30 Rock question - what kind of show are they making?

Cafe Society
1

I think that I saw maybe three episodes of “30 Rock” while it was in first-run airing. I rarely watch TV in first-run anymore, usually either binge-watch episodes or catch up with a show in syndicated re-runs, as is the case with this show. It airs at 11:30 in my local station and I have been enjoying it.

But when I began watching it regularly, the series was about halfway through its episode run, so I missed out on a lot of the initial background exposition. It being a sitcom, I can simply pick up a lot of the general premises - that Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) is the producer for a TV show of some sort. But, what exactly is the type of show she is making?

I had always been under the assumption that the show was a parody of SNL, since Fey really was head writer for that show for several years. But when Fey was writing SNL, that show typically had casts of up to 15 regular performers. The show-within-a-show on “30 Rock” only seems to have two stars - Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski. I have yet to even hear them make reference to anybody else being on the show except the two of them. How many skits could they possibly build around just two performers? (Even “Portlandia” has begun farming in other ‘stars’ beside Carrie & Fred.) I began thinking that maybe it’s a late-night talk show that Tracy hosts, but they never have any guests on it.

So, what just the heck is the show that Liz Lemon and company are supposedly producing?

2

It’s very obviously a sketch comedy show like SNL.

3

Yep, it was originally The Girlie Show and when Tracy Jordan came along, they made it all about him, calling it TGS featuring Tracy Jordan.

4

Some other cast members of the show-within-a-show have appeared, include some Canadian guy. The show is comedy/variety, they do occasional musical numbers, and clearly a variant on SNL.

5

Don’t forget about Josh. He was a writer and the male star lead before Jack hired Tracy, then ended up resorting to gay porn after he quit the show. I always figured TGS’s reduced cast was a dramatic conceit to keep the cast from becoming unwieldy. I’m sure there’s a TV Trope for it.

6

Well, related, the 4077th had only four surgeon characters as regulars, though the historical equivalent of such a facility had at least twice that. There would rarely be another doctor or dentist, lasting a few episodes at most.

7

And they only had that one guy outside helping them triage - “Corman”.

8

The show-within-the-show, TGS with Tracy Jordan, was not just a sketch comedy show, it was a terrible sketch comedy show.

30 Rock came on the air at the same time as the short-lived Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. The latter was a drama about the behind-the-scenes of a sketch comedy show that was supposed to be good, but what little the audience saw of it was not at all funny. Yet the characters kept treating it like it was brilliant and important satire. 30 Rock mocked Studio 60 by having a scene where Liz delivers an impassioned speech about how art is important and satire can help change social mores. This was all intercut with a sketch from TGS where Tracy’s fart machine goes haywire: “Oh, no! The fart machine is overloaded!” “The farts are escaping!” “It smells so bad!”.

9

I’m pretty sure this is a whoosh, but on the off chance it’s not: it’s not Corman, but corpsman, a position not a person.

10

Of course, the Army didn’t have Corpsmen, that was the Coast Guard, Marines, and Navy. The Army had Medics and I presume the Air Force does also.

11

Yeah, but MASH wasn’t the most accurate show, there are more episodes than days of the Korean War.

12

Right. This undercuts Liz’s seriousness about her job, justifies Tracy’s presence and Jack’s interference, and it was the basis for so many great jokes about TGS’ terrible ratings. If it had been an SNL-type hit all of those things would have been very different.

13

I watched 30 Rock quite a bit but missed most of the first season. I had no idea what “TGS” was until my wife explained it to me. Was TGS a good show before Jack and Tracy got involved? Or did it always suck and adding Tracy was Jacks attempt at boosting the ratings?

14

This one post is more entertaining than Studio 60’s entire run.

15

NBC put “The Girlie Show” on air as an attempt to soften their image after broadcasting “Bitch Hunter.”

Tracy is hilarious and doesn’t bother to read the script, which is a good thing since the the writers are terrible if they can be prodded to write anything at all.
So I would say he improve the show.

16

This is my favorite sitcom since Seinfeld went off the air. But if you’re looking for it to make a whole lot of sense, don’t bother. Kenneth is immortal and Jack only farts once a year, for 20 minutes, on top of a mountain in the Alps. And Buzz Aldrin didn’t understand why the moon was out during the day. (“I walked on your face! Go back to the night!” – Buzz yelling at the moon crazy hobo style is probably the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life.)

17

I remember in one episode they mentioned that Liz’s parents bought an ad on the show, like it was the school yearbook.

18

It was my entry in the “things I finally realized after years of watching” category. How is it always “Corman” whenever Hawkeye looks around for someone to carry a stretcher?! :smack:

19

Glad to be of service.

20

One thing you should know about the run of 30 Rock. The first season is quite different than the rest. It’s much more low-key, it doesn’t have the sitcom-y incidental music, and Tracy Morgan’s character is not nearly as much of an idiot as he later becomes. Even the cadence of his speech is more normal and hadn’t become the shouting affect-less monotone he would later always use.

Not to mention that MASH was all but in name about Vietnam and not Korea…