Well, it was mainly an ad, but there actually was a reasonable amount of new 30 Rock content in there. It was a lot of fun to see the cast playing their roles again. Everyone was pretty much spot on and it kind of felt like they never stopped playing them.
Was anyone missing? I think just about everyone was there, including Toofer, Lutz, and Frank.
I watched it, and it was definitely mostly advertising. It seemed a substitute for the upfronts. And you’ll never guess who the president of NBCUniversal is.
I didn’t see Cerie, nor did I see any incarnation of Rachel Dratch. Did I miss them?
Was it actually remotely similar to a real episode? I think I recorded it, but those ‘new episodes’ that have been popping up (for other shows) that turn out to be a zoom meeting with the cast are kinda pointless.
I would say that as long as you can skip through the ad parts, it was pretty fun and worthwhile. I had it recorded so I could skip all the ads and there was actually a good 25 minute of new 30 rock in it.
You’ll probably want to skip this if you don’t want to watch Zoom meetings.
Washington Post had a pretty scathing review, complaining that it was just one long ad for the Peacock streaming service. With that in mind, I enjoyed it as a satire in the 30 Rock style. It was nice to see these characters are still their same silly selves.
My local NBC station didn’t run it, and WaPo said many stations didn’t. The stations were protesting taking away their viewers in favor of yet another streaming service. I caught it tonight on the USA network, and it isn’t getting replayed anywhere on any cable station.
In 100% fairness to NBC, it was advertised and promoted this way. It is their annual “up fronts”.
It’s a good thing that ordinary viewers don’t get to see upfronts. Watching actors familiar from a role acting as their real selves shamelessly shilling the wonderfulness of shows that will be cancelled in three weeks is stomach turning. Joyce Carol Oates once wrote, “All actors are whores. They want only one thing: to seduce you.” An upfront is full of actors whoring for their paychecks.
That said, the hour did the best it could in trying to keep viewers from vomiting all over their screens. Kenneth’s soul visibly leaving his body said it all. The outtakes at the end were wonderful and should have been half the show. Sadly, 30 Rock was a perfect show for its time and 2020 is a different world.
If anything, that this was a commercial for the Peacock streaming service and for NBC shows and NBCUniversal networks (as well as for its theme parks) is kind of meta, given where the show was set. Even in the original show, one character was the president of NBC, and they regularly mentioned the GE overlords (and later the sale of NBC to Comcast, although that was called Kabletown in the show).
Agreed. This was basically a giant ad for NBCUniversal, but it worked because it really felt like this is how all of the characters would act. They made the Zoom meetings and everyone at home format work. Speaking of; I never realize Lutz and Sue’s actors were a real life couple.
50% of the country could not see this until later due to local affiliates refusing to air it. My local affiliate aired it at 1:35AM, apparently protesting in their own odd way.
I really enjoyed it. I knew what it was going in so I had low expectations. Remember the Saturday morning show previews they used to do in the 80s? I was expecting that level of crap so anything better would be a win for me. And it wouldn’t have worked with any other show because no other show was as NBC-nerdy as 30 Rock was. As new content is getting harder to come by, I will eat it all up happily. Do I want it really rebooted or another one next month? Hell no. I’ll be content with a decent amount of new content for a show that ended on a high note anyway and it fit the universe neatly enough.
Dumb question; how is the nickname Toofer offensive?
He got the nickname because he’s Black and went to Harvard, which was a two-for-one deal for them. Hiring or benefiting from having someone just because they are Black is probably seen as insensitive now.
Thank you. I didn’t remember that.