liz lemon

(S04E09) "The local station edited 'Will & Grace' so much that it was just called 'Karen'." - Randy Lemon

In my mind, Jack Donaghy had nothing to do with the whole Leno/Conan/NBC mess. Sure, he's not as high up as Jeff Zucker or Jeff Gaspin or any other executives named Jeff that the Peacock Network might have. But he's the head of a couple of divisions, so they might have asked him for his opinion on the matter. Jack cares about money, sure, but he seems like a Team Conan guy to me.

But I don't like him in "lost Jack" mode, where's he's lovesick and/or frazzled. And that's how he was in both of the new episodes tonight.

I'm not sure what the heck James Franco is doing on General Hospital (though I kind of admire his quirky career strategy), but I do know what he's doing on 30 Rock: he's playing himself, trying to set up a fake romance with Jenna. Here's a sneak peek of the episode, which airs on January 14.

[via Zap2it]

(S04E08) "Those sites are for horny married chicks with kids who want to exchange pervy e-mails with their old high school boyfriends." - Liz, about YouFace

I'm glad to see Danny back on the show. He hasn't been on that much (if at all) since being hired as the new cast member, and I thought it was going to be another one of those things where we don't see him again even though he's supposed to be on TGS still. But didn't you want to hear him sing normally during the TGS Christmas show? I didn't back Pete's plan to try to make Jenna angry (really, who wants that?) and it would have been a nice, Christmas-y ending for Danny and Jenna to sing well at the end and Jenna be OK with it. Instead, we got Jenna placated yet again and Pete going crazy. Eh.

Still, it was great that they got Cheyenne Jackson's singing in the show in a couple of scenes. Maybe in a later episode fans will find out that he's actually good.

I'm a sucker for Christmas episodes of TV shows and I love 30 Rock, which means that I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's episode of the show, "Secret Santa." But even beyond the Xmas aspect it looks funny, as Jack tries a new social networking site.

[Watch clips and episodes of 30 Rock and other shows at SlashControl.]

One of the funnier moments from last night's 30 Rock was Pete trying to help Liz create an opening for Dealbreakers. We see her trying to look sexy, trying to look sassy, and trying to wave like a normal human being. Also note what happens when she (along with Kenneth and Jack) gets it front of the HD cameras. (I love that the director on the board is "Alan Smithee" - even Pete doesn't want to take credit for this disaster.)

[Watch clips and episodes of 30 Rock and other shows at SlashControl.]

(S04E07) "It still counts!" - Whoopi Goldberg, on her Daytime Emmy

I wonder how 30 Rock will handle today's deal with Comcast. I'm sure Tina Fey and the rest of the writers are already working on an episode or two about the takeover. They've already had a plot this season about budget cuts and other network moves, and I think this could be one of those weird times where a real-life event is closely tied into a fictional TV show and can actually re-energize the show in some way. That's going to be an interesting plot to watch.

Of course, the real question is, how will all of this affect the Sheinhardt Wig Company?

Every week we can be guaranteed that Tina Fey and the people at 30 Rock will make fun of NBC in some way, whether it's product placement or The Jay Leno Show or last night's line about the green NBC peacock in the corner of the screen. Fey also isn't shy about dumping on NBC when she's away from the show either.

The other night she gave a speech at an Ad Council meeting at the Waldorf in New York. Her barbs were mostly about NBC's ratings, including pointing out that "NBC is sadly the fourth-place network. Actually we're in ninth place if you count the radio stations ahead of us right now." She also suggested that if the 1200 people in the audience watched NBC for just one night there would be a huge jump in the ratings.

I've been wondering what will happen if and when Comcast takes over NBC. Will they still have the HQ at 30 Rock? Will the show still be called 30 Rock? Fey suggested a new title: Industrial Park on the Schuyikill River.

(S04E06) "Oh brother. Are they really going to do something this year or just put that stupid green peacock in the corner of the screen?" - Liz, about NBC's Green Week

OK, I think we can all agree that this was one of the more disgusting episodes of 30 Rock. It's one thing to have Frank be really gross; we've seen that in previous episodes (the burping, the tank tops, the porn). But now we find out that he's urinating into jars in his office? I think that's officially holy crap disgusting, even if it does eventually help the Earth and give Jack flowers for his office.

It was also one of the least funny in a while, though that doesn't mean it didn't have its moments.

(S04E05) "He looks like all the guys in my magazines!" - janitor, about Danny

Another week, another "30 Rock isn't as good as it used to be" article. This one is from The Atlantic, of all places. The gist is this: "30 Rock used to be funny, but now it's not!" The Onion thinks so, too.

Oh, that's such crap.

I was talking to Joel about this earlier this week, and while it's probably true that the show doesn't have that "new car smell" anymore, so what? It isn't like the show is halfway through it's first season and it has fallen apart, the show is in its fourth season and it's still strong. This show has more jokes (and funny jokes) in one episode than most sitcoms have in six episodes. In fact, tonight's episode had more jokes before the opening credits than most shows have in six episodes.

And ladies, if you date a guy who doesn't think 30 Rock is still great? That's a dealbreaker.

(S04E04) "That's what I'm talking about, empathy. It's about as useless as the Winter Olympics. This February on NBC." - Jack

Could this be the end of the "new TGS cast member" storyline on 30 Rock this season? Will the robot guy work out well or will he turn out to be a nightmare and Liz will have to find a replacement for him? I'm curious to see if this ends the storyline and they just use robot guy as a visual joke for the rest of the season, the cast member who is always in metallic makeup and never says a word. Or maybe he'll turn out to be someone brilliant and that will mean more jealousy and paranoia for Jenna and/or Tracy. I guess we'll have to wait and see where they go with it.

The ongoing plot this season on 30 Rock is the search for a new cast member for TGS. A certain NBC personality guest stars on tonight's episode to audition for Liz, which brings back memories of when she auditioned for commercials years earlier.

[Watch clips and episodes of 30 Rock and other shows at SlashControl.]

(S04E03) "I met JJ Abrams once, and I don't know what this means, but he said that the island was just Hurley's dream." - Jenna

In a typical 30 Rock episode, not all of the plots always work. While the A plot will be great, B and C will be lame. If A and B are great, then C will be lame. If A and C are great, B will be lame. Sometimes A is great and B is fair, but C will be really unnecessary and forced. Sometimes there will just be an A and it's great, and there will be dashes of B and C. I don't know where I'm going with this because I was terrible at algebra.

Oh yeah: tonight A, B, and C all clicked, and that made for a very good 30 Rock.

(S04E02) "This isn't the auto industry, Pete. The auto industry was run by a bunch of out of touch white guys selling consumers a product they didn't want. We're GE damn it, and we're going to make a giant, flimsy microwave." - Jack

It's funny how Liz Lemon wrote the book titled Dealbreakers (a plot from last season they've continued this season). You can actually picture a book like that getting published. There must have been a hundred humor books like that released in the past five years, so this doesn't seem like one of those "crazy" fake books that a TV show comes out with. Actually, I'm surprised NBC hasn't actually published a book to cross-promote the show. Hey, Castle did it.

I just hope that the book that Tina Fey is writing isn't like that.

(S04E01) "We'll trick those race-car loving wide-loads into watching your lefty homoerotic propaganda hour yet!" - Jack

One of the many, many reasons 30 Rock is one of my favorite shows is because it's well aware of its own world. For example, one of the running jokes tonight was about Josh (Lonny Ross). I spent most of the last two seasons wondering where Josh was. He'd make a cameo here and there, but he's been pretty much missing since the first season. Liz and Jack talked about this tonight when Jack revealed that TGS needed a new cast member and Liz wondered about Josh's popularity on the show. Jack said "Oh, that's right, Josh. I forgot about that guy. You think that's a good sign?"

For the record, Josh was indeed in this episode, for a few seconds. He quit and then attempted to tip over the table when he found out a new person was coming on to the show.

Tina Fey was on The Today Show this morning to promote the new season of 30 Rock (tonight at 9:30 on NBC), and besides showing a clip from the episode, Fey kisses someone from the morning show.

But that's OK. Meredith Vieria kisses Tracy Morgan too. What the hell is going on over at NBC?

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