[IMG:L]Last season, NBC’s 30 Rock was continually hailed with such backhanded superlatives as “the funniest show you’re not watching.” And if the comedy’s recent Emmy victory as Outstanding Comedy Series did provide enough of a lure for new viewers, the network is pulling out the heaviest of all artillery when it comes to making a “Must See TV” tradition. Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin explained it all to Hollywood.com:
On returning for a second season after middling first year ratings salved by the surprise Emmy win and the big first-episode special guest star:
Alec Baldwin: I think everybody is very grateful that we’re going to come back and do it again, and hopefully do it after that. I mean, if you get lucky and this thing runs and run and runs, it’s a great opportunity. And then this season we have to really, really juice up our chances of having a good start to the season. We got Jerry … what’s his name? Jerry … the guy that was on the comedy with the other three people. Jerry…Seinfeld, right. Jerry Seinfeld is doing our show with us this year, and it’s just so exciting. It’s great. And we’re very grateful to Jerry Seinfeld for doing the show with us.
On how Seinfeld came to them, not the other way around:
Tina Fey: We could not be more excited to have Jerry Seinfeld on the show, because hopefully regular America might actually find out that we have a show and watch it maybe at least that one time. And also, he’s super funny. So that fell in our lap. He sort of volunteered to come on, and that’s all going to be great. I’ve met him once or twice–he hosted SNL. He’s a really nice guy, but he’s definitely not doing this because he’s a friend. He’s definitely more of a professional acquaintance and so it’s really nice of him to do it. We were very flattered when we got the news.
On possible storylines for the upcoming season:
TF: I’d like to get Jenna into rehab. Maybe she wants to go to rehab as a career boost. Tracy’s wife is probably going to kick him out for a reason that’s yet to be determined. We also talked about maybe Jenna coming back having put on a lot of weight during the summer hiatus and her having to go to Dr. Spaceman, who may or may not tell her to start smoking. Oh, there might be that Jack tries to get us to do a USO show.
On the strengths of the star/writer/creator:
AB: In TV you don’t have many people like her. You know, you have women who have an edge to them and are funny and are smart in the moment and they’re clever on screen, and they’re not the pretty girl, you know. And Tina is a beautiful woman who’s funny and smart and has that edge in the same instant. And that’s very rare. There’s not a lot of people who have that kind of timing and that kind of spin she puts on the line reading. She’s occupying a place right now for herself in television that there just is nobody else doing what she’s doing. Are there other good-looking women who are funny and clever and talented? I’m not going to name their names because I don’t want to slight their writing staffs. But there are a lot of shows that have components of what we have, but they don’t have everything we have.
[IMG:R]On tweaking the show’s tone of high-density humor for more character comedy:
TF: I think we learned a lot about the tone of the show throughout the year and whether we want the characters to be believable enough that you still care about them, but still be able to do crazy jokes with them. This year, we are going to try to maybe try to do a little less, because the shows were so dense that sometimes we worried it was almost going by too quickly for the audience. So we’re hoping to let things breathe a little bit. I think you can make [the characters] pretty big, but I think it would be better if you believe that in somewhere, they’re actual human beings.
AB: What I didn’t count on was how challenging this would be, because I think in the beginning we all tried to make it pop and tell the jokes and hit the jokes and everything. And then as the season went on, I think the show got better because we tried to make it more real. And we still make it a little nutty. Today was pretty nutty, I must say. We had Seinfeld here. But I think everybody really tries to make it funny and yet to make it more honest. I think we have the best writers in the business right now. They’re funny. They’re sick. They’re deeply troubled people. But we overlook that and we take from them what we can. And they’re good writers. I wouldn’t want to hang out with them, but–never, ever.
On the running gag of Star Wars references:
TF: We’ve tried to keep it going. I don’t think that we’ve had it in every single show, but we’ve got a pretty good batting average. Robert Carlock, one of our Executive Producers, is usually the resident expert. I can chime in a little bit, but I’m not quite as good of a ‘Star Wars‘ wonk as he is.
On just who is in those photos lining Jack’s office:
AB: This is one of my favorite things in the show is my artwork and my office pictures of me with other famous people. Me and Kim Jong-Il. We make a nice couple, me and Kim. We have me with Jay Leno, me with the Saudi sheik. It’s all me with that whole Carlyle group crowd that I hang out with, my character does.
[IMG:L]On the likelihood of a romance between Liz Lemmon and Jack Donaghy:
TF: Liz and Jack? I don’t think so. Alec said last year that we should have a pact that none of the characters on the show should sleep with each other. Because if you do that in this core family then you get stuck in that sort of Sam-and-Diane kind of thing. Our writers usually describe that relationship as Mary Tyler Moore/Lou Grant. Or Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker.
On the even less-likely prospect of Liz hooking up with Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan):
TF: Liz and Tracy? It’s going to be revealed that they’ve been sleeping together the whole time. No. They would never get together.
