phone. "Black dress, black stockings...oh, a funeral. Sorry." Kenneth (Jack McBrayer), the slightly dim-witted but always cheerful NBC page from Georgia has some classic moments as well. Sent on an errand to fetch Tracy's psych drugs, he finds the same drug store chain on all four street corners. "Frankly you were not very helpful, LaDonica," he politely tells the large, sneering black woman behind one of the wrong pharmacy counters. Later, Kenneth displays his clogging prowess to an empty Conan O'Brien studio. "You're a weird guy, Kenneth," says Conan as he leaves for the night.
At the moment, "30 Rock" seems to be fated to a shorter than deserved run. It was moved from Wednesdays to follow "My Name Is Earl", "The Office" and "Scrubs" at 9:30 pm on Thursdays, which might help, but it is still being endlessly and stupidly compared to "Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip", also on NBC and also about an SNL-type variety show. Where "30 Rock" is a 30-minute sitcom, "Studio 60" is a one-hour, Aaron Sorkin-written, multi-layered, talky dramedy, and so far very few critics seem to understand that. Here's hoping that NBC can find a home for "30 Rock", and that like the "Mary Tyler Moore Show", it's a long, long way to being taken off the air.
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