Watching 30 Rock

Dear Tina Fey,

Hey there. I know it’s been awhile since I’ve written. I haven’t been avoiding you, Tina Fey, I promise. I guess I’ve been trying to give you some space and all, since all filmed episodes of 30 Rock have now aired (and let me tell you, that “Midnight Train to Georgia” number was freakin’ brilliant) and I know you can’t be filming or airing any new episodes right now, so I thought you might be sad. But also, this is time you can be spending with your gorgeous little baby, Alice, and that’s a good thing. Lots of Octopus Time, right? Awesome.

What else have you been up to lately? Catching up on reality shows? Watching some Deal or No Deal? You seem like a secret American Gladiators fan. Or maybe you bought a Wii and have been playing Super Mario Galaxy and Guitar Hero. Whatever you’ve been doing, Tina Fey, we hope you have been relaxing and having some fun and not stressing out too much. We’d totally like to help you de-stress and I really don’t mean that in a dirty way.

But I’ve been hearing rumors here and there, Tina Fey, that there have been some breakthroughs in talks and that the writers’ strike could be resolved as soon as the end of this week. The end of this week! That makes me want to do some sort of Octopus dance! I won’t do that in public, because I don’t want to embarrass myself, but if this rumor turns out to be true, I will wait until it’s just me and the dog and the cats at home and I will Octopus dance myself all over my house! I’d like to think that you and the 30 Rock writers and the cast (even Alec Baldwin) will be dancing around your living rooms too.

Tina Fey, 30 Rock, Writers’ Strike

So tonight, Amy is liveblogging the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards for our sister site, Trashy Celebs. And since our hero Tina Fey is presenting the first award (and showing off her bare right shoulder — pretty racy there, Tina Fey!) with Steve Carrell, I thought I’d pop over here and tell you about any of the 30 Rock angles to the event. Fey and Carrell are presenting Best Actor in a Drama Series, which must be a bit awkward because you know they will be making jokes and those serious, serious actors will just be all “shut up, so I can be pretentious!” Oh, James Gandolfini won! And he gave Tina Fey a peck on the cheek and totally did not order a hit on her. That’s a relief!

Other, more obvious 30 Rock connections to the SAG Awards:

Tina Fey, nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series (along with Christina Applegate, America Ferrera, Mary-Louise Parker, and Vanessa Williams.) Guess what? TINA FEY WON HELLS YES! She thanked the SAG for “considering her an actor at all” and then she thanked Alec Baldwin, comparing doing scenes with him to “Fred Astaire dancing with a hat rack.” Funny and humble, even after winning. And thanking SAG for supporting the Writers Guild, because she is selfless and giving.

(See that NBC, you bitches? She won. WON! And I have been hearing too many rumors suggesting that with the writers strike and all, 30 Rock might get cancelled. DO NOT DO THAT YOU WILL BREAK MY HEART.)
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Looking for a hangover cure? So is this picture of the cast of 30 Rock.

Now go take some Advil and drink a diet coke and get some McDonalds!

30 Rock, New Years, hangover cure, McDonalds, diet coke

So I was all hunkered down ready to watch one of the few spakin’ new episodes of 30 Rock left this season, but was apparently mislead. Us in this here part of Missouri were raped of our 30 Rock hopes and instead delivered a big steaming pile of shit burger in the form of Celebrating 60 Years in St. Louis. Yes our local NBC affiliate KSDK decided to autofellate itself like that guy in Short Bus; not during a Saturday afternoon mind you, but in freaking prime time. What the F KSDK?

Dear Tina Fey,

Please don’t hate us. I was totally ready and excited to recap one of the few remaining 30 Rocks, possibly of the season. But no, the stupid local NBC station (KSDK) picked to preempt a top 20 show in order to honor themselves for being on air for 60 years. Big woop. My dad is 60 and he didn’t preempt thanksgiving to celebrate his birthday. KSDK could learn a thing or two from my dad, not just because he helps me out when I run into legal trouble but he keeps his celebrations to their designated times.

Is there something you’re not sharing with us Tina Fey? Did you do something to piss off one of the heads of the network or this guy? (news anchor Mike Bush)
Even if you did do something we still love you Tina Fey and we hope you still love us. We’ll be anxiously awaiting 11:30 on Sunday night, which is the time KSDK thinks 30 Rock should air. Yes, we think they’re humorless fascists as well.

Anyway, we miss you on our TV tonight Tina Fey and wish you lots of fun Octopus time with your daughter this weekend.

Mike Bush, KSDK, St. Louis, 30 Rock

The Ausiello Report on TVGuide.com has an updated list of television shows with a tentative schedule of when they will go “dark” for the season. We all are coming to accept that we will likely have a shorter television season, but just how short will it be? Since different shows all have different filming schedules, then that will depend on the show. Since here at Watching 30 Rock our favorite show is, well, 30 Rock (what? you thought I would say Grey’s Anatomy?) then that is what we are most interested in.

According to the TV Guide article linked above, ten episodes of 30 Rock were produced, and if you’ve been reading our recaps you know that five have aired so far, so that leaves five more new episodes. And for a new show (only in it’s second season) which has done moderately well in the ratings and has something of a cult following (think Arrested Development) then this really can present a problem. Popular shows like Heroes or Lost probably will fare just fine, as they have strong followings. But a smaller, quirkier show like 30 Rock needs time to build, time to develop an audience, time to convince viewers that smart, funny, clever comedies are good comedies. I mean, I don’t watch Two and a Half Men so I can’t really say, but when I imagine it, I just imagine a fairly steady stream of boob jokes. (An aside: Duckie Dale, I will never forgive you.)

Other shows that have five or fewer episodes remaining: Back to You, Bionic Woman, Chuck, Desperate Housewives, Dirty Sexy Money, Grey’s Anatomy, Heroes, The Office, Prison Break, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies , Reaper, Shark and maybe both Supernatural and Ugly Betty.

30 Rock, Writer’s Strike 2007, Pretty in Pink, Two and a Half Men, Back to You, Bionic Woman, Chuck, Desperate Housewives, Dirty Sexy Money, Grey’s Anatomy, Heroes, The Office, Prison Break, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, Reaper, Shark, Supernatural, Ugly Betty

Still confused about the Writer’s Strike? Here’s a video from the Writer’s Guild of America that explains the situation:

30 Rock, Writer’s strike, Writer’s Guild of America

With the writer’s strike in full swing, I’m sure many fans of all television are wondering what they will do when the networks run out of new episodes of their favorite shows. What will we do without our daily or weekly hits of our favorite shows? Will we lay awake at night wondering about plotlines and characters? Will our days at work become less productive because we can’t help but wonder “what would have happened next, if the writers could have kept working?” Will those writers have ideas while on the picket line that will never end up coming to fruition? Are they sneaking notepads in their pockets or jotting notes on the back of picket signs? OH GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH LIZ LEMON AND TRACY AND JACK AND JENNA AND KENNETH THE PAGE? What about Pete? He hasn’t had a decent storyline AT ALL this season and now there is this strike? What happens next?

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Here’s video of Tina Fey speaking about the writer’s strike and what it might mean for the rest of the season of 30 Rock:

We here at Watching 30 Rock admire writers of all sorts tremendously, and support them in this strike. From my understanding, part of the problem is that writers are finally demanding their fair share from DVD and iTunes sales of television shows. And considering how big television on DVD has become (I know I personally own seasons of The Office, Arrested Development, and The X-Files) I say it’s about time. The foundation of any good show is good writing. The most brilliant actor in the world can’t do anything if you give him or her a shit script. And like Tina says in the video above, this doesn’t just effect the writers and the actors …. there’s the crew, the makeup people, the hair people, the caters, drivers, and probably NBC pages (like Kenneth!)

And of course, for my own selfish reasons, I don’t want the strike to go on. There’s nothing I like more in the winter than crashing on my couch with the DVR remote and catching up on my favorite shows. It’s too early for reruns! There are enough 30 Rock episodes to last the rest of the year and it seems like a lot scripted shows are in the same place. But late night shows like The Late Show with David Letterman or Late Night with Conan O’Brien or even The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are apparently already showing reruns.

So, Tina, and all writers, the fans and couch potatoes of the world unite in support of your strike. And when it’s over, find a way to write about it and make it funny!

30 Rock, Tina Fey, writers strike, The Office, Arrested Development, X-Files, Colbert Report, Daily Show, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien

Check out Tina supporting her peeps! She da bomb-diggity!

source

Tina Fey and 30 Rock executive producer Robert Carlock both signed their names in this WGA ad, vowing not to do any writing until the strike is over. The ad appeared last Friday in Variety.

Tina and Robert join The Office creator Greg Daniels, House writer David Shore, Matt Groening and other Simpson’s crew and just about every other great television writer in the biz in supporting writer folks slugging it out in the trenches. Text from the ad says:

“You guys will still break stories, right?” “Your people can still write scripts. I mean, who would know?” We would. We would know that doing so undermines the very cause for which we’re fighting. We would know that it sends the wrong message to those who honor our picket lines. We would know that it only serves to prolong a strike. So, just to be absolutely clear: In the event of a strike, we, the following showrunners, will do no writing and no story breaking — nor will any be asked of our writing staffs — until we get a deal.

The tag at the bottom of the ad says “You have our word.” As of last night, negotiations about the writer’s strike were still ongoing but we hope a deal is made soon so the writers get their cut of DVD sales and we don’t miss nothing on our favorite shows. See it’s all about us.

Variety, Writer’s strike, 30 Rock

Well, if you are a fan of My Name is Earl tonight was your lucky night, because there was an hour long episode on this evening, involving Earl doing something, undoubtably, zany. I don’t watch Earl but I heard somewhere that tonight’s episode involved some takeoff of COPS so I have to say that sounds pretty funny. I think my sister watches, so maybe she’ll fill us in later. In the meantime, I can offer what WOULD have happened on 30 Rock if it was on tonight.

We would open with Liz, probably arriving to work, and probably having some sort of discussion with Jack. Jack would be over-the-top business and perhaps wearing a tuxedo. Jack’s assistant might be there too, seething with jealousy over the attention Liz receives over him. Then we might have a scene with Tracy doing something zany or perhaps taking about something zany that he has already done. There would probably be a third storyline with Jenna using her “sexuality” to try and get something from someone. Or perhaps she’d create some other humiliating moment for herself, either by making another movie with a title no one can pronounce or by trying to become a lesbian so she can marry herself off to a long lost (and rich) member of a Canadian royal family. (It could happen.) In the meantime, Liz is trying to juggle all these crazy people without going kinda crazy herself. Pete would have one or two lines, (leaving me to wonder if Scott Adsit said something mean about Tina’s baby causing the lack of screen time.) Frank would be wearing a trucker hat that says “Chicken Fingers.” Liz would clean up all the messes at the 25 minute mark and Kenneth the Page would spend the episode so nice and earnest and naive that it almost becomes creepy.

But if you are like me and you’ve just got to have a taste of 30 Rock tonight, then check out this reenactment of a scene from season one, staring the models from Deal or No Deal. Good stuff, for reals!

Page 6 has some rather uninteresting and unoriginal and somewhat vague reports of “trouble” on the set of 30 Rock from the ever-popular unnamed “spy.”

October 9, 2007 — “30 ROCK” star Tracy Morgan is starting to act like his spoiled character. Last Thursday, “Tracy didn’t know his lines, he wasn’t listening to the director and was arguing with cast members on-set,” a spy said. Morgan later skipped the second-season premiere party at Pastis, where castmates Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey were celebrating. An insider said that Morgan had issues that day but that “the cast and crew are being supportive.” A rep for the actor said Morgan was taping a VH1 award show that night and denied any on-set problems.

Come on. How big of a deal is this, really? Haven’t we all had days when we haven’t listened to our boss or have argued with our co-workers? And how many of us have avoided or just plain refused to go to office parties or functions? Sometimes we just have those days when we want to be done with work and we want to go home and sit on the couch to watch baseball or play Ninento Wii.

Nice try, Page 6. But hey, if it helps bring more viewers to the show, then go for it! Make up all the stupid crap you want!

Tracy Morgan, 30 Rock, Page 6, Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, Pastis