A new 30 Rock thread because I can't find the old one

http://www.twitter.com/maxmaxmaxmax

cool tweets max

u should follow me then

nancy franklin is definitely the worst.

I don't know who she is, but now I hate her.

lets start a netroots campaign to make me new yorkers chief tv critic

maybe to get the ball rolling you should start newyorkerchieftvcritic.blogspot.com

we should also email her and ask her how to get her job, see here

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/ask/2008/12/questions-for-franklin.html

haha plz someone send her a super guileless email asking abt how to apply to become nyer chief tv critic

i have her real email address here

and her phone #

o wait i dont have her email addy apparently she doesnt have one

try nancyfrank✧✧✧@newyor✧✧✧.c✧✧

ooooooooops

no

COME ON AMERICA, Thxgiving is OVER, please torrent us some 30 Rock! FFS!

no ep last week fyi

what was the explanation for the facial scar?

google.com

looking forward to no guest stars this week

Kelefa Sanneh has written about TV a couple times recently -- I thought maybe he was taking over Franklin's job.

nancy franklin is definitely the worst.

― horseshoe, Monday, December 1, 2008 10:43 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^"Posts v. much in character"

i like sanneh but i would be better

in the first season I found myself fast-forwarding through many of the scenes that didn’t involve Alec Baldwin or Jack McBrayer, who plays Kenneth

This could be more concisely expressed as "I have horrible taste."

Kelefa on "Fringe" and "The Mentalist" was really, really great, with only one flaw (identifying Robin Tunney with The Craft and Empire Records, which is kinda shorthand for "I'm in my 30s and don't actually watch enough TV to have noticed she was in a popular current show.")

k, imdb

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/television/2008/11/24/081124crte_television_sanneh

It turned out that the F.B.I. had noticed a pattern of strange events (known, rather disappointingly, as “the Pattern”) that seemed to be connected to something called Massive Dynamic, which is a sinister multinational corporation—not, despite what you may have guessed, a jam band.

Ha, that's not that IMDB -- I mean, god knows I've never watched an episode of Prison Break either, but it's kinda funny/charming to be a top-tier television critic and just go "oh that's that chick from The Craft"

well max i certainly hope youll take yr responsibilities more seriously than this sanneh fellow

You're weird

bro not only do i know that robin tunney is on prison break i also know this celeb tidbit which i would no doubt work charmingly into my review, perhaps as a cold open that i would then weave into a larger metaphor about her acting on the show:

Within the film industry Tunney has acquired the nickname "Rubbin' Tummy" for her habit of absentmindedly rubbing her stomach while conferring with the director and other actors.

nabisco fyi sanneh is like a "good writer" and stuff but if u stand in the way of my netroots campaign to become editor of television at the new yorker i will crush u like a bug

haha what nabisco im just playin truly i have no idea what were even talking abt at this point

There's nothing to be scared of, it's just a Japanese sex doll in daddy's bed.

STOP PATRICIDING

Good job, sex doll.

yeah nabisco seriously, who gives a fuck if someone knows Tunney better for her semi-successful film roles than for her 1-season arc on boring-ass Prison Break? that's not a shortcoming.

i don't know who this tunney person is but that rubbin tummy business sounds adorable

haha john. i think i've posted my franklin hate to at least 5 ilx threads.

Dude the point was that Sanneh is new to being a television writer, as charmingly evidenced by that point; someone who'd been covering TV stuff for a while and was writing about "The Mentalist" would likely have identified her differently

^ This was not a major point, just something I found funny about Sanneh moving over to the TV critic space

thread needs to go back to people talking in quotes:

"i cant believe you are out of the game. thats like picasso not painting or bruce willis not combining action with rock harmonica, don't you miss it?"

I find 30 Rock fairly amusing, generally, but cleverly scripted jokes like that are precisely why I don't like it as much as The Office.

yeah...sharp comedy writers coming with one with cleverly scripted jokes one after another just can't hold a candle to actors improvising a purposefully bad joke, and then staring sullenly at the camera while the other people in the scene respond with awkward silence.

would you like some ketchup with those onion ZINGs?

bro not only do i know that robin tunney is on prison break i also know this celeb tidbit which i would no doubt work charmingly into my review, perhaps as a cold open that i would then weave into a larger metaphor about her acting on the show:

Reviews have cold opens now? MORE SOULLESS CORPORATISM AT WORK???

30 Rock needs to forget those cleverly scripted jokes and get back to mainlining non-sequiturs.

I fells the Human Macarena line last week was a little too clever. I still laughed like a drain though, so who cares?

The scripted nature of this is precisely why I like it more than The Office, so I guess that just saying something about preferences -- I enjoy dialog that's transparently "written," I don't really understand the whole TV/film attachment to "naturalism" on this front, and I like the breezy way this show tosses away that attachment and lets itself be arch and artificial at times. (Overall I suspect that not enough television allows itself to do this, not just with dialog but with so many other things!)

The Office is probably the second-best show on NBC, and yet I could even imagine watching it regularly. I find the "story" elements completely boring, and its dramatic moments unearned. Which is too bad, because the peripheral characters are hilarious, and Pam is cute.

yet I couldn't, rather.

One of the things I've laughed hardest at on 30 Rock was Tracy in therapy -- and the highlight of that scene, Jack's rapid-fire parade of voices, was definitely very scripted. But it was also something that felt very situational and in character. I think most of the jokes that don't work for me are Tracy or Kenneth delivering these Bruce Vilanch-style verbosely witty one-liners that seem at odds with the naivete of their characters. (Maybe that contradiction is why it's supposed to be funny, I dunno.)

Bruce Vilanch????????

I think most of the jokes that don't work for me are Tracy or Kenneth delivering these Bruce Vilanch-style verbosely witty one-liners that seem at odds with the naivete of their characters. (Maybe that contradiction is why it's supposed to be funny, I dunno.)