Watching 30 Rock

Here’s a little spoiler about an upcoming episode of 30 Rock that I found on TV Guide. I like it because it has some continuity from a previous episode AND because of the enormous comedy potential that can only be properly handled by the crack writing staff of our favorite show.

Question: Just 50 days until new 30 Rock episodes! Spoilers, please! — Joel
Ausiello: Jack Donaghy’s dream of creating a TV show that strands a bunch of middle-aged whores-for-hire on a deserted island is about to become a reality. Rock is casting a slew of attractive females in their late thirties to early fifties to serve as contestants on the fictitious “MILF Island”. The twist? The male contestants courting the hot mamas on the show-within-a-show are described as being “of eighth-grade age.” Yep, 30 Rock’s back, folks. Rejoice!

MILF Island! Jack’s dream come true. I wonder if this will be written as part of Jack’s rebound after breaking up with C.C. They can’t just let that go with his invitation to Liz about getting drunk. I’d think there would be some more fallout than that, including Jack being cranky, Jack yelling at either Frank or Kenneth, and Jack pushing Liz to write for stupid shows like MILF Island that will not only probably make the network lots of money, but will plop him right in the middle of a casting call full of beautiful, age appropriate women to help him get over his lost liberal lover. And maybe Cerie’s mom will show up as a contestant? Remember Cerie? Wasn’t she getting married and Liz and Jenna were to be her bridesmaids? I wonder what ever happened to that storyline.

But I digress. MILF Island coming to a fake NBC network near you. Who should they get to guest star as some of the MILFs? Helen Hunt? Angela Bassett? Anderson Cooper? Connie Britton? Vanessa Wiliams? Kim Bassinger? So many good and potentially funny options, whether it is a funny actress or an actress that would get a laugh just by being cast.

No matter what, there is only a few more weeks until we get some new episodes. Finally!

30 Rock, Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, MILF Island, NBC

Good news, 30 Rockers! According to the NBC website, 30 Rock will be returning in January with new episodes! Now presumably, these are episodes completed before the writer’s strike shut down production of the show. I guess NBC was smart to hold some back, because I know I am aching for some new episodes …. I mean, I dig the reruns and all, but my DVR hasn’t recorded anything new for me in over a week! And after all the holiday madness, when we are in post-party hangover mid-January blues, some new TV shows will definitely hit the spot. And if this strike drags on, do not despair, as we will start recapping season one episodes (from DVD) as well as discussing DVD extras and Tina Fey commentary in the new year. What a way to start 2008!

As for last night’s rerun, it’s a reviewing of “Jack Get’s in the Game,” featuring guest star Will Arnett as Jack’s nemesis, Devin Banks. If you recall they are both competing for the job of General Electric’s CEO … Jack through “getting noticed” and Devin through marrying the boss’s unattractive daughter while convincing himself and everyone else that he’s not gay. Good times! In addition, we get a fat Jenna who spent the summer eating pizza and a Tracy who takes Kenneth the Page for his “work wife,” since his own wife Angie kicked him out. This is also the episode that features the classic “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” and one of the funniest moments of the season thus far:

So if you missed the show last night or don’t have your Tivo set to record reruns, you can watch the full episode at NBC.com or reread our recap. And now we all have January to look forward too!

30 Rock, Tina Fey, Will Arnett, 30 Rock recaps

Cold opening: Jack is in his office (which is decorated for the holidays) when Liz comes in to wish him a Merry Christmas before they break for the holidays. Wait, TV shows get a holiday break, just like in school? I’m in the wrong career. He gives her a Christmas present: a new photo scanner/paper shredder (from GE, of course!) Won’t people just end up shredding their pictures by accident? Yeah, I need one of those for “scanning” my old prom photos.

Frank wheels a big cart filled with various bottles of booze into the writer’s room, already making a pre-apology for all the offensive things he is about to do at the office LucaChristmas Party and offering pre-forgiveness to his coworkers for when they leave him passed out by the elevator. I thank the fates that my office holiday party is over lunch and that we can’t drink because I’m sure my coworkers would just leave me in the parking lot. Everyone is cheering and is totally psyched about the party, especially Cerie who is hoping Frank will reprise is “horny Santa” gag from last year. I guess Frank isn’t gay for Jamie anymore.

Back in Jack’s office, he asks Liz if she has big plans for the holidays. Her family is coming! Yay, we get to meet more Lemons! They are going to see Jersey Boys! Jack can’t understand why Liz isn’t stressed out over her family’s eminent arrival. Her family hasn’t argued since Carter left office! Jack has invited his mother to join him from Florida but she is stranded due to Hurricane Zapato. He points to the big TV on the wall, showing the weather channel, amused the the eye of the storm seems to be right over his mother’s house. So much for paralyzing Irish guilt. He’s going to drive up to Vermont and surprise C.C. ….. or he would be, if Jonathan hadn’t just announced that Jack’s mother had taken a bus to Atlanta and talked Jet Blue into taking a ticket from Amtrak. Damn, she’s good! Jack’s mother is disappointed that Jack is still in the same office, since he is up for that promotion and all. Maybe he should let that dream die. I think Jack should start drinking, pronto. Jack’s mom greets Liz, insults Jack’s girlfriend, insults Liz and gets passive aggressive about her coat, all in the span of about 2.3 seconds. I want to call my Mom and tell her I love her.

Credits. Boop de boop. I love that head turn Jack does, although it seems completely out of character for him.

Next we get one of those AmEx commercials designed to look like part of the show. I don’t get paid to recap those. Moving on!

Liz and Jenna enter the writer’s room and Jenna pretends she didn’t realize tonight was LudaChristmas, except she is totally wearing a slinky dress under her coat. You got us good, Jenna. Liz says she isn’t going to the party because her parents and her brother Mitch are in town. Her brother Mitch has Trauma Induced Niveaphasia — he is stuck in 1985, the day before his senior class skiing trip. I would not want to be trapped in my senior year, hence the desire to shred my prom photos. We get a flashback to meet Mitch (Andy Richter)!

Kenneth the Page comes in to deliver presents from the parent company, Sheinhard Wigs. More photo shredders! Everyone throws them away, but Kenneth is appalled that no one has any Christmas spirit. No one understands Christmas. Just then a stripper arrives, there to have Christmas mints eaten off her body. She appears also to have tuberculosis. I hope they got a discount for that.
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Sopranos star and three-time Emmy winner Edie Falco is scheduled to appear in a three-episode run on 30 Rock starting tomorrow. Of course how many of those appearances will actually happen is yet to be seen. Thanks writer’s strike!

According to the NBC website, Falco plays a Democratic congresswoman from Vermont who Jack falls for.

Says Falco, “I have laughed out loud at this show, and I am thrilled for the opportunity to work with such great comic actors.” Series creator/star Tina Fey in turn says, “We’re thrilled to have such an amazing actress come join us. Also, a lot of guys on our crew want The Sopranos’ ending explained to them.” (Good luck as David Chase has said there’s nothing to explain).

Apparently, Fey is a big Sopranos fan so we wonder if she had other possible guest stars in her mind before settling on Falco. “Like who” you ask, well…

Tony Sirico, aka Paulie ‘Walnuts’ Gualtieri appears as Cerie’s mentally unstable, but fun loving uncle who comes in town for her wedding but stays a bit longer than planned. Jack gets nervous when Liz leads him to believe Sirico is Giest’s (Jack’s boss) brother gunning for his job.

Robert Iler aka A.J. Soprano guest stars as Frank’s muse for his catch phrase trucker hats. (no further development probably would have taken place past that).

Lorraine Bracco aka Dr. Jennifer Melfi acts as couples therapist for feuding Tracy and Toofer after their arguing reaches a boiling point. Again, no further development because of the writer’s strike…Yeah, I know my brain isn’t a union member but a girl can dream…

Robert Iler, The Sopranos, 30 Rock, Tony Sirico, Lorraine Bracco, Writer’s strike

After months upon months of previews, teasers and irritating NBC tie-ins, Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie opened to mediocre reviews and a less-than-Shrek opening weekend at the box office. According to the weekend tallies, American Gangster staring the pornstachy goodness of Russel Crowe and Denzel Washington took in $46.3 million while Bee Movie took in $39.1 million.

Sure we haven’t seen a flick in the theater since the Bourne Supremacy, but we’re guessing from the previews that Bee movie is about a neurotic, self-centered bee and his equally self-centered and kooky hive mates - and not our favorite Bea.

But we wonder if Seinfeld could have made a large Bee-ass of himself promoting this flick. Sure he did 30 Rock which was decent (mainly for the Liz Lemon crying the way Seinfeld talks bit). But was it really necessary for him to ride a zip line down an 8-story building dressed as a giant bee at the Canes Film Festival?

And according to our 451 compatriot Pop Culture Buzz, Bee Movie just isn’t terribly original. We’re guessing kids aren’t too keen on Seinfeld’s signature “What’s the deal with…?” kind of jokes. And thanks to TBS, UPN, FOX and just about everyone else rerunning Seinfeld into the ground we’re sure the movie-going public is sick of it as well.

So here’s our advice to you - Hypothetically reading our blog Jerry Seinfeld - take your gagillion dollars, monotone voice and new baby and call it a day. Invest in Ethanol-based fuels, whatever Madonna’s into or even studios that are making good old violent gangster movies. BeeCause to most folks overly CGIed, plotless kid flicks make you look like a part of the female anatomy that rhymes with schmoob.

Jerry Seinfeld, Bea Arthur, Bee Movie, Madonna

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!

Okay, so it’s not Princess Leia. But this is even better! Carrie Fisher is guest starring on tomorrow’s episode of 30 Rock as Liz Lemon’s idol.

When Liz meets her idol, Rosemary Howard, she invites her to be a guest writer on the show. However, Rosemary’s radical ideas that Liz grew up admiring are now too controversial for Liz’s NBC show. When Liz refuses to fire Rosemary, Jack pressures Liz, who promptly quits. Jack brings Tracy to a therapist to figure out why he must do the opposite that he is told. Meanwhile, after Jenna ruins Kenneth’s page jacket, Kenneth must compete in a page-off in order to keep his job.

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No, not that president. The guy who actually won the popular vote way back in 2000, Al Gore is set to guest star in an episode of 30 Rock this season. We weren’t able to dig up any info about what role the former Vice President will play but we’re sure the uber-talented writers will come up with something good.

Mr. Gore has already won an Emmy for his internet network, Current so that’s not his guest start motivation. Still it doesn’t hurt to speculate as to his part on the show will be. Since Gore is such a huge proponent of the environment, maybe he’ll play a right-wing Halliburton type who’s trying to get Jack (Alec Baldwin) to sell him Trivection oven technology secrets.

Or maybe he’ll play Kenneth’s Pig Farming father who travels from Stone Mountain Georgia to pay a surprise visit. But most likely, Gore will play himself and will just exchange some witty banter with Liz Lemon. Still we’re really impressed by this news and whatever the role we’re sure it’ll be awesome.

Al Gore, 30 Rock, Alec Baldwin, Emmy, Current

So without giving away any major stuff, we’ve learned some plot points about the upcoming season of 30 Rock from a recent blurb in Entertainment Weekly. According to EW:

Seinfeld arrives in the first episode as himself to settle a beef with Jack, and several previous standout guests are slated to return (Will Arnnett, Dean Winters as Liz’s beeper salesman ex, and Chris Parnell as Dr. Spaceman). Liz will struggle with being single again after her breakup with Floyd. Tracy will try to win back his wife (”in a Kobe Bryant kind of way”, Fey says) after he’s caught by paparazzi with a transsexual prostitute. Jenna will battle weight issues (complete with fat suit for Krakowski) after spending her summer scarfing four slices a day on stage in Mystic Pizza: The Musical. And Kenneth may get a new love interest, and appear in clothing other than his page uniform.

If all that is true we’re super excited and not because of Jerry Seinfeld guest staring…not that there’s anything wrong with that. (We know, easy joke but give us a break. Seinfeld was on the air when we were watching nothing but X-Files and Hal Hartley movies so our Seinfeldian humor is way below that of average TV consuming humans).

So anyway, the reason we’re excited beyond the obvious Tina Fey stuff is Mystic Pizza: The Musical. Sweet! I must have seen that Indy Baby Momma of all chick flicks 97 times in high school. (12 more than I saw Dirty Dancing). If you happen to not have not been a card carrying uterus holder in the late 80’s or just didn’t see Mystic Pizza, I highly recommend you check it out. Like Now! This gem is your chance to see Julia Roberts before she totally started sucking and Lili Taylor being awesome even in fluorescent leggings. It also features Anabeth Gish (a very early 30 Rock blogger-Amy crush, guess I like the smart ones) who actually took over the hot FBI agent role on X-Files after Gillian Anderson left. Boom! Full circle people, I love it when that happens.

So yes, Mystic Pizza references and fat suits aside, we’re reallly excited about the new season of 30 Rock and you should be too! Don’t forget to tune in to NBC at 8:30 Eastern time for the fall premier of 30 Rock and of course be sure to keep your butt planted on that Barcalounger for The Office at nine.

[tags] Tina Fey, Annabeth Gish, X-Files, Lili Taylor, Julia Roberts, Mystic Pizza, 30 Rock

Edie Falco, best known for her ass-kicking role as Carmela Soprano on the legendary HBO series The Sopranos will have a three episode guest appearance on 30 Rock this season.

We here at Watching 30 Rock are still reeling in disbelief that Falco did not win the Emmy this season for her role on the Sopranos. She is an awesome dramatic actress, as showcased in roles on the HBO prison drama Oz (where she played a prison guard who gets romantically involved with both an inmate and another prison administrator), as well as roles on Law & Order and Homicide: Life on the Street. We are happy to see that she’s moved on (more than us, it seems) from the disappointing Emmy loss to a role that will allow her to show her comic skills as well.

“I have laughed out loud at this show, and I am thrilled for the opportunity to work with such great comedic actors,” Falco said. “I am very excited.”

No word on what sort of role it will be – I wonder if she’ll still be on one side of the law or the other? How awesome would it be if James Gandolfini, Aida Turturro, or Lorraine Bracco were to show up in a cameo? Or if Tina Fey wrote in a character named Meadow or AJ that Falco got to slap the shit out of? (Somehow I suspect that would be more satisfying to the audience than to Falco herself.) Let’s just hope they don’t parody the famous “fade to black” series ending of The Sopranos, we all know all too well that has been done to death already.

Don’t forget to tune in this Thursday, October 4th, for the season two premiere of 30 Rock!

30 Rock, Edie Falco, the Sopranos, Carmela Soprano, James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Aida Turturro, Oz, Homicide, Law & Order