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

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but Jack Donegy is better character than anyone on AD.
COME ON!

Oh wait, actually, I think I agree with you. It feels really odd to write this, but I think Alec Baldwin is one hell of a comedic actor. Nearly all of my favorite 30R bits are thanks to him. Nothing will beat the 'What am I, a farmer?' comment.

Love this show. I'm really glad newer sitcoms are ditching the laugh tracks, too, as it lets them squeeze in more content. Contrast Christina Applegate walking into the Bundy-home and standing around for a minute waiting for the hooting to end before she delivers her first line.
I don't love it like I love AD, but then it hasn't gone on for nearly as long either.
My favorite American comedy is still Curb Your Enthusiasm, however.

What's the Lemon-winking-to-the-camera picture from? I didn't notice that.

― Øystein, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:19 (seventeen years ago) link

she does that after she says the line about how she still loves america, even though she thinks we should all drive hybrid cars and etc.

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Married with Children is about the only time that a laugh track has really worked. It was one of the best parts of the show. If someone walked up to my cubicle right now with a "NO MAAM" shirt on, I'd applaud too.

― Chris H., Monday, 26 February 2007 21:24 (seventeen years ago) link

It feels really odd to write this, but I think Alec Baldwin is one hell of a comedic actor.

He always has been! Every time he's been on SNL, he's been the funniest and most talented part of the show. He's never really done any movies that showcased this though.

― Nicole, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:25 (seventeen years ago) link

He's never really done any movies that showcased this though.

Alec Balwin was hilarious in Miami Blues.

― Chris H., Monday, 26 February 2007 21:26 (seventeen years ago) link

THE DEPARTED!!!!!

― David R., Monday, 26 February 2007 21:27 (seventeen years ago) link

AD has funny jokes and great acting but its steez is anoying. 30rock is just completely great.

― jh0shea, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, the little bit of AD I've seen just takes the long way around to get to the same end 30 Rock goes straight to.

Plus, no character on AD would've ever gone off their meds and seen Rachel Dratch dressed up as a furry little blue man. 30 Rock had that, and it was probably one of the most WTF moments ever on a network sitcom.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Blue man was kind of forced, like they were really really stretching to come up with a Rachel Dratch part that week. That's the sort of thing that wouldn't have been on AD, to its credit. Rachel ought to stick to what works -- the cat agent and various talk show hosts/therapists.

― Chris H., Monday, 26 February 2007 21:37 (seventeen years ago) link

That's the sort of thing that wouldn't have been on AD

MR. F to thread!

― David R., Monday, 26 February 2007 21:39 (seventeen years ago) link

I so disagree. Blue man was probably one of my three favorite 30 Rock episodic elements so far (Kenneth's poker skills and Brian Williams' dressing room being a couple others).

― Johnny Fever, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:41 (seventeen years ago) link

the lame part abt AD is the forced zaniness and narration - it's still really funny but 30 rock is more better

― jh0shea, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:41 (seventeen years ago) link

The Tracy-off-his-meds episode was one of my favorites, between the "I'M BUGGIN OUT" on the ceiling part and the introduction of Dr Spaceman.

― nickalicious, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Also I want more Grizz and Dot Com!

― nickalicious, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:44 (seventeen years ago) link

I love both shows, but AD has the edge. There was a poignancy to the characters that 30 Rock doesn't have yet.

― Nicole, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:45 (seventeen years ago) link

The other thing that really sags about Arrested Development in this comparison is the shotgun narrative construction -- it's really antic and all over the place, all kinds of cutaways and flashbacks and insert gags taped together with voice-over, so that over the course of 30 minutes it can't exactly put together a story that feels natural and coherent, and instead goes for a kind of Seinfeld / Larry David-style "random scattershot things that start to intersect with one another in bizarre and hilarious ways."

Which is funny, but if you put the DVD in my hand, I can only watch so many episodes of that in a row. Part of what's amazing about 30 Rock is that it gets that same kind of humor into a format that feels a lot more coherent, and spends a lot more time sticking with the characters in an actual situation-type comedy, rather than just hitting a gag or awkward pause and then racing off to the next one. I mean, if you measured scene lengths and stuff, I'm not sure 30 Rock is actually constructed THAT differently from Arrested Development, but it definitely feels like it is, and I'm guessing my one-episode-after-another DVD-viewing tolerance for it would be like three times as long as with AD.

― nabisco, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Mr. F was wonderful. I still sing the jingle to myself when I need a little pick-me-up.

― Chris H., Monday, 26 February 2007 21:45 (seventeen years ago) link

I think the AD characters mean more to me, but that's probably because it was a show about family, whereas 30 Rock is a show about co-workers, whose relationships with each other just isn't quite as important.

― nickalicious, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:46 (seventeen years ago) link

"I'M BUGGIN OUT!" indeed. Everything about that episode was perfect (Pete wearing the wig/parting the crowd of NBC tourists, Conan and Liz's chat outside Tracy's dressing room, Dr. Spaceman, the blue dude... all of it).

― Johnny Fever, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:46 (seventeen years ago) link

I guess the main element there is that 30 Rock actually focuses in trad sitcom style on particular characters dealing with particular issues, whereas Arrested Development's humor is more often about characters' repetitive / predictable wacky behavior -- I can't recall it ever grounding itself in anything so straightforward as, you know, "Liz Lemon struggles to balance her role as hard-assed boss with her desire to be well-liked and 'feminine.'"

― nabisco, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:50 (seventeen years ago) link

Two things:

1. 30 Rock's characters are not as wacky as AD's, which helps

2. I always felt like AD strained at times when it tried to hook up with every character in every episode. With 30 Rock we sometimes see Jenna's character in an epsiode, and sometimes we don't--and that's okay.

― Mr. Que, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:56 (seventeen years ago) link

I've watched a couple of the AD re-runs and it's just not as good as I remember it being. There's a lot of time wasted in episodes (where 30 Rock fills in with sight/background gags) with oh-look-how-wacky-we-are filler. Feh.

― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 01:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Okay, what the hell is going on? Did they export the writing duties offshore or something? This episode isn't funny so far AT ALL!

― Johnny Fever, Friday, 2 March 2007 02:48 (seventeen years ago) link

"Ghostface, do you think you could mention Donagy Export dot com?"
"Yeah, let me get my rhyming dictionary."

― nickalicious, Friday, 2 March 2007 03:02 (seventeen years ago) link

^crazy. it was really funny! so many good tracey lines!

Ghostface: "Let me get my rhyming dictionary"

― johnny crunch, Friday, 2 March 2007 03:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Tracy does an excellent Oprah.

― nickalicious, Friday, 2 March 2007 03:03 (seventeen years ago) link

It picked up once they moved to the Source Awards, but before that it was just a couple of Tracy zings and... nothing! Even Alec Baldwin was off tonight.

― Johnny Fever, Friday, 2 March 2007 03:04 (seventeen years ago) link

this was one of the best episodes yet.

― kenan, Friday, 2 March 2007 03:06 (seventeen years ago) link

"Ray, go get my nose back!"

― horseshoe, Friday, 2 March 2007 03:07 (seventeen years ago) link

i lol'ed so hard at go get my nose back. also, mc skat kat

― A B C, Friday, 2 March 2007 03:09 (seventeen years ago) link

"...it's a Catch 22...oh man he's gonna be there too!"

― nickalicious, Friday, 2 March 2007 03:12 (seventeen years ago) link

I also liked "death by chocolate" and the line that introduced the Nickelodeon show, which I can't remember.

― horseshoe, Friday, 2 March 2007 03:19 (seventeen years ago) link

hahaha kid Tracy "sorry man, I'm pretty drunk"!!!!

― nickalicious, Friday, 2 March 2007 03:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, like I said it picked up right after I posted. But something still seemed off about tonight's show, amirite?

― Johnny Fever, Friday, 2 March 2007 03:23 (seventeen years ago) link

I think there was just a long buildup to the Liz-is-really-invested-in-not-being-racist payoff of the Oprah moment.

― horseshoe, Friday, 2 March 2007 03:25 (seventeen years ago) link

I really don't get what fever thought was off. I thought is was f'in great.

― kenan, Friday, 2 March 2007 03:55 (seventeen years ago) link

We should take a carriage ride around the financial district

― mizzell, Friday, 2 March 2007 04:22 (seventeen years ago) link

Maybe it's because so few regulars were on this week. Liz, Jack, Kenneth and Tracy... that's it (oh, and Jenna for three seconds).

― Johnny Fever, Friday, 2 March 2007 04:32 (seventeen years ago) link

the episode didn't gel as well as some others, but had some of the funniest stuff...the whole Nickolodeon bit killed me, the little kid saying "sorry, I'm drunk".

― dan selzer, Friday, 2 March 2007 04:34 (seventeen years ago) link

There was absolutely no resolution, which I found a bit jarring considering the previous episodes. Still funny, though.

― Gukbe, Friday, 2 March 2007 04:54 (seventeen years ago) link

The Ron Mexico joke was golden.

― sous les paves, Friday, 2 March 2007 06:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Wasn't it Juan Mexico?

"...the urine of Satan after a heavy serving of asparagus."

― nickn, Friday, 2 March 2007 06:14 (seventeen years ago) link

It's a reference to Michael Vick's fake name he used when he gave someone herpes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Vick#Ron_Mexico_controversy

― sous les paves, Friday, 2 March 2007 06:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Watching it again (thanks torrents!), it's funnier. Still awkward, but funnier.

― Johnny Fever, Friday, 2 March 2007 06:41 (seventeen years ago) link

There was absolutely no resolution, which I found a bit jarring considering the previous episodes.

Some of the best episodes haven't had any resolution whatsoever, though - the one where Liz has to kick Jack out of the writers room for example

― HPSCHD, Friday, 2 March 2007 10:55 (seventeen years ago) link

Even Alec Baldwin was off tonight.

I don't know, I liked the line about Murphys being nothing but mud farmers and sheep rapists. Also the whole date between Lemon and Stephen was fantastic. He doesn't own a telly but does Vietnam war re-enactments and takes pictures of interesting doors. Genius.

― accentmonkey, Friday, 2 March 2007 11:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Also, the manatee has become the mentor.

I love this programme so much.

― accentmonkey, Friday, 2 March 2007 11:05 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah that ending was particularly cliffhangerish. it felt like there was still 10 mins of episode to go. it was almost a seinfeld sort of ending! i mean with the shooting and all, it could totally have faded to that stupid bass-lick interstatial theme.

― s.clover, Friday, 2 March 2007 11:05 (seventeen years ago) link

also, i thought it was actually "the manatee has become the mentos"

and the "Donagy sort of rhymes with party" thing!

― s.clover, Friday, 2 March 2007 11:07 (seventeen years ago) link

I agree with the consensus (funny, but a step back from the giddy heights of hilarity attained in recent weeks)

I wish I could remember what Tracy said in the Oprah-voice that had me cracking up

― bernard snowy, Friday, 2 March 2007 13:13 (seventeen years ago) link

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