TVSquad

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• Saturday Night Live now has a web site devoted to politics.
• Actually, maybe The CW is going to renew Reaper after all.
• Kathie Lee Gifford says she wants to be cremated.
• Ricky Gervais is filming a movie in Massachusetts with Tina Fey, Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe, Jason Bateman, John Hodgman, and Louis C.K and blogging about it.
• Marion Ross answers questions from Entertainment Weekly readers.
• Jeff Zucker wouldn't mind Katie Couric coming back to NBC.
• A look at the new CBS series Swingtown.
• Not only is the season one DVD set for Mad Men coming on July 1, there will also be a CD of music from the show released on June 24.

(S02E15) "I'm just gonna be a kick-ass single mom. Like Erin Brokovich, or Sarah Connor." - Liz

30 Rock fans looking for laughs, plot twists, and a cliffhanger in the finale are probably happy. You got all that, plus a guest star (more than one, actually) that I didn't even know was going to be in the episode. And if you're one of the people who was wondering "what the heck does the episode title 'Cooter' even mean?," well, he's the secret to that (and Tina Fey has been using the term for a while now).

But some 30 Rock fans - I would go out on a limb and say most of you - weren't happy to find out who the father of Liz's maybe-baby might be.

Polls/contests like this always make me a little nervous. I just know that they are going to leave out one of my favorite characters, and it just ticks me off.

The folks over at RedEye in Chicago are holding their 2nd annual Best Character on TV poll. They give you a list of characters to go up against one another (in different "regions") and you vote for the one you like the best. It's tournament-style, so characters will be eliminated as the weeks go by until we're left with a winner. This is the first round of the voting, and it ends this Friday, May 9, so get those votes in now.

(S02E14) "This smells like hill people milk!" - Kenneth, during the drinking contest

Is it just me or was the first part of tonight's 30 Rock a little ... lacking in something? It just seemed to me to be off a little bit, from the change in the opening (no opening scene before the credits, just straight to the credits then the start of the show immediately following) to the lack of really laugh out loud lines (except for Jonathan's singing "I Will Remember You" to Jack and making him a bizarre collage), it seemed to be rather pedestrian, for a 30 Rock episode anyway. Maybe it was because there weren't too many Jack/Liz scenes.

But then halfway through is picked up and got better.

File this one under "perfect freakin' timing."

Following a stellar weekend at the box office for the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler comedy Baby Mama (it won the weekend), comes word that Poehler is actually pregnant. According to People, Poehler and husband Will Arnett are due this fall. They've been hitched since 2003. In Hollywood, that's like being married for an eternity. Good for them.

Seriously, though, could this announcement have come at a better time? People are already buzzing about Baby Mama and now this. Her PR reps and agents must be salivating at the news. Maybe I'm jaded or overly negative, but I find it hard to believe that this wasn't a wee bit planned - the news, not the kid. I mean, c'mon. She's pregnant and she's in a movie where she's pregnant. If it tanks, announce the good news whenever you feel like it. But if it does well, which it did, then you've got one hell of a push for the film's marketing campaign.

[via AOL]

(S02E13) "That was so easy, like taking candy...from one of those guys who gives out candy at gay nightclubs."

Sorry this review is a little late this week. 30 Rock is one of those shows that I have to watch once, take notes, then watch again quickly so I can make sure I didn't miss any good lines. And this episode, like all 30 Rock episodes, had a lot of great lines.

But if there's anything that I took away from this episode, it's this: the porn video game that Tracy invented better be revisited in a later episode, or sold in the NBC online store with the mugs and t-shirts.

As AOL Television continues their look at the 50 Best TV Comedies -- Ever with numbers 20-11, we here at TV Squad are also looking at television comedy, but with a slightly skewed difference. Last week, we took a look at the Saturday Night Live cast members from 1975-1985 that made it to the big time. This week, we focus on the SNL casts from 1986 to 2006.

Aside from the first season of Lorne Michaels' return to the show he created and the 1994-95 season, this period was a very successful one for SNL, introducing a slew of characters and sketches that fans of the show still talk about today. It also produced a good number of Not Ready for Prime-Time Players who went on to bigger things in television and the movies (and some theater as well). Sometimes those bigger things were movies or television shows based on characters developed on SNL.

Gallery: SNL: 1985-2006

If you haven't heard, 30 Rock and Scrubs are switching time slots starting this Thursday. 30 Rock will now be seen at 9:30 for the rest of the season while Scrubs moves to the 8:30 slot.

A lot of people (including myself) assumed that this was because of the rent "MILF Island" episode of the show. NBC received a lot of complaints about the episode, saying it was too raunchy for the "family hour," the 8pm to 9pm time that has always (sort of) been for family viewing (NBC even touted a "family hour" when they announced their new lineup a few weeks ago). Now comes word from the network that the switch isn't happening because of the controversy. But the real reason is just as interesting.

They're moving the show to 9:30 so it has a better lead-in (The Office) and can give the show more exposure as Tina Fey's new movie Baby Mama opens. The network does say, however, that when the fall rolls around the show will be back in its regular 8:30 time slot after My Name Is Earl.

(S02E12) "Save it for your iVillage blog, Lemon." - Jack, to Liz

Tonight's episode of 30 Rock had more jokes and one-liners - the kind where you actually smile and laugh out loud - in just the two minute opening teaser than According To Jim and Unhitched have in an entire season (combined). It got me thinking that the show is sort of like the live version of Family Guy: lots of crazy one-liners and non-sequiturs, often punctuated by a bizarre, seconds-long flashback. And I mean that comparison in a good way. There's no other comedy that's running on all cylinders like 30 Rock is right now.

While Liz deals with having Dennis back in her life, Jack looks for a new celebrity spokesman for the Republican party and Kenneth gets involved with an old TV star.

NBC is becoming quite the experts at creating real products from the made up products and companies you see on their TV shows. Sure, every network's site has hats and shirts and mousepads that have something from a TV show on them, but the Peacock Network seems to be taking things one step further. We've seen Sheinhardt Wig t-shirts and Me Want Food t-shirts for 30 Rock, and now, after Thursday's episode, the network has quickly put up for sale MILF Island t-shirts! It's pretty much the Survivor logo, only with three hot chicks. I'm sure parents are just going to love seeing their kids wearing these.

(S02E11) "When you Google 'class A moron', my name comes up first now...so step aside Randy Quaid." - Jack

Is this a happy day or what? No more writers strike, no more hiatus, no more repeats, no more Thursday nights spent crying, wrapped up in a blanket on the couch, eating tons of chocolate, depressed that new NBC Thursday comedies are nowhere on the horizon. Sorry, I may have just told you a little too much information there.

Anyway, 30 Rock is back! It's almost as if this was the season opener, but it's actually the 11th episode of the season (four more new episodes to follow this season), and it features a call back to a joke in an episode from earlier this season.