Tag Archives: 30 Rock

2010/09/29 · 5:50 pm

In Memoriam: ‘Lone Star’

Well, Fox, you’ve done it again.   Axed a show before it even had a chance to reach its bris.   Lone Star is officially dead.

But this feels somehow different.  This was not The Pitts, or Brothers, or even Kitchen Confidential.  This was a show that arrived with critical praise, almost unanimously hailed as the season’s “best new network show.”  It had a beautiful backdrop to match its beautiful young faces.  It had Jon Voight.  And, most importantly, it had an original, complex story.  While a lot of shows come and go, and a lot of them deserve to be banished (looking at you, Outsourced), this is certainly not the first series unfairly cut down before it’s time.  It joins a group of shows like Love Monkey and Action that share the unfortunate distinction of a premature demise, depriving the viewing public of quality television.  Lone Star is not the first and it won’t be the last.  But why then is this particular cancellation so troubling?

Read on: The end of network TV as we know it?

Leave a comment

Filed under Analysis, Best Show You're Not Watching, Dillon Panthers, In Memoriam

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2010/09/24 · 6:11 pm

Apparently Even Preschoolers Watch ‘True Blood’ And We Still Don’t

And apparently three-year olds can’t be exposed to breasts but they can watch a parody of a show that is ostensibly an excuse for soft-core porn.  I guess this spoof of True Blood is one of those segments that’s really for the adults, because it’s be a sad state of affairs if today’s parents let their kids see Stephen Moyer’s penis, but not the suggestion of Katy Perry’s cleavage.

To be fair, this follows in the proud tradition of Sesame Street’s 30 Rock and Mad Men parodies, two series that are also NSFC.  And they really captured Anna Paquin’s essence.

(what a few days for Sesame Street, ehhh?)

Leave a comment

Filed under Good Humor, Muppets

Tagged as , , , , , ,

2010/09/24 · 5:09 pm

NBC Thursday Night: Respect Your Friends, Respect your Coworkers, Respect Your Lovers, Respect Your Characters, Respect Your Viewers

Yesterday we gave our brief thoughts on the then impending return of the NBC Thursday night comedies, reflecting on the last season while looking forward to the next.  And on the morning after, how do we feel?   Impressed, pleased and disappointed, in that order.  With the night going from Community to 30 Rock to The Office, we found that the first continues to improve, the second is showing encouraging signs of life, and the third is still struggling to return to its glory days.  Taken has a whole, it was a good night, and two out of three ain’t bad.  But really, we don’t want “ain’t bad.”  We want great, we want three out of three.  And, unfortunately, that just didn’t happen.

Continue: We will follow Community down a long, dark alley…

3 Comments

Filed under Analysis, Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam, Good Humor, Must See TV

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2010/09/23 · 7:29 pm

Gentleman, Start Your DVRs: Quick Thoughts On The NBC Thursday Night Comedies

It seems like May sweeps was just yesterday, but here we are on the cusp of the return of Thursday night TV-pocolypse.  Luckily for our DVR, Survivor was shifted back to Wednesday nights, and Parks and Recreation is (egregiously) on the shelf until mid-season (of course, while that might be good for our DVR, it’s terrible for our collective well-being).  But we’re still left with what is now the NBC comedy old guard, The Office & 30 Rock, and the returning sensation, and probably the best of the bunch, Community.  And later we have a little cable fun with It’s Always in Philadelphia and Delocated (if you’re eyeballs aren’t bleeding by then).  But, for now, let’s quickly focus on the NBC line-up.

The big story on NBC Thursday nights, as we noted above, is not what’s on, but what’s not, that being Parks and Recreation, benched in favor of the already critically reviled Outsourced.  Sure, NBC has the right to air whatever it wants, and if it thinks another show will be more successful, and has the potential to be an anchor the way that The Office is and shows like Friends, Seinfeld, Frasier and Cheers were, then we can’t begrudge them that.  But Outsourced hasn’t even aired yet and it seems the verdict is already in: it’s a waste of valuable space.  One has to wonder if NBC, who proved with the Jay Leno Show that they’re willing to sacrifice quality programming for profit, chose to promote Outsourced because it’s an in-house production, even knowing its an inferior program.  Because even if it pulls in rating as low as Parks and Rec, maybe even lower, NBC will still grab a bigger slice of the pie.  That’s just conjecture at this point, but there’s certainly a precedent for it, and we know that TV, network television in particular, is a business above all.  Let’s just hope that Outsourced is so terrible that it’s yanked sooner than planned and Parks and Recreation can reclaim its rightful place (especially since they rushed the show back into production for its third season to accommodate Amy Poehler’s pregnancy).

More: ‘Community’ is up, ‘The Office’ is down, and ’30 Rock’ is still here.

1 Comment

Filed under Analysis, Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam, Freak Out Control, Good Humor, Must See TV

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

2010/09/01 · 10:11 am

Not Very Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Random, Belated, Emmy Thoughts

The Emmy’s were handed out three nights ago, and in the internet world that’s about the equivalent of a fortnight, and everyone who can say it better than me has already said it better than me.  But, just to put it on the permanent record, and to get us ready for the impending fall TV season, we thought we’d follow-up with a few humble thoughts of our own, in concise bullet-point form:

  • Loved the opening bit, even if it was somewhat of a rehash of 6-Bee‘s glee club rendition of “We’re Not Going to Take It,” a performance that we still giddily cue up on our screen on a regular basis (as well as an audio version on our iPod).  But with Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, Joel McHale, Jorge Garcia AND Tim Gunn it was like the Ocean’s 11 all-star version of the original Late Night piece, and it truly demanded some freak out control.  Our worlds colliding, but in an amazing way.
  • Speaking of Jon Hamm, now that his comedic genius has finally been exposed to a wide audience (30 Rock is still critically adored but commercially ignored, his appearances in viral videos only legitimately reach a small segment of the online viewing public, and even two turns hosting SNL don’t necessarily make you a household name these days), can we start having him be funny full-time?  He’s so gifted, and so natural, it honestly feels like a waste forcing him to be so stoic and dour and cold on Mad Men (and we know we sound like a broken record on this, but we’re going to keep bring it up until it happens.  Or until Mad Men becomes a farcical satire.  Maybe in season 5).  Sure, he’s magnetic, sexy and mysterious on the AMC drama, but it’s when he’s allowed to do comedy that he truly lights up.  But after being seen dancing like an idiot on HDTVs all across the country maybe someone will give him a chance to headline a comedy.  Perhaps something in the Apatowian genre.  I think that’s a hit.

3 Comments

Filed under Analysis, Century 21 Reality, Dillon Panthers, Freak Out Control, Intersection of the venn diagram of things that I love, LOST, Must See TV, Participation Award, Saturday Night Live, Top Scallop

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2010/03/29 · 11:41 am

No ‘SNL’? No Problem? Jason Sudeikis Is Our Jam-a-Lam

I mistakenly thought that Tina Fey was hosting SNL this past weekend (so much so that I nearly flipped out on my DVR for failing to record the show).  But I must have jumped the gun, as the show doesn’t return with host Fey and musical guest Justin Bieber until April 10 (and now that I can use the tag “Justin Bieber” my page views are sure to skyrocket.  Thanks, SNL!), or maybe they re-ran the Fey-Carrie Underwood episode from February 2008.  Either way, there was no new show this week.

But don’t fear, we’ll fill that vacuum.  Instead of another edition of “What Up With That?”,we have Jumped the Snark hero Jason Sudeikis on Jimmy Fallon (an interview from earlier this month that, we admit, slipped through our cracks).  Sudeikis’ alcohol drenched description of his hectic work schedule explains his relative absence from the recent Jude Law-helmed SNL, a deficiency that we noted here.  Somehow everything this man says in hilarious.  New sketch idea: Jason Sudeikis reads the classifieds.  Could totally work.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Part 2 after the jump. Plus: The return of Floyd!

Leave a comment

Filed under Good Humor, Mancrush, Saturday Night Live, Talkies

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

2010/01/22 · 4:26 pm

Dear ‘The Office:’ You’re Making it Harder and Harder to Keep Defending You

First reaction to last night’s “episode:”

What the fuck was that?

A clip show? Really? Really???

Perhaps I would not have be so indignant if the episode had was a celebration of a milestone number of episodes. Or if it arrived in conjunction with another episode wholly comprised of wholly original content.

But for this excuse of an episode to arrive after a 5 week hiatus is rather insulting. I feel used, played, betrayed. And if they were going to start 2010 with a retrospective, why not do it last week when all the other Thursday night sitcoms returned with new episodes? Instead, The Office totally sat out the week, let 30 Rock turn in two new episodes, and still phoned it in this lackluster effort this week. So while 3/4 of NBC’s Thursday night lineup is already two weeks into their 2010, mostly firing on all cylinders, The Office hasn’t even really left the bench. What I posited about “Secret Santa” last week, that the writers were probably burned out and needed an extended rest seems even more accurate now. I can only hope that this extra week allows them to come back even stronger next time (and now they need to deliver even more than they needed to this week).

Read on: What makes this so egregious, clip shows through history, and a glimmer of hope…

2 Comments

Filed under Analysis, Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam, Growing Pains, Must See TV, Saved by the Bell

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

2010/01/14 · 3:41 pm

Something Funny Happened on the Way to Five Thursday’s Ago

(This a post I intended to compose a month ago, but then the holidays hit, and then the Thursday night comedies went on winter vacation so there was no real rush to write this.  But with the comedy block returning tonight, save for The Office, this seemed like the right time to finally record these thoughts).

One month ago, on December 10, before the Jaypocalypse, NBC’s Thursday night comedies aired their Christmas themed episodes.  And something funny happened:  The Office, well, wasn’t.  At least it was very clearly the weak link in what was otherwise a very strong night of comedy.  30 Rock continued to be the joke-for-joke best show on television, Parks and Rec extended what has been a breakout second season, and Community turned in what might have been its best episode yet.  And The Office?  By far it’s weakest Christmas episode to date.  Sure, it had a lot of live up to – Christmas Party, Benihana Christmas – but it didn’t even equal last season’s Moroccan Christmas, which itself was rather a disappointment. And against the other comedies that night, it just didn’t measure up.  Something seemed off.

Now, I’m not out on the ledge yet.  But it’s certainly concerning.

Keep reading: Do they know it’s Christmas time at all? Plus Anthony Michael Hall and Julianne Moore!

1 Comment

Filed under Analysis, Bad Humor, Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam, Good Humor, Must See TV

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2009/11/10 · 12:53 pm

Dairy Burn (How ’30 Rock’ Taught Us That Stone Mountain & Long Island Are Not That Different)

(Forgive me for this somewhat belated post regarding the Halloween episode of 30 Rock.  I’m still catching up after our fall break.)

Liz Lemon SandwichDespite some recent blacklash from critics, and the fact that it has featured an overreliance on meta-humor, a drawn out debate over the “real America,” and maybe too many inside NYC jokes, the new season of 30 Rock has been as brilliant and hilarious as ever.  While I agree that the lack of real emotional attachment to the characters prevents the show from surpassing The Office as the best overall comedy (nay, show?) on television, 30 Rock is still a showcase for impossible sharp acting and writing, and probably offers the highest laugh per minute (lpm) ratio of any prime-time comedy.  However, this is yet another post for another day.  Today we’re not going to talk about the relationship between Liz and Jack, the disappearance of Rachel Dratch, the curious case of Lonny Ross or the parade of guest stars that has more than once elicited unfair comparisons to Will & Grace.  No, today we’re going to talk about Dairy Barn.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under Analysis, Good Humor, Makes You Think, Must See TV

Tagged as , , , , ,