Info:
Premiere Date: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 (NBC Universal Television)
Network: NBC
Time: Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m.
Cast: Starring Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan,
Jane Krakowski, Scott Adsit, Jack McBrayer, Rachel Dratch
Introduction:
Tina Fey knows what it is like to run a late-night
variety show; after all, she has been doing just that
at Saturday Night Live for a while.
So, why not just make a sitcom about what that life is
like? That is exactly what Fey does in NBC's newest
sitcom "30 Rock," a great new show that is coming soon
to NBC that is about doing just that!
Cast Details:
Cast: Tina Fey as Liz Lemon, Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy, Tracy Morgan as Tracy Jordan, Jane Krakowski as Jenna Maroney, Scott Adsit as Pete Hornberger, Jack McBrayer as Kenneth the Page, Rachel Dratch (various roles)
The show has a mix of well-known faces and some
not-so-well-known faces making up the cast. Of course,
the show stars Tina Fey (who also writes and
executive-produces the show, and is formerly of SNL
fame as one of the anchors of the "Weekend Update"
segments) as Liz Lemon, who is the executive-producer
of the "The Girlie Show." It is an interesting
paradox--having the executive-producer of a show play
the role of the executive-producer on the fictitious
show within the show.
Alec Baldwin plays Jack Donaghy, her new boss at NBC a
very controlling and demanding man that got into his
position by working his way through the ranks of the
microwave division at General Electric (which NBC is a
subsidiary of...), though tries to make it appear as
if he is a good guy. And one of Fey's former SNL cast
members, Tracy Morgan, plays Tracy Jordan, who is a
guy that may just become the new star of "The Girlie
Show," thanks to the ingenious planning of Jack.
Scott Adsit plays Pete, who stands by Liz's side as a
producer of "The Girlie Show," Jack McBrayer (formerly
of "Arrested Development") plays Kenneth, who is a
page at NBC that enjoys his job just a little too much
and takes it a bit too seriously. Rounding out the
cast is Jane Krakowski as Jenna Maroney.
Pilot Plot:
The episode begins with Liz coming in to work to
discover that her show for the upcoming night is not
going to go as planned, which causes her to
immediately go to see her boss to discuss why changes
have to be made to the show. Much to her surprise, she
discovers that Jack is her boss now, as he is now the
director of NBC's east-coast programming and GE
microwave oven programming, and that he knows that he
can improve the ratings of "The Girlie Show" in the
demographic that is most important--males ages 18 to
49. And why does he think he has the ability to
improve the show? Because he has already made a
success for himself by developing an oven for GE that
can cook a turkey in 22 minutes, and after all,
anybody that can succeed at inventing an oven knows
exactly what they are doing in the television
industry, right?
Except that Jack wants to make Tracy Jordan, a movie
star that is (to say the least) a mental case, the new
star of "The Girlie Show" and wants Liz to go out and
convince him to join the cast. Despite Liz's
misgivings, and the fact that she has a show to do
that night, she decides to go along with Jack's
demands and gets all prepared (with her Laura Bush
wardrobe, as she called it) to go to a fancy
restaurant with Tracy. One problem though--when she
arrives, she discovers that Tracy isn't all formal for
the restaurant, and has even invited his posse to come
eat with him. He doesn't even want to be there, and
ends up dragging Liz to a soul food restaurant, and
after they are done there, he drags her to an
all-black strip club where he keeps her there the
whole night, leaving her favorite demanding microwave
oven programmer back at the studio to run the show all
by himself. Will disaster ensue? I've already said way
too much, you'll have to watch the pilot to find out
the rest.
Analysis:
This is a great show! In a way, it kind of reminds me
of a (sorry to offend the fans of "The Office" out
there, and I could be wrong because I've never seen a
full episode of "The Office" to begin with) a funny
version of "The Office" crossed over with "Saturday
Night Live." The show is doing in the single camera
mode and lacks a laugh track, so it isn't exactly a
sitcom in the traditional sense, but it somehow seems
appropriate for this show--it is too intelligent
(don't get me wrong, I love sitcoms, but I also kind
of love how they dumb things down for me) for that
full-screen and laugh track crap. The show pokes fun a
lot at how the fact that NBC, GE, and Universal are
all the same company, which is something that I never
thought much about before but that does seem really
bizarre. The show has a lot of sarcastic humor that
you have to pay close attention to in order to
understand, but if you are paying attention to it and
understand it, you'll love it. I do wish, though, that
it had a little more humor. Don't get me wrong, it is
a funny show, but with Lorne Michaels and Tina Fey
running it, I kind of expected more! But it is okay,
the writing on the show seems to make up for that at
the very least.
Conclusion:
I had just about given up on modern sitcoms, because I
have seen a long string of bad and mediocre sitcoms in
reviewing these pilots. But this time, I think we have
a show that we can legitimately call a winner. I'm not
saying the show was perfect, because I think it could
have been a little funnier than it actually was, but I
could tell from the pilot that a lot of effort was put
in to the basic development of the show and that it is
probably going to get even better from here on out.
And even further, as somebody that feels like NBC has
not aired anything decent at ALL in the past 15 years,
I feel like they finally do have something decent to
watch. I encourage everybody to watch this show, even
if it doesn't seem like your type of show. In all
honesty, if I hadn't had the opportunity to review
this show, I probably would have just ignored it, but
after seeing it, I must say I am pretty impressed and
would encourage everybody to at least try it out. Who
knows, this could become a hit for NBC, I know that
I'm hoping it does.
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars):
Watchability: 4.5/5
Funniness: 3.5/5
Overall: 4/5
-- Reviewed by skees53 on 09/30/06
Related Links:
NBC.com Official Site
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Internet Movie Database
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