Watching 30 Rock

Tracy Morgan has completed his probation for DUI, and has been OKed to remove the alcohol monitoring anklet he’s been wearing on and off for almost six months. He was originally ordered to wear the anklet thanks to everyone’s friend, beer. On May 25, Morgan was fitted for a Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring device, which detects booze in sweat and vapors released through the skin. This was after he plead guilty in February to driving under the influence last year in New York—which, in turn, violated his probation stemming from his December 2005 DUI bust in Los Angeles. So yeah, this ain’t the first time Mr. Michelle Rodriguez.

Apparently Morgan had a momentary lapse of common sense, or ran face first into an open bar because he admitted to drinking alcohol on Aug. 4, a violation of his probation that got him another 80 days in the loving company of his SCRAM ankle bracelet.

However last week Morgan removed the anklet way before it was suppose to come off. But Morgan did manage to catch a break. On Tuesday, a Los Angeles County Judge told Morgan’s attorney, his “probation terms have been fulfilled.” Before making his decision, the judge looked over several letters submitted by medical doctors, and a letter from the SCRAM company verifying a medical issue. The court was given five photos showing proof of Morgan’s medical problem, which caused him to remove the SCRAM early. As of now, we do not know the exact nature of the ailment.

However in his defense, Morgan has been voluntarily going to a daily blood/breath test and has been attending AA meetings. All kidding aside, we wish him the best in hopes of recovering.

Coming up tomorrow, remember a couple years ago when there was no such thing as 30 Rock? Well you get to relive that time thanks to an hour long My Name is Earl. New 30 Rock next week.

Tracy Morgan, SCRAM, Michelle Rodriguez

Want to have an amusing little ditty stuck in your head for the next, oh, MILLION YEARS OR SO? Check out the full length video at College Humor for “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah,” Tracy Jordan’s novelty song.

Are you inspired? If you are, why not try your hand and making your own music video? You can go to the 30 Rock site at NBC.com and download the song and shoot your own video. You can even go to the Werewolf Bar Mitzvah Group site at myNBC.com to upload and share your video. Just in time for Halloween!

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

Everyone’s got their favorite t-shirt. It could be the one that’s four sizes too big and full of holes but damn is it comfy. Or it could be the one that .314 percent of the population gets but you fell superior wearing.

Anyway, my point is this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly is the “Photo Issue which includes a series of photos of TV and movie actors wearing their favorite t-shirts. Lo and behold, one page features 30 Rock cast members donning their faves. We’ve swiped the pics along with the descriptions below just so you don’t have to go out and spend your hard earned $3.95 on EW. Aren’t we sweet?

Tina Fey -”The shirt was my brother’s,” she says. ”We grew up right near the Tower Theater [outside Philadelphia] and saw a lot of great concerts there, and then we could walk home. I was never the most knowledgeable Who fan, but I’m a big fan of my brother.”

Jack McBrayer - ”That is the actual gym shirt that I wore in middle school in Macon, Georgia,” says the 30 Rock page. ”You can tell by its pristine condition that I wasn’t real into PE. Lots of sittin’ on the bench, helping the jocks with their math homework.”
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Saturday Night Live alumnus and frequent chest-exposer Tracy Morgan plays Tracy Jordan, a successful comedian and movie star brought in as the new star of the fictional The Girlie Show, renamed as TGS with Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock. While Tracy Jordan got his start after an appearance on Showtime at the Apollo that he claims he doesn’t remember, Tracy Morgan got his start after an appearance on, uh, Showtime at the Apollo that he apparently does remember. (Wow, where to the 30 Rock writers get their ideas?) Morgan then became a regular on Martin. He joined the SNL cast in 1996 and remained as a regular performer until 2003. Among his regular characters on SNL was Brian Fellow, host of Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet. (That’s crazy!) Some of his more memorable impressions include Maya Angelou, Aretha Franklin, Venus Williams, Puff Daddy, and my favorite, Star Jones. (An impression he repeats in a famously gross bit on 30 Rock.)

Here’s a bit more about Morgan: He is married to Sabina Morgan (although they are separated) and has three kids. He had his own show The Tracy Morgan Show which an NBC sitcom which aired one season in 2003. He also was a victim of The Kutch in a 2003 episode of Punk’d when his car was towed from a valet parking lot. In more serious news, he has been arrested twice for DUI and was even fitted with a Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring (SCRAM) ankle bracelet, which tests him for alcohol consumption. Damn, Liz Lemon! I also discovered this evening that he had a role in Little Man which would drive anyone to drink.

Some generous soul on YouTube put together clips of some of Morgan’s great moments on 30 Rock:
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So just to make sure you have a day complete with 30 rockness check out these before, after and during 30 Rock related activities.

First, check out fabulous interviews with Judah Friedlander and Tracy Morgan courtesy of AV Club.

After the show, be sure to check out the one and only Tina Fey answering your questions (and marriage proposals from certain bloggers who shall remain nameless) on a live chat beginning at 9PM eastern time.

As for during the show…c’mon, it’s 30 Rock, it’s Tina Fey, it’s Jane Krakowski in a fat suit, it’s the season premier of 30 Rock! So laugh your ass off, or stare blankly at the tv if you have no soul or sense of humor, you still get to watch Tina Fey.

Tina Fey, 30 Rock, Tracy Morgan, Judah Friedlander

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