30 Rock

It's really so simple; good writing and good comedic timing. Why do so many shows fail at this?

hee hee

Can we get AIDS into every episode, plz?

alec baldwin continues to kill me - and that southern accent taunting across the poker table! hahaha

oh man after i saw that scene i wanted to go so bad... i was planning on hunting for that place when i'm in ny for 48hrs this wknd... thanks for the tip!

The show on after this with Jeffrey Tambor & John Lithgow is a lot funnier than I expected, but it's still a regular sitcom, which is so much harder to watch now post Arrested Development/Office/etc.

"In five years we'll either be working for him or dead by his hand"

From today's Washington Post:

And, in a move that can only be called PR genius, NBC announced "30 Rock," Tina Fey's sendup of "Saturday Night Live," and mothballed doctor comedy "Scrubs" would join "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" for a four-comedy block on Thursday night, harkening back to the golden days of NBC, long before it became just another cog in the great GE/NBC Universal 2.0 mandala.

Based on early exit polling, it worked like gangbusters. Critics seemed to like it; ditto members of the Hollywood TV community. The move "at least gives the network an identity" on one night of the week, said one industry suit who wished to remain anonymous because private schools aren't cheap.

This is saddening in a way though because now once again there will be nothing decent on tv in the hour before LOST on Wed.

(they just wanted to prove me wrong. they are ALWAYS doing that.)

bulllllshit, three-camera/studio audience sitcoms are still, as a format, way better than all that steadicam/awkward-silences-with-no-laugh-track stuff that's trendy now (although I do like what 30 Rock does with it), and judging from CBS's Monday night lineup there's still some good shows being made in that style.

they had promos up the butt for months! they looked like snl promos.

"and judging from CBS's Monday night lineup there's still some good shows being made in that style."

other than lost, and now 30 rock, these are the only shows i watch. i dig how i met your mother, and 2 & a half men, and old christine. the class is pretty bad though. maybe even worse than the one with the fonz and stockard channing that is gone now i think.

And I didn't even realize that Gretchen was played by Law & Order alum Stephanie March.

20 Good Years was doomed from the start, it was basically targeted to everyone outside the 18-49 bracket. Smart.

yes! i mentioned that one. it's not great, but it has its moments. and andy richter as creepy japan-obsessed oral sex king is worth watching. her brother is weird. like he dropped in from an indie movie or something. definitely laugh out loud moments to be had.

Seinfeld to Fey: do you miss 30 rock?
Fey: No!

The workload was apparently nuts.

yeah...some SNL alumni have said that in a way sitcoms are actually a harder grind, because instead of writing and rehearsing and then performing a show in 6 days and being done with it, you've gotta go through long hours of multiple takes and editing, etc. being a star/writer/producer of a show like that must be exhausting.

also it wouldn't surprise me if Tina put more of the work and the pressure on her shoulders than Jerry ever did.

I read an interview where she admitted that she kept the show going because of all the jobs of her friends and crew that were riding on it, so maybe the show is actually an idealized version of the work/life struggle, whereas real tina fey was in a nightmare hellhole.

i could believe that. there was a lot of hamster-wheeling going on during the last few seasons, though it was still enjoyable

"greenzo" is so good, kenneth's party, david schwimmer, lol

three years pass...

...lol

there's no season 2 thread!

We went in to the sandbox about a 1/3 of the way into the 1st season. After we got out, a new thread was started and it carried us through the rest of the series.

Obvs. this was back before we really started doing devoted seasonal threads for shows.

thinking a lot lately about the scene where jack goes to work for the bush administration and he walks into a room and looks up and goes "um, the ceiling appears to be leaking" and matthew broderick cheerfully responds "no. it's not. we've looked into it, and it's not."

A pack of wild dogs took over and successfully ran a ‘Wendy’s