Tina Fey might star as the bespectacled Liz Lemon on NBC’s Thursday night hit 30 Rock, but behind the scenes she’s busy juggling writing and producing duties for the show too. No one could be more qualified to tell us all about the ins and outs of the show, than Fey herself, so Hollywood.com rang up the comedy queen and here’s what she had to say about …
Liz’s pregnancy scare:
“Both of Liz’s former boyfriends, Dennis the Beeper King [Dean Winters], will be back and Floyd [Jason Sudeikis] will be back briefly. And I think Liz does have a little bit of a pregnancy scare…Liz, who probably hooks up once every seven years, seems surprisingly to [and] when it rains, it pours there for a week or two for her.”
Returning guest stars:
“Will Arnett is back as Jack Donaghy’s [Alec Baldwin] nemesis, Devon Banks. Dean Winters will be back as Dennis Duffy, the Beeper King…I hope Edie Falco will be back…She was Alec’s girlfriend.” [PAGEBREAK]
Getting Lorne Michaels to be on the show:
“He would be good as a Rupert Murdoch type. If we do ever use one, he won’t be able to play himself because we realized if we use anyone from SNL, the world of SNL as themselves, then our world kind of collapses because…[like] who is Tracy [Morgan]? I think even like referencing that Eddie Murphy exists is maybe the closest we can get to even acknowledging that Saturday Night Live exists…So if you see Lorne, he’ll be doing one of his world famous characters in a funny mustache and glasses.”
Tim Conway’s upcoming appearance:
“He plays a very sweet TV veteran named Bucky Bright who used to be on a show in the 50’s called Wagons Ho. And Kenneth [Jack McBrayer] is very excited. He’s also there to be a celebrity for a Republican Party Rally that Jack is trying to organize. But Jack is looking for a younger, hipper celebrity so he pawns him off on Kenneth and he tells Kenneth some very, very shocking and racy stories about the old days of television.” [PAGEBREAK]
Taking her daughter Alice to work:
“She likes to watch people get their makeup done and then when I come home, she goes “You got makeup? I like your makeup. Who did your eyes?” I think I have a very girly girl on my hands…and she likes the snack table. But who doesn’t?”
Whether her Vanity Fair cover will be incorporated into an episode of the show:
“No, it won’t be on the show because Liz Lemon is wholly a behind the scenes person. Liz Lemon never gets her hair done. But I think the great thing about that Vanity Fair article was that it was talking about how many women are in comedy now… it doesn’t put that individual pressure on anyone to be like the face of ladies in comedy.” [PAGEBREAK]
Comedies that inspire her:
“The Larry Sanders Show was just one of the greatest TV shows ever, especially in terms of being about a similar topic to this show…I’m a big fan of The Office, both the British and the American versions. I’m trying to think what other – so I mean, I grew up on a lot of classic TV too — Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Carol Burnett Show — all that kind of stuff…I really like Christopher Guest movies.”
Who she would love to work with:
“I still want Oprah to play my best friend…I want to spend time with Oprah and I don’t know what I need to do to make that happen.” [PAGEBREAK]
Her trademark glasses:
“At home I probably have four or five [pairs] that I can never find…on the set about half have prescription in them and half of them don’t because they’re just props that we only need sometimes…- I went and got an eye exam a couple weeks ago and [the doctor] tested my glasses and he said ‘You know these are props, right? That there’s no prescription?'”
Liz finding a new boyfriend:
“Those are – for me, are my least favorite stories to do and so there’s a certain contingency in our writers’ room. They’re always pitching them and I’m always saying no – no more love times. So I don’t know what will be on the horizon for Liz. Maybe…Peter Dinklage – that would be good. That guy is awesome…Let me go in there and say we need to start working on that.” [PAGEBREAK]
Using the upcoming election in the show:
“We like to sort of just put things out there that hopefully spark discussion…Liz Lemon also said last year that -when she was confessing her secrets to Floyd, she said ‘I might tell everyone I’m voting for Obama and secretly vote for McCain.'”
Casting pop stars like Britney Spears:
“We usually like to write a part first and then think about who would be good. But if there were a part that was appropriate, I don’t think we’d hesitate to go to somebody like that because I’ve actually worked with Britney twice at Saturday Night Live and she was very professional and nice.” [PAGEBREAK]
Inserting freeze frame jokes in the show:
“Yes, we do try to put things like that in there…because early on last year we did an episode where there was a prop that was a list – Liz made a list of the pros and cons about her boyfriend. And then I realized that people did freeze frame and, you know, wrote on the Internet, “Hey look what Liz said.” And so ever since then, I realized well people really look at this stuff.”
Relating to her character:
“I definitely am a nerd in life. I think Liz Lemon might be a bigger nerd than me. One of the writers put – in an upcoming episode – a flashback of her playing Dungeons and Dragons in college…And I said ‘I never played Dungeons and Dragons in college!’
