TV Recaps Reviews

30 Rock went live on the east and west coast with a live audience. This is a review of the west coast show. Liz Lemon is celebrating her 40th birthday but no one seems to know at TGS other than her, making her angry. Jack has agreed with Avery that he will give up drinking while she is pregnant and not drinking is driving him over the edge. Jenna and Tracy are having the usual battle over who gets the most attention during the TGS show. Tracy decides during the live TGS show he will laugh out loud at his own jokes and break character in order to get laughs from the audience, while Jenna retaliates by threatening to flash her breast to get attention from Tracy.

Live sitcoms are not easy to do, and 30 Rock managed to pull it off. Set on the SNL stage with a veteran SNL director managing the live show, the episode showed twice, once on the east coast and once on the west coast. The live episode was co-written by Tina Fey. Each joke on the live episode appeared to be geared toward a character on TGS congratulating Liz on her birthday, only to end up ignoring her birthday.

The show relied more on jokes and less on a beefed up storyline like usual since time was limited and the fast pace line delivery of 30 Rock was more difficult to do live with a responsive audience. The flashback device often used in 30 Rock episodes was worked in brilliantly by using Julia Louis-Dreyfus as flashback Liz Lemon, a clever way to solve this live action problem. When Jack asks Liz “Why are you better-looking in your memory?” Liz tells Jack “My memory has Seinfeld money”, making the use of Louis-Dreyfus as a stand-in even funnier. Jack’s flashback segment showed his memory of himself as a buff model guy surrounded by beautiful women.

Rachael Dratch was funny as the 30 Rock cleaning lady who can barely speak English. The scenes between Liz and the cleaning lady were spiked with improv. There were a number of guest stars including Matt Damon in his reoccuring role as Liz’ boyfriend Carol. Liz gets a call from Carol who is having difficulty flying the plane and calls Liz to make sure she follows through with his final requests if the plane crashes. Carol’s co-pilot is SNL’s Bill Hader, who admits he’s always been in love with Carol as they try to land the plane. Liz ignores the possibility that the plane is crashing and is irritated Carol has also forgotten her birthday.

The live west coast version of 30 Rock included live commercials. Chris Parnell starred in a hilarious musical commercial as Dr. Spaceman schilling erectile disfunction medication. Another commercial starred Jon Hamm as Drew, Liz’ ex-boyfriend. Doctor Drew lost both hands in an accident on a previous episode and was promoting a hand transplant. The doctor was given a woman’s hand that had painted nails, a large scar on the wrist area, and seemed to have its own amorous inclinations towards the doctor.

The end of the episode shows the TGS cast inviting Liz up on stage to surprise her for her birthday with cake and a moment with them on the end of the show. Liz is pleased the cast remembers her birthday, saying “It was perfect. It was the best of both worlds. I got to feel martyred and indignant all day and then eat cake off the floor.” The show ends with Jack saying “That’s more like it”, as Jack and Liz move into a taped film format in the final moments of the live episode. The final shot is of the cast live on the SNL stage similar to the end of SNL’s shows.