TVSquad

Have you ever loved a TV show so much that it hurts, and when other people criticize it you truly wonder if they're even watching the same TV show that you're watching?

That's how I felt when I read this new piece in The New Yorker by TV critic Nancy Franklin. It's clear that she likes 30 Rock in general (um, I think), and love love loves Alec Baldwin in particular. But she has some big criticisms of the show, some very specific ones, and I'm not sure I understand how she came to these conclusions. In short:

• She finds Tina Fey "cold"
• Fey is "too generous" with giving screen time and lines to other cast members
• She often fast forwards through scenes that don't involve Baldwin or Jack McBrayer
• She finds Tracy Morgan "irritating" and "hard to watch"

May I suggest that anyone in the world who has those specific criticisms of 30 Rock really doesn't like the show?

I remember watching Sesame Street when I was little, but I do not remember it being this awesome. We're used to celebrities appearing on the Street, but it's not very often that we get to see Muppets portraying our favorite TV characters. I for one, never knew that the denizens of Sesame Street were so good at impressions until I saw the Muppet version of Jack Donaghy. Oh, you read that right. Jack Donaghy.

Sesame Street has done a take on 30 Rock called "30 Rocks." In it, Liz Lemon, a lemon with glasses, has to figure out how to make sure that the 30 rocks she ordered for a sketch are all there. Jack (who, unfortunately no longer has a chin) comes out to help her with the solution, which consists of passing off the work load, "I'm the boss Lemon; you count."

Check out the video after the jump.

We all speculated as to what role Jennifer Aniston will play when she guest stars on NBC's 30 Rock later this year, and now we know what part she'll play. It's actually one of the choices we came up with.

Aniston will play an old friend of Liz Lemon who starts to stalk Jack Donaghy. The character is described as an ex-roommate of Liz's from Chicago who is a "free-spirited, Fatal Attraction-like stalker." Well, let's hope that she isn't completely like that. We don't need any gunshots to the chest or bunny-boiling on 30 Rock. The character's name is Claire Harper.

So we've had Aniston and David Schwimmer on the show. I think all of the Friends people should appear on 30 Rock at some point.

There are very few television shows that I want to own on DVD, but this is one of them. Season one of 30 Rock is coming out on DVD on September 4th.

The 3-disc package includes all 21 episodes, commentary by Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, deleted scenes, bloopers, and behind-the-scenes featurettes. For some reason, NBC has also made the first season available as two individual packages with the first 16 episodes in one package and the last five episodes plus extras in the second package.

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.