TVSquad

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.

So, AOL TV did a poll about America's favorite talk show hosts and 1.3 million people made their feelings known. Interesting results. I didn't agree with some of them, like who I like waking up with. Diane Sawyer was the top choice, but I'd go for the second place finisher, Matt Lauer. As for whom to go to bed with -- TV talk show wise, that is -- I can't believe most of the people chose Jay Leno. Is he really that popular? I prefer David Letterman; I'm a sucker for the Top Ten lists.

Jenna Fischer: This is one of those "I've arrived!" moments. Seriously. There's, like, little milestones... Like, being on David Letterman for the first time and then, like, being in Vanity Fair.
Chelsea Handler: ... I knew I arrived when I got my period.
Everyone: [groans and laughter]

Yeah, I know how most of our male readers are. They like their ladies funny, smart, and painfully out of their league. Well, start lurking around the magazine stands, boys, because the upcoming Vanity Fair has a new Annie Leibovitz photo spread featuring some of the funniest ladies on the scene. The impressive list boasts Sandra Bernhard, Susie Essman, Tina Fey, Jenna Fischer, Chelsea Handler, Leslie Mann, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Amy Sedaris, Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes, and Kristen Wiig, each of them doing very typical "Hollywood bad girl" things. I especially love Maya Rudolph's hair and how Silverman manages to do Amy Winehouse better than Amy Winehouse.

The media can spin the death of the sitcom all they want. I'll even give them that the traditional multi-camera format that Lucy and Desi founded does seem to be dying a slow death, but comedy itself is alive and well on television. Ever since Ally McBeal stretched the definition of television comedy by daring to be nominated in comedic categories despite being an hour long "drama" (don't you know that dramas are one hour and comedies 30 minutes; it's the only way to tell the difference), the "sitcom" has morphed into the "comedy."

Almost gone is that multi-camera stage set and the live/canned studio audience. Instead we have shows that are filmed just like their dramatic counterparts that happen to be funny. And all of this year's Globe nominees for best musical or comedy TV series fit into this category (sorry According to Jim, maybe next year). Check 'em out after the jump, along with our picks for who should win!

NBC's 30 Rock makes fun of the network, television in general and, in at least a few instances, product integration. Product integration is the new way to get advertising money that's becoming more and more popular. The Office blatantly refers to real corporations like Staples all the time and football has John Madden's scribbles sponsored by someone now. Well, on a recent episode of Rock, Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin blatantly praised Verizon Wireless in a brief exchange before Fey turned to the camera and said directly, "Can we have our money now?"

Funny and lucrative apparently, as Yahoo! reports today that this was a real case of product integration, with Verizon paying for the "commercial" which at the same time was making fun of the very thing they were doing which ... wow, this gets confusing.

What would Ryan do? B.J. Novak, who plays Ryan on The Office, is also a writer for the show. So, will he show up for work today? He belongs to competing unions: The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has stipulated that actors must show up for work. However, as a member of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), he could be fined by his union if he crosses the picket line.

(S02E02) "Hey Banks, what are you doing in town...drawn to the phallic nature of our skyline?"

OK everyone, before we even start the review, head on over to the NBC store and order your "Me Want Food!" T-shirts! It's the new phrase everyone will be talking about tomorrow morning at your office. The offices that watch 30 Rock, that is.

I saw the little ad at the bottom of the screen and I had no idea what the hell it was until the writing guys said it as Jenna's new catch phrase. I'm usually annoyed by those little ads but this one didn't bother me.

(S02E01) Seinfeld: "What if I just buy NBC and turn it into the biggest Lane Bryant in midtown?"
Jack: "Ha! You're going to buy NBC? Oh, right, like you have $4 million just lying around..."

The above bit of dialogue is one of the many reasons I love this show. They could have gone for the easy joke, which would have been to play off of the vast wealth that Jerry Seinfeld has and just say a figure like $4 billion or $20 billion or whatever real amount it would take to buy NBC. But they go one step further, cleverly saying $4 million, thereby insulting NBC, the very network this show runs on. That's great stuff. No wonder NBC renewed this show. Besides being a new classic, then get to look self-deprecating while having what amounts to a half hour infomercial for the network every Thursday night!

NBC has put together a compilation of Tina Fey's 'Best of' moments when she hosted Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live. And it's free. On YouTube.

For real.

The video is a little over four minutes of some good one-liners and zingers from Fey. It's meant to create buzz for the return of 30 Rock, but is still fun to watch. One of my favorites is her joke about Brokeback Mountain being "the only cowboy movie where the good guys get it in the end." It's not that funny on its own, but knowing that the joke came from her 72-year-old father makes it hilarious.

Video after the jump:

First of all, I didn't even realize that tonight was the season finale of 30 Rock (or the first day of May sweeps, for that matter). It's hard to keep track of this new world where various shows end their seasons in various months.

Anyway, show star Tina Fey is going to live blog the season finale at NBC.com. It starts at 9:30pm Eastern. You can go to the site now and leave questions for Fey and she'll answer some of them.

Now, I wonder if Baldwin asking to get out of his contract (in fact, he doesn't want to do television anymore, period) was timed this week for the season finale. Does Baldwin have a contract beyond this season? I would assume so, since NBC has said they are not going to let him out his contract. Maybe Baldwin should do the blog with Fey. Imagine the questions he'd get.

Update: As reader Ender mentions in the comments, the show starts at 9pm, so maybe this isn't going to be a live blog "during the show" but immediately following the show.

I guess some people don't think that NBC is "doing comedy right," and that the days of "Must-See TV" are long gone.

On April 12, NBC's Thursday night lineup of My Name Is Earl, The Office, 30 Rock, Scrubs, and ER got the lowest ratings since the 1987 season. (NBC always finishes third, behind number one CBS and number two ABC.)

I guess I can understand ER not doing that well, since it has been on for quite some time (though the success of Shark surprises me), but I wonder why more viewers - beyond the loyal fans - aren't latching on to The Office and 30 Rock. They're both smart, funny shows, and you'd think more people would watch them, and Scrubs is still good even though it's been on for several seasons. Damn Grey's Anatomy and CSI!

Since I began posting for TV Squad a year ago I've noticed a change in the way I watch television. Before I would just watch the show for pure enjoyment and go on my merry way. Now when I watch a program I tend to view it in anal retentive mode, even when I'm not reviewing it.

That's where I am right now with 30 Rock, but not because of the writing or the casting. Frankly, I think that it's a very funny show, and that's coming from someone who thought it didn't have a chance back when it was first announced. No, I'm being anal here because I've noticed a change in Tina Fey's look. When the show began Fey, who plays Liz Lemon on the show, looked a lot like she did when she was on Saturday Night Live. However, in the last two shows, I've noticed a change.

The gossipers over at New York Daily News have a great tidbit about Tina Fey dissing Aaron Sorkin at a recent event. She reportedly told the crowd at the Writers Guild Awards, "I hear Aaron Sorkin is in Los Angeles wearing the same dress- but longer, and not funny."

As the kids on That '70s Show would say, "Oooooh! BURN! BURN!"

Tina Fey was probably just being funny, but the girl definitely has earned the right to gloat. While 30 Rock and Studio 60 are both behind-the-scenes of sketch comedy shows, Fey's show prevails. 30 Rock is getting funnier and funnier, while Studio 60 is getting worse and worse. I stopped caring about Matt and Harriet in the second episode of Studio 60. And I can't wait to see Alec Baldwin each Thursday night!

[Via TV Tattle]

Over the Christmas holiday, NBC is putting all episodes of 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights on its website-- for free. That's right. Don't even bother to buy them from iTunes right now. The first nine episodes of FNL and the first seven episodes of 30 Rock are available for viewing on the website. Of course, you have to watch an unskippable ad at the beginning of each episode. NBC is looking to recruit new viewers, especially college students who are killing time at home for Christmas break.

While I'm not too keen on FNL, I highly recommend taking the time to watch 30 Rock. The first three episodes aren't that hot but it starts to get hilarious at about episode four. Alec Baldwin seems to carry the first few episodes, but then Tracy Morgan and the guy who plays 'Kenneth the NBC page' really start to play it up.

The free promotion expires when new episodes of both shows return to the air in early January.

In another display of confidence in a show that isn't exactly lighting the ratings world on fire (see also Friday Night Lights, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip), NBC has given a full season to the Tina Fey sitcom 30 Rock. At first is looked like they were just ordering a few more scripts, but they gave the green light for a full season this afternoon.

But this move is actually ratings-oriented, because the show got its best ratings to date last night, in its new Thursday slot between Scrubs and ER. It was up 25% from last week.

So now we'll get full seasons of two shows about the behind-the-scenes goings on at a late night comedy show. Three if you count Saturday Night Live, and four if you count the possible web showings of the SNL Friday night rehearsal. I still think Studio 60 is the better show. 30 Rock isn't bad (and Alec Baldwin is funny as hell), it just isn't incredibly funny, which stands out when you're a straight-ahead comedy. But I do watch it every Thursday night, and it's not really fair to compare a half hour comedy with a one hour comedy/drama, even if they are about the same thing.