It's karaoke night on NBC! After The Office's hilarious round of pop send-ups, Liz Lemon sang her break-up blues away with a drunken rendition of Janis Ian's "At 17." Karaoke - always funny - as are Chris Hansen jokes, diversity training scenes and Alec Baldwin.With 30 Rock getting a full-season pick-up and a handful of WGA and Golden Globe nominations, TV Squad could ignore it no longer. Alec Baldwin is the obvious reason to show up to the party, but it looks like things are finally coming together for Tina Fey and her crew. Now that we're seeing a little more of Liz Lemon's home life, the show is taking on a Mary Tyler Moore feel - except this Mary is hopelessly flawed in ways that I find completely identifiable. God bless her.
Liz and Jack dealt with floundering romantic relationships this week while Tracy and Toofer worked out their Uncle Tom vs. Bamboozled Brother issues. A move of complete and utter brilliance on the writers' part - having Jack secretly date Condi Rice. Unfortunately, she just doesn't have time for Jack and is way too into fantasy role-playing. Jack draws the line at "Abu Ghraib." Damn.
While Baldwin always knocks the ball out of the park on the acting front, the best material this week belonged to Tracy and Toofer. This episode had to have been written weeks before the Michael Richards incident, but it couldn't have been more timely. Toofer files a complaint against Tracy for using the "N-word," but Tracy gets off the hook because he meant it in a brother-to-brother, term of endearment kinda way. Then, Toofer drops the "N-bomb," but in his "white black man" English, it just sounds wrong so Tracy files a complaint against him. This, of course, becomes a sketch the two of them decide to write together. The show does have a tendency to telegraph its punchlines, but it was nice to have the two men's differences resolved by finding the funny in a Star Jones/excessive vomiting sketch.
Jane Krakowski's comic timing was impeccable as usual, but it would be nice to see her character get a tad more three-dimensional. I don't know how, but there are theoretically only so many times she can get a laugh by sticking her ass out or unzipping her top. Rachel Dratch is, in my mind, always wasted in her weekly walk-on, but hey, you can't have it all. You've got Alec Baldwin in a career-defining role. The writing's top-notch, and the whole operation is finally jelling. What more could you want? A Land of the Lost sleestack pankcake house joke? Done. Slee's Stacks.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-15-2006 @ 7:34AM
Aaron said...
The Beeper King is the my favorite character on television right now. He's hilarious. I hope he's still going to be on the show, because he's the best part. (You didn't mention him once.)
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12-15-2006 @ 9:14AM
rkolsen said...
Did you miss the Dateline part where the Beeper King was on To Catch a Predator. That was the best part.
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12-22-2006 @ 11:46AM
robert said...
"she said she was 16 but i could tell she was 22"
that was so funny in all the wrong ways.
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12-15-2006 @ 10:40AM
rob said...
It's official, 30 Rock is now the funniest non-animated show on TV right now. I love the no laugh track. Baldwin is killer. Supporting cast, with the exception of Krakowski, all good. I'm not sure why Krakowski rubs me the wrong way. She's either mis-cast, or badly written, or both. We need more intelligent comedies like this. Earl is up there, but it is dangerously close to self-parody now.
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12-15-2006 @ 11:27AM
Guffin GacGuffin said...
Tina Fey must have a thing for Janis Ian - she used the name in "Mean Girls."
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12-15-2006 @ 11:55AM
TomB said...
I love the Beeper King character too. He's so clueless that no one uses beepers anymore. It's funny when you see Tina Fey running around with one on her skirt's waistband.
Tina in the bar talking to various men was great. When she finally found someone she liked, he kissed another guy and she missed it. I liked it when Krakowski led her out of the bar and told her that bars closed at 11:30 in NY.
Showing the Beeper King on Dateline's To Catch A Predator was awesome. Was that the real Dateline guy?
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12-15-2006 @ 11:45AM
SJ said...
This show has sharp writing. I loved the Toofer/Tracy storyline.
Tracy: "We speak different languages!"
Toofer: "Yeah I speak English!"
I lost it when Tracy decided to file a complaint against Toofer.
Krakowski's character is definitely a weak link, and Rachel Dratch's character was better this weak but is distracting (I always go, "there she is!"). The beeper king is great too:
To Jack: "The thing about 20 year olds is that half of them are 16."
(Later) to Liz: "She said she was 16 but I swear she looked 20!"
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12-15-2006 @ 12:29PM
Amy said...
That was the real Dateline guy - Chris Hanson. The Beeper King being on Dateline was the laugh out loud moment of the show, and I'm glad to see Tina Fey looking more comfortable in her role.
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12-15-2006 @ 7:56PM
Paul said...
My favorite part was when the beeper king came in with his prepared letter to liz. I'm paraphrasing here, but it went something like, "When I saw you getting ready to go out and do a bunch of guys, I realized it was really over and I started to cry....like a big dumb homo." Too funny.
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12-15-2006 @ 3:45PM
suprfli said...
This show is sometimes on the level of Arrested Development w/the subtle almost inside joke humor. Did anyone catch the joke when Liz walked into Jack's offer crying and Jack says, "What's the matter? Did the Liberty lose last night?" How many people even know that the Liberty is the New York's womens WNBA team? Most sports writers don't know that. With the whoel running gag thing you have to know that Jack thought Liz was a lesbian and he obviously still thinks she might be a lesbian. The joke was freakin great!
For that subtle joke alone it's an amazing show. Throw on the hundreds of other great jokes and the story line and it was great. 30 Rock is one of the best shows on TV. Period.
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12-15-2006 @ 6:44PM
George said...
My favorite thing about this ep -- other than "Black Frazier" -- was the subtle shot at "Studio 60". Tracy and Twofer realize that the solution to their problem is to write a sketch about race relations... and then it gets bumped in favor of something funnier. You can't tell me that wasn't intentional.
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12-15-2006 @ 9:07PM
Mook said...
If anyone has the show on TIVO, go back and look at the "pros and cons" list that Liz is making about Dennis.
The items in both columns are hilarious.
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12-17-2006 @ 2:34AM
cress d said...
I LOVE 30 ROCK!!!!!! This is a great show! Enough said.
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12-18-2006 @ 12:12PM
dave said...
love the show too -Bladwin is awsome but Studio 60 and 30 have to start comunicating becasue they just did a dateline gag last week
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