Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy
Even casual viewers of Saturday Night Live know just how funny Alec Baldwin can be. (In fact, he is one of only two actors with a standing invitation to host SNL each season — the other being Christopher Walken.) His delivery of his lines and his sense of comic timing are part of what make the show so great. That and his terrific chemistry with most of the other actors on the show …. especially Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan.
NBC ever so kindly put together a video of some of Baldwin’s “greatest moments.” Personally, I don’t think this even comes close to some of the best, but it’s a good place to start if you are still trying to get a feel for the character and for Baldwin’s method of playing him. (Well, I can’t tell what his method really is, beyond: Be Funny.)
Those of us who follow 30 Rock news even during the show’s hiatus had a bit of a scare last spring when Baldwin apparently asked to be released from his contract with the show during a brief scandal when an angry voice mail he left for his daughter was released to the gossip site TMZ. He apparently asked to be released so his problem would not affect the show and so that he could “devote [him]self to the cause of parental alienation.” And while I certainly couldn’t begrudge him quitting if he wanted to spend more time with his daughter, I certainly can’t imagine the show without him as Jack Donaghy.
In a future entry, more about the character of Jack Donaghy, who always wears a tuxedo after 6pm, dated Condoleezza Rice, and named his fists after St. Patrick and St. Michael!
Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, 30 Rock, Saturday Night Live, Christopher Walken
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