(This is Part 1 of a series.)
I'm in great admiration of a new comedy on NBC, 30 Rock, which stands for "30 Rockefeller Plaza", NBC's address in New York. Among other things it demonstrates that NBC has matured creatively, since it can tolerate and even sometimes luxuriate in its artists poking savage fun at NBC itself—and its parent, GE.
GE itself is a mature creator. I yield to no-one in my admiration of Jeffrey Immelt, the chief executive of GE. He's reorienting the company towards what he calls "ecoimagination," a $1.5 billion initiative in steering his huge company towards super-efficient washing machines, hybrid-engine trains, state-of-the-art windmills and solar panels, cleaner turbines and jet engines and so on. Hat's off to him.
GE's executives are among the smartest and savviest in the world. So it's part of the fun that Alec Baldwin plays a clueless GE executive sent to oversee The Girlie Show (the show being put on within the show) and its head writer, Liz Lemon, played by the incomparable Tina Fey, who is also the creative director in real life of 30 Rock itself.
Balwin's character, Jack Donaghy, plays the heavy here to great effect. A characteristic delivery from him to Lemon: "I like you, Lemon; you have the boldness of a much younger woman." Fey's character is, of course, almost routinely on a slow boil.
There's also Tracy Morgan playing Tracy Jordan, a bumbling and crazy new star whose ego is absurdly puffed up. When Jordan is introduced to the writing team on The Girlie Show he tells them: "It's an honor for you to meet me. I got a character who loves to play ping-pong. I just made that up right now."
But my favorite scene so far is when, due to a microphone left on, Liz Lemon is heard calling all the writers neurotic idiots. Shortly afterward, when she enters the writers' room ("the deep end") she is pelted with things including an egg. Walking to the bathroom to clean up, literally with egg on her face and trying hard to maintain her dignity, she runs into her boss Jack Donaghy, who pauses, looks her over and says:
Jack Donaghy: How are things in the deep end?
Liz Lemon: Fine!
Jack Donaghy: The staff is meshing together well?
Liz Lemon: Oh yes! Yeah!
Jack Donaghy: I'm counting on you.
Liz makes a "Sure thing" sign and walks off.
This little gem of a scene demonstrates three ingredients of great comedy scenes:
1) Somebody's unhappy (and usually trying not to show it);
2) The scene is absurd, but not too much; it's got to be in the zone of the almost believable;
3) There's a good "straight man" present to act as a foil.
As Warren Littlefield, President of NBC Entertainment during the
Seinfeld era and now a producer, remarks: "Great comedians need somebody to box against."
Indeed. Good for GE and NBC that they allow themselves to be boxed against and greenlighted this marvelous comedy project.
(This is the end of Part 1. Go to Part 2.)
—jim sloman, 10.25.06
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