If you're doing something on Wednesday night, and you don't want to miss the series premiere of 30 Rock, no need to fret. You can watch the entire premiere, right now, at NBC.com. I guess it's part of the big promotional push the network is making for its other show about late-night sketch TV. And, judging from what people -- including me -- have seen from the pilot, it has the raw ingredients to become a very strong show. It just isn't quite there yet.But what I don't understand is why NBC would put the pilot online a full two days before the premiere airs (Wednesday, 10/11 at 8 ET). Won't putting it online cut into its ratings a little bit, or do they think that the more people see it, the more they'll tune in the next week? It seems the "pilot preview" concept has been a mixed bag -- Heroes is doing well, Studio 60 is a disappointment, and Kidnapped is history -- so their guess is as good as ours.
By the way, Tina Fey will be conducting a live blog at the show's web site after the series premiere airs. So maybe someone can ask the question there.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-09-2006 @ 5:36PM
Robin Diane Goldstein said...
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!! Oh My Gawd... this is embarassing on so many levels i don't know where to begin... -and- i was looking forward to this... -and- i generally like tracy morgan (his cameo on Jay and Silent Bob was brilliant)... -and- i generally like tina fey's sorority girl chic/snide/too-cool-for-the-room sense of humor... -and- there were some funny lines ("it's not HBO, it's TV")
but what is the point? populate a made-up world with unrealisitc stock characters and let the comedy be damned? the best "situation comedies" work when the viewer can relate, at some level, to the 'situation... if you look at any of the classics (choose your own) a realistic premise is taken a little broad in unexpected ways and, as a result, the viewer gets to deconstruct (whether they know it or now) the world they think they understand... this -show- start with a situation that no one but the creator can relate to... and then uses every hack tv comedy trick in the book with no sense of irony... and i think the folks who created this are smarter than that... so why does a show like this get made? who knows... but let the betting begin on how quickly its pulled from the airwaves (METJ or FETJ where ETJ are Episodes Than Joey)
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10-09-2006 @ 5:40PM
BGDC said...
Wow, it wasn't horrible. I mean, it wasn't Friends or Everybody Loves Raymond bad. It had a few funny lines. Baldwin's great. Fey's miscast and her arc's obvious and painful. Morgan's so out of his element it's hard to believe anyone would put him that role.
I'd give it a 6 out of 10. There's room for much improvement but without recasting or killing off characters, the show will be almost as bad as 99% of the sloppy, moronic sitcoms on TV.
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10-09-2006 @ 6:22PM
MacGuffin said...
Wow. The pilot is REALLY bad.
It has promise, but there are wayyyyyyyyy too many SNL charactors, who I think were never that funny on that show either.
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