30 Rock

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I joined this show midway through its primetime run and decided it would be interesting to watch it from the beginning. I never knew that Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) was originally the head writer of a show called "The Girlie Show". Fey's writing is smart and I liked that she let Alec Baldwin and Tracey Morgan get the lion's share of the laughs. Will be interested to see how this show got to the show that I began watching years ago.



Loved ep 2...the Tracy Jordan character is certifiably insane and it's so odd that Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) doesn't care. Can't believe he threw a party on a yacht that didn't belong to him. Loved when the writing staff started throwing stuff at Liz. Also loving the fact that Jenna (Jane Krakowski) seems to be under the impression that any publicity is good publicty.



I envy you, getting to see this for the first time. You're in for a huge treat.

Hilarious from the get go, with no real "bad" seasons (though obviously some "better" ones). Some of its best ideas actually show up (relatively) late in its run, even. You've got about 40 hours of tremendous comedy ahead of you.



Ep 3 was really funny...the addressing of Liz's sexuality was on the money, since I've always wondered about Tina Fey myself. Loved Stephanie March from SVU as her blind date. Jack's mind games with Kenneth were hysterical and I loved that Frank bet Liz' Emmy in the poker game. Fell of my chair when Liz said she and Gretchen were just friends like Oprah and Gail.



The highlight of ep 4 was Liz trying to deal with the very distracting Cerie, climaxing with Liz' hilarious slo-mo walk after her makeover from Cerie, which put the writing staff on the floor. Poor Kenneth, actually celebrating Tracy's anniversary with Tracy's wife in Tracy's absence. Tracy's going to end up getting Kenny hurt or arrested before the season is out. The relationship between Liz and Jack continues to be one of the best sessions of verbal volleyball I've ever seen on a sitcom.



Alec Baldwin walked away with ep 5 as Jack took his first serious stab at acting. That tape that his assistant showed Liz had me on the floor. Tracy pretending to be illiterate provided grins as well,...love when Liz showed him that poster they were going to post all over town and who else but Jenna would sexually harass an extra? This show is killing me.



Just finished ep 6...LOVED Dean Winters as Dennis the Beeper King. I never knew he was on this show. Loved when Liz found him in her apartment sleeping with the newspaper on top of the candle. I thought that was Jenna playing Elizabeth Taylor but the credits revealed it to be Rachel Dratch. Loved Jenna messing up her face too...God, the most self-centered TV character ever. Loving the dynamic between Jack and Liz...love the way he feels the need to fix Lemon's life without getting personal involved and Liz being in deep denial about the fact that everything he says about her life is spot on.



OK,ep 7 was kind of stupid...Tracy was off his meds, which explained a lot but his bizarre behavior just wasn't funny to me. Jack trying to get Liz to write a joke for him was cute, but this ep was a big miss for me.



Ep 8 was back on track...love the hate/hate relationship between Two-Fer and Tracy. The breakup of Dennis and Liz provided plenty of laughs...loved his farewell note to her which he pulled out of his pocket all rumpled up. Everything with Liz and Jenna in the karaoke bar was gold..."I already have a drink, do you think he would buy me mozarella sticks?"



Ep 9 was fun...Liz revealing to Jenna that she wants to have a baby led right where I expected it and it worked...even Two-fer. This Josh the impressionist thing is kind of funny except for the fact that his impressions aren't as dead-on as we're supposed to believe. When he did Jack, he sounded exactly like Will Arnett. Loved Cerie's wedding dress and I'm loving the build-up to meeting Jack's mother, unfortunately I already know who's playing her so it kind of spoils it. So Rachel Dratch has played like seven or eight different characters on this show already and none of them have been really funny, how much more Dratch are we going to have to endure? Fun show anyway.



OK, no lie, ep 10 had me on the floor...the reveal of the exact title of Jenna's movie and everything that led up to it was hysterical. I loved the two separate cutaways of Liz telling Jenna how much she liked her past performances, including the funny posters in the background. Loved Tracy's infomercial and Rachel Dratch's take on Barbara Walters was the funniest character she's done on this show so far. I also loved on Jack's chart breaking down GE's commodities, how far down NBC was. Fey's writing is brilliant...I still think should have gotten an Oscar nomination for her screenplay for Mean Girls.



Ep 11 was great...loved everything that happened between Liz and that tall, sexy drink of water Peter Hermann...never imagined him creating chemistry with anyone but his wife, but he and Tina were great. I knew as far as the narrative was concerned it wouldn't work, but the way it played out was BRILLIANT. And don't even get me started on "Goldcase"...I was on the floor...poor Kenneth.



Just watched ep 12...when Liz asked Pete if he sent her the flowers, it flashed in my head what a great couple Liz and Pete would be. It will never happen because he's married and Liz just wouldn't be with a married man. Wondering if Pete's wife will be an invisible character we never actually meet. And I can't believe I'm typing this, but Isabella Rossellini was hysterical as Jack's ex. Rachel Dratch strikes out again but the final scene with Jason Sudekis was all kinds of adorable.



OK, I missed an ep somewhere, but I can't figure out which one, so I'm just going to continue to pile on through. Ep 14 was very funny...LOVED the late Rip Torn as Don Geiss...I love that in the final phase of his acting career, Torn found so much success in comedy. It was funny watching Liz being so affected by Lutz calling her a runt. After everything we've seen Liz go through up this point, it seemed weird that she would be so sensitized by this. The funny redemption of Tracy at the country club was kind of hard to swallow, but still funny and the love story of Kenneth and Grace was sweet.



Rewatching this for the first time since I don’t even remember. Such a funny show. Liz and Jack’s back and forth is the best of the show but I forgot how over the top hilarious Tracy is. Just watched the episode where Liz thinks he’s illiterate. Perfect
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Ep 15 had me on the floor...loved Jenna's photo session and though I had seen the idea of her being misquoted on an ep of Will & Grace, the way this was played out was WAY funnier...the combination of Jenna being pelted with garbage as she walked out of the building and Tracy being rescued by his entourage was perfect. The contract negotiations were funny too...loved when Josh and his agent plopped down in the broke chairs and then had no chairs for the second meeting...brilliant. I thought Tracy's joke about the corn bread was going to be the show's funniest line but then when the turned it into a recurring bit, it lost its funny, so the funniest line of the show became: "Lemon, what happened in your childhood to make you think people are good?" And another miss for Rachel Dratch.



Ep 16 was great...Wayne Brady was a lot of fun as Stephen and I sort of saw where this was going, but it was funny anyway. LL Cool J was great as Ridickalus and I loved Kenneth's complete fearlessness regarding the guy. LOVED everything that LL COOL J wore in this ep. And I loved everyone imitating Oprah.



Ep 17 was odd but still entertaining...the introduction of Jack's family featured some bizarre casting...Nathan Lane, Molly Shannon, Siobhan Fallon Hogan? Love those "fist names" though. I'm loving this "ships that pass in the night thing" between Liz and Jason Sudeikis and am loving the way Tina is keeping them apart in her writing. Anna Chlumsky was adorable as Liz Lemler and I loved the final assist Liz Lemon got from Jack.



Ep 18 featured one of my favorite comic actors, Will Arnett, funnier her than he was on Arrested Development. His attempted seduction of Kenneth was all kinds of funny. Loved the curve thrown into the Liz and Floyd (Jason Sudeikis) story. Tracey on Maury had me on the floor and I loved Liz' confession of her weird stuff to Floyd...beautifully written and performed.



Ep 19 was very...loved the reveal of the romantic triangle of Jack, Liz, and Floyd (Jason Sudekis). Loved that the realization of what was happening was completely lost on Floyd. Liked that Jack found an attraction to Emily Mortimer's character though I'm not really feeling these two as a couple and don't see it going beyond a couple of episodes. Tracy's Jefferson preview had me on the floor..especially loved the moment between Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, both played by Tracy Morgan. Also cracked up when Frank offered to film Liz and Floyd in bed.