30 Rock is an
American television comedy series created by
Tina Fey. The series is produced by
Broadway Video and Little Stranger, Inc., in association with
NBC Universal, and currently airs on the
NBC network in the United States.
The name 30 Rock refers to the
GE Building where
NBC Studios is located and which has the address "30
Rockefeller Plaza." The series is produced in a
single camera setup and deals with the goings-on behind the camera of fictional
live sketch comedy series,
TGS with Tracy Jordan.
The
pilot episode first aired on October 11,
2006,
and
the first season was comprised of 21 episodes.
The
second season, which premiered on October 4,
2007,
was originally intended to contain 22 episodes,
but was abbreviated to 15 episodes because of the
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.
A third season, which is expected to contain 22 episodes, premiered on October 30, 2008.
The current
executive producers are Tina Fey,
Lorne Michaels,
Marci Klein,
David Miner and
Robert Carlock.
is filmed primarily at
Silvercup Studios in
Long Island City, Queens,
New York,
but some scenes are filmed on location at
Rockefeller Center.
The series has an ensemble cast which currently consists of ten regular cast members, including Fey. The other main cast members are
Tracy Morgan,
Jane Krakowski,
Jack McBrayer,
Scott Adsit,
Judah Friedlander and
Alec Baldwin. The show also has a cast of three other supporting cast members as well as many
recurring characters.
has been a critical success, winning several major awards including the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series both in 2007 and 2008,
the
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Series,
the
Producers Guild of America Award for Producer of the Year in Episodic Comedy Series,
and a
Peabody Award,
as well as achieving the top ranking on a myriad of critics' year-end best of 2006 and 2007 lists.
Despite these accolades, the series averaged a low 5.8 million viewers in the United States during its first season, according to the
Nielsen Ratings system, and ranked 102 out of 142 television series.
Production
Conception
In
2002, Fey was the
head writer and a performer on
Saturday Night Live (SNL). She pitched the show that became
30 Rock to NBC, originally as a sitcom about
cable news. NBC Entertainment president
Kevin Reilly felt that "Fey was using the news setting as a fig leaf for her own experience and
[1] encouraged her to write what she knew."
The show was subsequently reworked to revolve around a
SNL style skit show. In May 2003, Fey signed a contract with NBC to remain in her
SNL head writer position until at least the 2004–2005 television season, and to develop a primetime project to be produced by Broadway Video and NBC Universal.
During the 2004–2005
pilot season, a pilot was announced named
Untitled Tina Fey Project. The
30 Rock pilot focused on the head writer of a variety show who has to manage her relationships with the show's volatile star and its charismatic executive producer. The storyline evolved into one that dealt with a head writer of a variety show who dealt with both the stars as well as the variety show's new network executive.
was officially given the greenlight to air on May 15, 2006 and was given a 13-episode order.
The show underwent further changes during the months leading up to and following its debut. A May 2006 press release mentioned that sketches from
The Girlie Show would be made available in their entirety on NBC's broadband website, DotComedy.com. The idea was to air the fictitious
TGS with Tracy Jordan online.
This aspect of the series was abandoned prior to its debut.
Filming locations
30 Rock is filmed in
New York City. Although
establishing shots of
30 Rock are often repeated, outdoor scenes are filmed on location at
Rockefeller Center or in other parts of New York City.
Most of the indoor scenes are filmed at
Silvercup Studios in
Queens.
In the episodes "Cleveland" and "Hiatus",
Battery Park City, Manhattan and
Douglaston, Queens doubled for
Cleveland, Ohio and Needmore, Pennsylvania, respectively.
Music
Sound sample box align right
sample box end
The series features a "jaunty"
jazz soundtrack.
The music is composed by Fey's husband Jeff Richmond, who is also a producer for
30 Rock. Richmond wrote the theme music, which was nominated for the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music.
Seven short original
songs have been featured in episodes, five of which were performed by Jane Krakowski,
another performed by Tina Fey and
Jason Sudeikis,
and another performed by Tracy Morgan.
The show has also covered three existing songs,
including the song "
Midnight Train to Georgia" by
Gladys Knight and the Pips. The song had its lyrics altered to accommodate the character Kenneth being "misinformed about the time
the 11:45 train."
The song "Oh My" performed by the The Gray Kid is heard throughout the episode "The Source Awards", which was mixed with a piano arrangement composed by Richmond.
Internet
On April 2, 2008, NBC announced
30 Rock 360, an online extension of the
30 Rock series. The extension will feature Jack Donaghy's Online Business Courses (or
Jack U). Users will also be able to read Jack's
blogs and upload their own business advice in video form. Users will be able to submit skits for
TGS with Tracy Jordan and act out skits from
TGS. The feature will re-open
Ask Tina, an interactive
question and answer platform in which users can ask Fey questions. Fey will answer the questions in video form.
was a fixture on NBC.com's
30 Rock section throughout the first season.
Complete episodes of
30 Rock are available online, to U.S. residents only, along with downloads through the "NBC Direct" service and as of September 9th, 2008 once again on Apple's iTunes after Apple and NBC came to a deal to re-offer NBC shows on iTunes. NBC's shows were originally pulled from iTunes during December 2007 due to pricing disputes.The first and second seasons can be
streamed on
Netflix, which requires a paid subscription,
while the first and second seasons can be purchased on
Amazon Unbox for
$1.99.
Cast and characters
The plot of
30 Rock revolves around the cast and crew of the fictional
sketch comedy series
TGS with Tracy Jordan, which is filmed in Studio 6H inside 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
The cast of the series is an
ensemble cast,
which means that each character is seen with roughly the same amount of importance in each episode. The initial season had seven roles receiving star
billing.
Tina Fey portrayed the protagonist, the
head writer of
TGS with Tracy Jordan,
Liz Lemon.
Tracy Morgan played the
loose cannon star of
TGS,
Tracy Jordan.
Jane Krakowski acted as the
limelight seeking
Jenna Maroney.
Jack McBrayer portrayed the young, obedient
Southern-born
NBC page,
Kenneth Parcell.
Scott Adsit played the "sane," quick witted producer of
TGS,
Pete Hornberger.
Judah Friedlander acted as the
trucker hat-wearing childish, sarcastic writer
Frank Rossitano, and
Alec Baldwin portrayed the decisive, controlling, suave network executive
Jack Donaghy, who constantly interferes with the goings on at
TGS.
Beginning with season two, three characters, who were credited as guest stars during season one, received star billing in addition to the existing cast.
portrayed Liz's attractive, laid back assistant
Cerie Xerox.
played
black Harvard alumni writer
James "Toofer" Spurlock.
Lonny Ross acted as the immature
TGS cast member
Josh Girard. Beginning with season three, three characters who were guest stars in the first two seasons received star billing. They include
Maulik Pancholy as Jack's loyal assistant
Jonathan.
Grizz Chapman and
Kevin Brown as Tracy's
entourage Grizz and Dot Com, respectively. Additionally, Lonny Ross no longer received star billing.
Casting
Tina Fey worked with Jen McNamara and
Adam Bernstein for the casting of the series.
Fey's first act as
casting director was to cast herself as the lead character, Liz Lemon, who is said to be much like Fey herself when she first became head writer on
SNL.
[30 Rock Exclusive Video Clips – NBC Official Site] The next actor to be cast was Tracy Morgan as Tracy Jordan,
who was then a former castmate of Fey's in
SNL. Morgan was asked by Fey to play the role, and he believed it was "right up
[2] alley and it was tailor made for
[3]".
Fey said that the character of Kenneth Parcell was written with Jack McBrayer in mind. McBrayer was an old friend of Fey, and she "really wanted him for that part and was very happy when no one objected".
, Fey's longtime comedy partner and fellow
SNL alumna, was originally cast to portray Jenna. Dratch played the role in the show's original pilot, but in August 2006, Jane Krakowski was announced as Dratch's replacement, with Dratch remaining involved in the show playing various characters.
Fey explained the change by noting that Dratch was "better-suited to playing a variety of eccentric side characters",
and that the role of Jenna was more of a straight-ahead acting part. Although Fey went on to say that "Rachel and I were both very excited about this new direction",
Dratch said that she was not happy with the media's depiction of the change as a demotion. Dratch was skeptical about the reasons she was given for the change, and was not happy with the reduction in the number of episodes in which she would appear.
Shortly following the casting of McBrayer and Dratch, Alec Baldwin was cast as Jack Donaghy, the "totally uncensored" Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming.
Fey said that the character of Jack Donaghy was written with Baldwin in mind, and she was "very pleasantly surprised when he agreed to do it".
Judah Friedlander was cast as the staff writer of
The Girlie Show, Frank Rossitano. Friedlander had never met Fey before auditioning for a role in
30 Rock. His character was based on at least two writers that Fey used to work with at
SNL, but said that he "certainly brought some of
[2] own things to it as well".
Finally, Scott Adsit was cast as Pete Hornberger, a long time friend of Liz's and producer of
The Girlie Show. Adsit, an old friend of Fey, also had his character written based on him.
Appearing as characters
- Fred Armisen as Raheem Haddad ("Somebody to Love")
- Jennifer Aniston as Claire Harper ("The One with the Cast of Night Court")
- Will Arnett as Devon Banks ("Fireworks", "Jack Gets in the Game", "Succession")
- Wayne Brady as Steven Black ("The Source Awards")
- Matthew Broderick as James Riley, also known as Cooter Burger ("Cooter")
- Steve Buscemi as Lem ("The Collection")
- Tim Conway as Bucky Bright ("Subway Hero")
- LL Cool J as Ridikolous ("The Source Awards")
- Rachel Dratch as various characters ("Pilot", "The Aftermath", "Jack Meets Dennis", "Tracy Does Conan", "The Break Up", "The Baby Show", "The Rural Juror", "Up All Night", "The C Word", "Hard Ball", "Hiatus")
- Edie Falco as Congresswoman Celeste "C.C." Cunningham (D-VT) ("Somebody to Love", "Secrets and Lies", "Episode 210", "Cooter")
- Carrie Fisher as Rosemary Howard ("Rosemary's Baby")
- Sean Hayes as Jesse Parcell ("Hiatus")
- Peter Hermann as Gray ("The Head and the Hair")
- Anita Gillette as Margaret Lemon ("Episode 209")
- Buck Henry as Dick Lemon ("Episode 209")
- Nathan Lane as Eddie Donaghy ("The Fighting Irish")
- Stephanie March as Gretchen Thomas ("Blind Date")
- Emily Mortimer as Phoebe ("Corporate Crush", "Cleveland", "Hiatus")
- Chris Parnell as Dr. Leo Spaceman ("Tracy Does Conan", "The Baby Show", "The Rural Juror", "Fireworks", "Hiatus", "Jack Gets In The Game", "Succession")
- Paul Reubens as Gerhardt Habsburg ("Black Tie")
- Andy Richter as Mitch Lemon ("Episode 209")
- Isabella Rossellini as Bianca ("Black Tie", "Up All Night")
- Molly Shannon as Katherine Catherine ("The Fighting Irish")
- David Schwimmer as Jared a.k.a. Greenzo ("Greenzo")
- Elaine Stritch as Colleen Donaghy ("Hiatus", ""Ludachristmas"")
- Sherri Shepherd as Angie Jordan ("Up All Night", "Jack Gets in the Game", "The Collection")
- Jason Sudeikis as Floyd ("Up All Night", "The Source Awards", "The Fighting Irish", "Fireworks", "Corporate Crush", "Cleveland", "Hiatus", "Sandwich Day")
- Rip Torn as Don Geiss ("The C Word", "Corporate Crush", "Jack Gets in the Game", "Succession", "Sandwich Day")
- Kristen Wiig as Candace Van Der Shark ("Somebody to Love")
- Dean Winters as Dennis Duffy ("Jack Meets Dennis", "Tracy Does Conan", "The Break Up", "Subway Hero", "Cooter")
col-2
Appearing as themselves
col-end
Season synopses
Season 1
Season one began airing in the United States on October 11, 2006,
and featured 21 episodes.
The season finale aired on April 26, 2007.
Jack Donaghy, the "Head of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming" at
General Electric (GE), is transferred to work at the NBC headquarters, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and retool the late night sketch comedy series
The Girlie Show. The show's cast and crew are outraged by this; especially head writer Liz Lemon and main actress Jenna Maroney. Jack proceeds to wreak havoc on
The Girlie Show, forcing Liz to hire the off-the-wall
movie star Tracy Jordan. He again angers the cast and crew of
The Girlie Show when he changes the name to
TGS with Tracy Jordan (or just
TGS).
As the season progresses, the episodes become less about
TGS and more about how the characters deal with juggling their lives and their jobs — specifically the protagonist, Liz Lemon, but other characters are also explored. Episodes also become less self-contained and various story arcs develop in the second half of the season. For example, the first major story arc centers on Liz's relationship with
Dennis Duffy (
Dean Winters), "The Beeper King." Other story arcs include: Jenna promoting her movie
The Rural Juror; Tracy going on the run from The Black Crusaders; Jack's engagement, which was eventually called off, to a
Christie's auctioneer named
Phoebe (
Emily Mortimer); and another relationship of Liz's with
Floyd (
Jason Sudeikis).
Season 2
Season two began airing in the United States on October 4, 2007,
and featured 15 episodes.
The second season was originally intended to consist of 22 episodes but the order was cut to 15 due to the
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike,
The season finale aired on May 8, 2008.
After Liz broke up with Floyd in the summer, she is looking for ways to rebound. When
Jerry Seinfeld confronts Jack about a new marketing campaign which featured clips of Seinfeld's sitcom,
Seinfeld, in all NBC shows, he has a chance encounter with Liz that gives her some much needed advice. During the
TGS summer hiatus, Jenna becomes overweight due to performing in the
broadway show Mystic Pizza: The Musical and with the help of Kenneth, loses the weight. Tracy has encountered some marital problems with his wife
Angie Jordan (
Sherri Shepherd) and they become separated, but later reunite.
During the season, Jack develops a relationship with a
Democratic congresswoman named
Celeste "C.C." Cunningham (
Edie Falco). They later break up. An arc that was established in the first season but becomes more apparent in the second regards Jack running for the GE chairmanship against his archnemesis
Devon Banks (
Will Arnett). The season ends with Liz planning to adopt a child after believing she was pregnant with Dennis' baby. Kenneth also travels to
Beijing to be a page at the
2008 Summer Olympics and Tracy invents a
pornographic video game. Jack ends the season working at a new government job in
Washington, D.C., but plans to get fired by proposing a "gay bomb."
Season 3
30 Rock returned with a third season as part of NBC's fall schedule. The season will consist of 22 episodes.
In August 2008,
Jennifer Aniston filmed her guest appearance on the show, marking the second actor from the
NBC show
Friends, following
David Schwimmer, to make an appearance.
Oprah Winfrey will guest star in the second episode, playing herself.
Rose McGowan will also be making a guest appearance in episode 4, and
Salma Hayek has been confirmed
[Salma Hayek Will Rock Jack Donaghy's World" TV Guide. October 10, 2008. Retrieved on October 10 2008.] for a multi-episode arc, portraying Jack's new girlfriend. Other guest stars this season include
Megan Mullally and
Steve Martin.
The Season 3 premiere became available online on October 23 2008.
[blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2008/10/the-wait-is-ove.html] According to Nielsen, the premiere of the third season garnered 8.5 million viewers, becoming the highest viewed episode in the series.
Impact
Critical reception
30 Rock has been well received by critics but has struggled to attract viewers.
Robert Abele of
LA Weekly declared that the show was "A weirdly appropriate and hilarious symbol of our times."
Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote that "The standard caution is relevant - debut episodes tend to be highly polished. All the more reason to enjoy the hilarious scenes and fine ensemble cast here."
Some less favorable reviews were received from Brian Lowry of
Variety. Lowry said that "Despite her success with "Mean Girls,"
[4] Fey mostly hits too-familiar notes in the pilot. Moreover, she's a limited protagonist, which is problematic."
Criticism was also received from Maureen Ryan of the
Chicago Tribune, who said that "
30 Rock is less than the sum of its parts, and, as an entry in the single-camera comedy sweepstakes, it fails to show either the inspired inventiveness of
Arrested Development or provide the surprisingly perceptive character studies of
The Office."
gave the pilot episode a Metascore—a weighted average based on the impressions of a select thirty-one critical reviews—of 67 out of 100.
The season premiere of the second season, "
SeinfeldVision," which featured
Jerry Seinfeld,
received mostly positive reviews. Jeff Labrecque of
Entertainment Weekly wrote that "
SeinfeldVision was a clever and ironic way to incorporate
[5] Seinfeld."
Matt Webb Mitovich of
TV Guide said that "
' was a solid start to the new, fought-for season" and that it did have "some great, great moments." Despite this praise, Webb Mitovich criticised Kenneth and Tracy's "office wife" storyline saying that "we've seen this shtick before on countless other sitcoms, so it was a bit empty and filled with 'easy' jokes." Criticism was also received regarding the "striped outfit... it didn't work. No," referring to a joke involving Jenna trying to distract the
TGS writers from her newly gained weight.
Lisa Schmeiser of
Television Without Pity graded this episode as a "B+."
Despite the mostly positive reviews, Alessandra Stanley of
The New York Times thought that "SeinfeldVision" "is mostly a reminder that even the most talented actors and writers sometimes slip under pressure."
Days before the premiere of the season premiere, Seinfeld was criticized as using his appearance in this episode as a plug for his upcoming
feature film Bee Movie. Seinfeld, NBC and
General Electric stated that this was done as
metahumor.
At the end of 2006,
LA Weekly listed
30 Rock as one of the best "Series of the Year."
[ ] The show also appeared on similar year end "best of" 2006 lists published by
The New York Times,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
and
TV Guide.
The
Associated Press wrote that NBC's "Thursday night comedy block—made up of
My Name Is Earl,
The Office,
Scrubs, and
30 Rock—is consistently the best night of prime time viewing for any network."
In 2007, it appeared on
The Boston Globe's "best of" list
as well as the "best of" lists of
The Chicago Sun-Times,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
and
USA Today.
was named the best series of 2007 by
Entertainment Weekly.
Awards and nominations
Capping its critically successful first season,
30 Rock won the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series and
Elaine Stritch was awarded an Emmy in September 2007 for her work as a guest actress in "Hiatus."
and
Alec Baldwin were nominated in the
Outstanding Lead Actress and
Outstanding Lead Actor in a comedy series categories respectively.
"Jack-Tor" and "Tracy Does Conan" were both nominated in the category of Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.
received four
Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Alec Baldwin received the
Golden Globe Award for
Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical in 2007.
Baldwin also received the
Screen Actors Guild Award for
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series in 2007.
The show also received various other guild award nominations during its first season.
In 2008, Tina Fey won the Golden Globe Award for
Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical.
That year,
30 Rock also received a nomination for
Best Television Series - Comedy or Musical.
Fey and Baldwin both won Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2008.
The series took home the
Writers Guild of America Award for
Best Comedy Series in 2008.
It also received the The Danny Thomas Producer of the Year Award in Episodic Series - Comedy from the
Producers Guild of America in 2008.
received 17 Emmy nominations, for its second season, meaning it was the second most nominated series of the year.
These 17 nominations broke the record for the most nominations for a comedy series, meaning that
30 Rock was the most nominated comedy series for any individual Emmy year. The previous holder of this record was
The Larry Sanders Show in 1996 with 16 nominations.
also won the
Television Critics Association Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Comedy."
Also in 2008, 30 Rock completed a sweep of the major awards for best comedy series at that year's Primetime Emmy Awards. The show won Outstanding Comedy Series, Alec Baldwin was recognized as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and Tina Fey was given the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. This marks the eighth time in the history of the Emmy awards that a show won best series plus best lead actor and actress.
Tina Fey also won the award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for the episode "Cooter".
30 Rock received a
Peabody Award in 2008.
Upon announcing the award, the Peabody Board commended the show for being "not only a great workplace comedy in the tradition of
The Mary Tyler Moore Show, complete with fresh, indelible secondary characters, but also a sly, gleeful satire of corporate media, especially the
network that airs it."
Ratings
Below, "Rank" refers to how well
30 Rock rated compared to other television series which aired during primetime hours of the corresponding "
Television season." The television season tends to begin in September, of any given year, and end during the May of the following year. "Viewers" refers to the average number of viewers for all original episodes (broadcast in the series' "Regular Timeslot") of
30 Rock aired during the television season. Although the viewer average may be higher for some seasons than others, the rank will not necessarily be higher. This is due to the number of programs aired during primetime. In some seasons there may be more regular programs aired during primetime than in others. The "Season premiere" is the date that the first episode of the season aired. Similarly, the "Season finale" is the date that the final episode of the season aired.
| Season
| Regular timeslot (Eastern Standard Time)
| Season premiere
| Season finale
| Television season
| Rank
| Viewers
|
| 1
| Wednesday 8:00 P.M. (October 11, 2006–November 1, 2006)
Thursday 9:30 P.M. (November 16, 2006–March 8, 2007)
Thursday 9:00 P.M. (April 5, 2007–April 26, 2007)
| October 11, 2006
| April 26, 2007
| 2006–2007
| #102 | 5.8 |
| 2
| Thursday 8:30 P.M. (October 4, 2007–December 6, 2007)
Thursday 9:00 P.M. (December 13, 2007)
Thursday 8:30 P.M. (January 10, 2008–April 17, 2008)
Thursday 9:30 P.M. (April 24, 2008–May 8, 2008)
| October 4, 2007
| May 8, 2008
| 2007–2008
| #94 | 6.4 |
The pilot episode generated 8.13 million viewers,
the series' highest ratings until that of its third season premiere which garnered 8.5 million viewers. In its original timeslot of Wednesday at 8:00PM
EST, the show averaged 6.23 million viewers.
aired on Wednesdays for its first four episodes. The seasons lowest ratings were achieved by "Jack the Writer" and "Hard Ball" which both achieved 4.61 million viewers.
The season two premiere, "
SeinfeldVision," was viewed by 7.33 million viewers, the highest rating since the pilot.
entered a hiatus due to the
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike on January 10, 2008.
that aired on that date was viewed by 5.98 million viewers.
The second season finale, "
Cooter", which aired on May 8, 2008, was viewed by 5.6 million viewers.
On December 29, 2006,
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) reported the results of having, for the first time, monitored viewers who use a
digital video recorder to record shows for later viewing. NMR reported that
30 Rock adds nearly 7.5% to its total audience every week as a result of viewers who use a DVR to record the show and then watch it within a week of its initial airing.
[ RetrieveOctober d 14, 2007.] A March 2007 report from
MAGNA Global, based on NMR data about viewership ranked by among adults 25–54, shows that as of the time of the report
30 Rocks viewers have a median income of $65,000, high enough to place the show tied at 11th in affluence with several other shows. This is during a period where for the season 30 Rock
is tied at No. 85 in the 18–49 demographic.30 Rock
ranked in fourth place, against all primetime programming, for television series' which are watched by viewers with income above $100,000. also airs in other countries; ratings and rankings for some of these markets include:
- Australia: The first season premiered on December 4, 2007 on the Seven Network at 10:30, showing on Mondays and Wednesdays. After the summer season its timeslot was changed to Mondays only, showing at 11:30pm.
- Canada: The series premiered on the CTV network on October 10, 2006, a day before its premiere in the United States. The network aired the first four episodes of the series,
- United Kingdom: The first season premiered on October 11, 2007 on Five. The premiere was watched by 700,000 viewers, which was 6% of all people watching television in the country at the time it was broadcast.
[ ] Season two is expected to air on one of Five's digital sister channels, FiveUS or Fiver, due to low ratings shown during the broadcast of season one.
Similarities to other media
Two shows debuting on
2006–07 NBC lineup,
30 Rock and
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, revolved around the off-camera happenings on a sketch comedy series. Similarities between the two led to speculation that only one of them would be picked up. Baldwin said "I'd be stunned if NBC picked up both shows. And ours has the tougher task, as a comedy, because if it's not funny, that's it."
, then president of NBC Entertainment, was supportive of Fey, describing the situation as a "high-class problem":
{(({cquote|I just can't imagine the audience would look at both shows, choose one and cancel the other out. In some ways, why is it any different than when there have been three or four cop shows on any schedule, or
Scrubs and
ER, which are totally very different?
Evidence of the overlapping subject matter between the shows, as well as the conflict between them, arose when Aaron Sorkin, the creator of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, asked Lorne Michaels to allow him to observe Saturday Night Live for a week, a request Michaels denied.
30 Rock's crew have reportedly made jokes about the similarity with Studio 60. One early promo for 30 Rock portrayed Alec Baldwin mistakenly thinking he would meet Sorkin,
At least three 30 Rock episodes have briefly parodied Studio 60:
- "Jack the Writer" contains a self-referencing walk and talk sequence, such sequences being commonly used on Studio 60 and Aaron Sorkin's previous shows.
- "Jack-tor" - Liz tries to quote global education statistics, only to mess up and realize that she does not know what she is talking about.
- "Jack Meets Dennis" - Liz says the upcoming show will be "worse than that time we did that Gilbert and Sullivan parody". The second episode of Studio 60, "The Cold Open," included a parody of the "Major-General's Song" on the show-within-the-show.
Some critics have compared 30 Rock to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, with parallels drawn between the relationship of Liz and Jack and that of Mary Richards and Lou Grant.
DVD releases
| DVD name |
Region 1 |
Ep # |
Additional information |
| 30 Rock: Season One | September 4, 2007 | 21 | The entire first season of 30 Rock was released as a widescreen three-disc Region 1 DVD box set in the USA on September 4, 2007, a month before the premiere of the second season. It was distributed by NBC Universal. Featuring all the episodes that had aired, it also contains several extra DVD features, including episode commentaries, outtakes and deleted scenes. |
The season one box set was released on March 17, 2008 in Regions 2, 4 and 5 format, but not as separate volumes and without special features.
| 30 Rock: Season One — Volume One | 14
|
| 30 Rock: Season One — Volume Two | 7
|
| 30 Rock: Season Two | October 7, 2008 | 15 | The entire second season of 30 Rock was released as a widescreen two-disc DVD box set in the USA on October 7 2008. Featuring all the episodes that had aired, it also includes several extra DVD features including episode commentaries, outtakes, deleted scenes, the table read for the episode "Cooter," 30 Rock Live at the UCB Theatre, a behind-the-scenes look at an episode of Saturday Night Live which was hosted by Tina Fey, and The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Presents: An Evening With 30 Rock. |
