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« 30 Rock
February 15, 2007: "When You Said Hello, You Had Me"
Ah, shades of the Tracy Jordan Meat Machine episode. It's funny, I bet if years ago you asked either Alec Baldwin or Tracy Morgan, neither would have predicted they'd be a killer 1-2 punch on a hot sitcom. And yet here they are on 30 Rock.
I enjoyed all the story line pairings in this episode, actually. Jack and Tracy? Say no more. (OK, I will.) Seeing Jack fervently try to suck up to guest star Rip Torn, only to have Tracy waylay his plan by referring to the only other black guy at the la-de-da golf course function as "Carlton" — prompting Jack to offer a detailed refresher on Fresh Prince — was a blast. Loved Tracy's argyle, by the way. And then later, when Tracy broke hearts with the sad tale of how he realized his daughter had diabetes.... Well, you may have guessed it was a sham to save Jack's bacon, but that didn't make Tracy's eventual admission to his boss any less funny. Now I want to see the "casting session"!
Liz' story with Lutz and the writing staff at large may have been better had How I Met Your Mother not gone there with the C-word — clever bleeping and all — earlier this TV season. One problem I have with making light of that word is that no matter what the "funny" context, you're still evoking a very nasty slur, and not even one that has been appropriated by those it refers to as a term of endearment/solidarity. That said, Liz's story had a fitting message — that she is held to a different standard, yet shouldn't be, as a female head writer. Plus, her story gave us that winning flurry of flashbacks to times when she was a... not very nice lady. My favorite was her quip about Sherlock Holmes and "the case of the gay sweater." Poor Two-fer.
Last but not least, we had (not nearly enough of) Kenneth and his tortured coexistence alongside ex-love Grace Park (a nod to NBC publicists Grace Niu and Joanna Park, I wonder?). [I have since been advised it was an apparent Sci Fi Channel reference.] From "Doggoneit, Grace, I just don't know myself around you" to their mangled quoting of Jerry Maguire, the kids were sweet to watch.
The bullets:
• Liz updating Jack on Tracy, the redheaded intern and... we can only imagine: "False alarm. She asked him to take it out."
• Tracy trying to place Rip Torn's NBC-GE mucky-muck: "Is that the gay guy from Project Runway?
• Judah (whom I will be Q&Aing soon for Interviews & Features) recalling the Designing Women marathon that had him enthralled: "I liked it, and then I hated it, and then I liked it... and then I got horny and fell asleep."
• "Oh, Kenneth. If you're worried about disgracing the National Broadcasting Company, you're too late."
• Tracy making clear to the GE's helicopter-division exec his need for a whirlybird: "I wanna blow it up and run away from the flames in slow motion."
• Tracy: "Damn straight, I'm delightful!"
• Tracy (again), playing up the stereotype he thinks Jack wants him to be in front of the GE brass: "I studied fried chicken at the school of hard knocks!"
• Exasperated Jack: "It's like dating Katie Couric all over again." (Someone on 30 Rock has a Katie issue, methinks....)
• Lastly, the moral of this week's story: "You do not cross a Sugarbaker woman!"
Two postscripts: Zero Jenna this week. (This must have been when Jane Krakowski was busy selling Broadway investors on her roller-skating adaptation of Xanadu.) And it just hit me that 30 Rock isn't a serialized comedy, meaning the episodes are strictly independent of each other/very rarely reference previous events. All sitcoms used to be that way back in the day, but in the past 15 years or so it's been trending in the other direction. Interesting call.
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Feb 16, 2007 8:36 AM
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I wonder if "Grace Park" is actually a reference to actress Grace Park from Battlestar Galactica over on NBC's sister network, Sci-Fi. She is, after all, an attractive Asian woman. Also, I think that this Tracy storyline was his best yet. It showed that there's a little more to him than his usual insanity. Not much more, but it's there. After all, he was right that Jack just had him there to exploit his entertainment value. But Jack was right, too, that Tracy needs to "play the game" to do well in Hollywood. I like the reference that his stint on "TGS" happened partly because his movie career was in trouble. And lastly, I'd like to see more of Pete. He's a great straightman, and I think was first overlooked, being the less "obvious" character on the show.
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Feb 16, 2007 8:52 AM
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> Last but not least we had (not nearly enough of)> Kevin and his tortured coexistence alongside ex-love> Grace Park (a nod to NBC publicists Grace Niu and
>Joanna Park, I wonder?). From Doggoneit, Grace, I> just don't know myself around you" to their mangled> quoting of Jerry Maguire , the kids were sweet> to watch.
Don't you mean Kenneth?
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Feb 16, 2007 8:52 AM
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And Judah did not like-hate-like the Designing Women marathon! He hated-liked-hated it.
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Feb 16, 2007 10:17 AM
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And Judah did not like-hate-like the Designing Women marathon! He hated-liked-hated it.
I think you mean hated-liked-hated-masturbated it.
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Feb 16, 2007 10:27 AM
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Now that 30 Rock has been moved to Thursdays, I've seen the last few episodes and it's coming along.
Jack and Tracy make a great team ! Kenneth the intern isn't my favorite character, but he can be funny. When the big wig asked for his wife's coat, didn't you guys see Kenneth totally push Grace out of the way ?!
I loved Liz' "I'm so tired. I'm so tired." And I like Pete too.
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Feb 16, 2007 10:44 AM
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I think I'm beginning to like 30 rock better than scrubs. I still love scrubs, but I laugh more at 30 rock.
I loved Liz at the end with the tape messing up and then the speech, You do not cross a Sugarbaker woman! haha.
awesome!
I missed the episode last night so I watched it online, now i have to try to find last night's scrubs.
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Feb 16, 2007 11:38 AM
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I agree, Leah_bh. I laugh out loud more at 30 Rock than I do Scrubs.
Loved this episode! Not the best, but certainly solid. Tracy was particularly hilarious with his self-imposed stereotyping. And his argyle. Hee!
I love how flawed Liz is these days - she's not just the straight man that everyone bounces jokes off of. It's a nice move for the show. Her attempts to clean up in the men's restroom after staying up all night were hilarious!
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Feb 16, 2007 11:48 AM
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Can’t really say this episode was consistently funny. There were a couple of hilarious moments but in general I didn’t think this was one of the funnier episodes. Also, since when is Liz such a hard-ass boss? Isn’t she the one who allows the 1-minute dance parties and lets her writers play marry-boff-kill to the detriment of one of the show’s stars? But just for the opportunity to see the Sherlock Homo scene justified it. That was hilarious and Two-fer looked so cute. I love him!
And yes, the fact that it was done on HIMYM already kind of ruined the c-word storyline for me. I loved the cat wrangler’s line about how kittens can sense debilitating loneliness.
No idea about the publicists, Matt (re: Grace Park), I just figured one of the writer’s was a BSG fan. I would have loved to have seen the casting session for Tracy’s diabetic daughter done in the coda.
This is hands down the funniest show on television right now though, even when it's not at its peak.
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Feb 16, 2007 12:16 PM
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Whenever I see a TV show do "C-word" gag, all I can do is think of the one Rescue Me did two years ago where the firemen decided to combine the word with another offensive female term and started saying "Twunt".
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Feb 16, 2007 1:01 PM
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I'm glad you brought it up olomaya. I was wondering when they had shown Liz being a hard ass. I've seen her back down from people to keep things running smoothly more than I have seen her go off on people. Still a funny premise though.
I am still liking the ongoing joke of these famous ladies that Jack has had some sort of liaison with; this week being Katie Couric. Keep it coming...just don't let it get old.
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Feb 16, 2007 1:05 PM
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I knew it was going to be a great episode as soon as Jack said "simply the best!"
lol, and I guess you guys don't know this, but Grace Park is one of the most common Korean American name combinations there is. Almost of John Smith proportions. I actually know 2 grace parks.
And does it crack anyone else up that Matt Mitovich keeps calling Frank "Judah"?
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Feb 16, 2007 4:33 PM
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And does it crack anyone else up that Matt Mitovich keeps calling Frank "Judah"?
Posted by bertie
That's the actors name.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0295103/
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Feb 16, 2007 4:39 PM
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That's the actors name.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0295103/
lol, Leah-bh, I know that. I just think it's funny that he uses the actor's name instead of the character's. Though, Judah is a way cooler name than Frank. Still, if I was playing that character, I wonder how much I would appreciate my name being used. Now, if I was playing someone super-cool and sophisticated, it might be a different story. But a valentine's masturbator? LMAO.
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Feb 16, 2007 8:24 PM
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i love 30 rock and love the recaps here. and i have to say i have seen other bloggers write "judah" instead of "frank" which is funny, that the actor is such a strong personality that he ... transcends his character?
meanwhile liz is the one of the most dimensional women on TV these days, comedy or drama. she's *awesome*.
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Feb 16, 2007 8:39 PM
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