30 Rock

By Brian Howard Things had been so quiet at 30 Rock. Tracy Morgan hasn’t worn an ankle bracelet in a while. Alec Baldwin hadn’t left any lengthy voicemails for anyone. But Rip Torn, who plays GE CEO Don Geiss, has disturbed the calm with his third drunken driving arrest in five years.

By Brian Howard As usual, Alec Baldwin and the cast of 30 Rock go up against Steve Carell and the cast of The Office in the Outstanding Actor and Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series categories, respectively. Both projects are through Universal, as in NBC Universal.

By Brian Howard I mean, I’m glad they’re not going the stuntcasting route. 30 Rock perfected that tack before flubbing it repeatedly this season. The Office, deliberately by some accounts, has always avoided actors whose recognition factor would take viewers out of the show.

By Brian Howard Reviews I’ve spotted, formal and informal, indicate it blew The Office’s holiday episode out of the water, so my hopes are high. I’ll give it a gander later today, hopefully and post a true recap then. For now though, here’s the complete episode, courtesy of Hulu and Remote Access.

By Brian Howard In other news, the 2009 Writers Guild Awards nominees were announced the other day, and The Office came away with nods, for best comedy series, best episodic comedy (for “Crime Aid”). Fellow Thursday night staple 30 Rock also took nods in those categories, actually scoring for three epis...

By Brian Howard Photos: NBC Universal, Associated Press The Office is back! No, not the way I said 30 Rock is back earlier today. The Office never left that way. It’s been a pretty good season so far, with several good though no great episodes. That could change tonight. Here’s the episode summary for “The Surp...

By Brian Howard And Jack (Alec Baldwin) does a bit of self-discovery himself. Once again, GE’s CEO job falls just out of reach as Don Geiss (Rip Torn, giving a clinic on how to be a guest star) wakes from his coma and decides to keep his day job. So Jack joins Liz at the reunion—improbably, sure, but to great effe...

By Brian Howard The thing is, something seems to have happened to Liz Lemon between last season and this one. Maybe it was Tina Fey’s high-profile trip to Palinville. Suddenly she was getting the plaudits her work on SNL and 30 Rock had long ago earned her.

By Heather Salerno “Rosie Live,” a one-hour variety show featuring celebrity guests Liza Minnelli, Alec Baldwin and Jane Krakowski of “30 Rock,” Kathy Griffin, Ne-Yo, Gloria Estefan and Alanis Morissette, airs tomorrow night at 8 p.m. on NBC. Go here to read my story on Rosie in today’s Journal News.

By Brian Howard I loved Night Court back in the day, and I love 30 Rock in this day. So why didn’t I love Thursday’s retro-crossover as much as some people? Well, I took a few days and thought about it. Credit where it’s due, though, Tracy Morgan can’t speak without unleashing torrents of yuks.

By Brian Howard Worst of all, the last two weeks it’s felt like Tina Fey has become the least inspired guest star of all. Her Palin-ride to the celebrity stratosphere has stifled the Liz Lemon of old, for me, and that is an egregious turn of events. It was the flawed appeal of Liz that gave the show its human appe...

By Brian Howard It's with that in mind that I regret to say 30 Rock returns Thursday with a good but not as great as I was hoping Season 3 premiere. Maybe I built it up in my mind after six months of withdrawal. Or maybe I'm experiencing Tina Fey Fatigue. I can't help but worry that six weeks of Fey-as-Palin hype hav...

By Brian Howard MUZOPHILE: Entertainment and Music News, Videos, 24/7 Club Hits on Live365, Dance and Techno: VIDEO: TINA FEY Talks SARAH PALIN, '30 Rock' on DAVID LETTERMAN Fox strikes deal with Will Arnett for comedy series—chicagotribune.com

By Brian Howard Not that things didn’t get dicey for a while. Baldwin’s voicemail tirade coincided with Tracy Morgan’s drunken driving issues and was followed shortly after by Baldwin’s seeming threat to quit the show when he went on The View and said he didn’t care if he never acted again.

By Heather Salerno And I'm pretty sure no one fell off the couch when Alec Baldwin finally scored his trophy for his scene-stealing performance on "30 Rock," or when Tina Fey snagged Lead Actress in a Comedy and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.

By Brian Howard NBC made it official yesterday the Big O will guest-star in an episode of on 30 Rock this season. She joins a growing chorus of high-profile one-timers that include Al Gore, Jerry Seinfeld and Steve Buscemi, not to mention the all-star recurring characters portrayed by Will Arnett, Rip To...

By Brian Howard A lot of them are pointing out that it's too bad Fey doesn't have her SNL gig where she could portray Palin weekly. I say, bring Palin on 30 Rock. It would help balance the silliness that was former veep Al Gore's cameo, and it's not like the show's trademark isn't surprising guest stars (i.e. Pee W...

By Chris Serico Of course, "The NBC Primetime Preview" will do more than offer "an exclusive backstage look" at new series like "My Own Worst Enemy" (starring Christian Slater), "Kath & Kim" (Molly Shannon and Selma Blair) and "Crusoe" (Philip Winchester and Sam Neill). It'll also show off some tea...

By Brian Howard Well, not no one, but not nearly enough people are tuning in to give diehard fans like myself any confidence that Ben Silverman and the gang at NBC won't pull the rug out from under Tina Fey and Co. no matter how many awards they pull in or how much praise the suits heap on them. Season 1 averaged an...

By Brian Howard If you've ever seen the film Lollilove – and I recommend it to Office diehards, at least – that was her one and only foray into those specialties. It's a funny and weird little movie with her now estranged husband James Gunn. And apparently it jumpstarted her creatively but cured her of all but...

By Chris Serico As a worshipper of quality comedies like "30 Rock" and "The Office," I am blasphemous for never having seen a full episode of "Arrested Development." So although it's high on my NetFlix queue and could be viewed even sooner via Hulu, feel free to blame me for its premature demise after you'r...

By Brian Howard Tim Conway's recent guest stint on 30 Rock got me thinking about what a funny show The Carol Burnett Show was. I was too young to know prime time sketch comedy was a dying breed, or even that comic talent of such caliber, all in one place, was a rare thing.

By Chris Serico Now, I know I've been critical of NBC for deciding to wait until the fall to bring the show back while allowing more established comedies ("The Office" and "30 Rock," for example) to return for a mini-season shortly after the conclusion of the writers' strike. But while "The Office" and "30...

By Brian Howard We learned Liz is ready to be a mom, even if it's to the Beeper Prince. Jack is ready to fight for control of GE, even if it means turning the entire Pentagon gay. Tracy is the father of the year because he found a way to combine video games and adult movies. Also, Kenneth is fluent in Chinese.

By Brian Howard Jack (Alec Baldwin) wants Liz (Tina Fey) to book "The Subway Hero," New York's newest celebrity, who jumped in front of a train to save a total stranger who had fallen on the tracks. It turns out that the hero is none other than Liz's ex boyfriend, Dennis (guest star Dean Winters), "The Beeper...

By Brian Howard By live blogging the mostly highly anticipated episode of the funniest show on television, I'll free myself up at 9 p.m. to focus on the best overall show on television, The Office, for which I can post a prompt recap and analysis without giving 30 Rock short shrift. Of course, my 30 Rock recap/...

By Brian Howard In an hour with reporters the other day, Tina Fey touched on every conceivable topic. Herewith, then, is the kitchen sink… On knowing just how crazy to make it By keeping characters grounded at their emotional core, Fey said the writers can get away with the crazy stuff.

By Brian Howard I confront a particular dilemma while blogging about 30 Rock: Tina Fey and Co. say a lot of things in their prime time slot that I could never print in this space. Meanwhile, don’t expect any of the upcoming episodes to be about the TGS writers hitting the picket lines.

By Brian Howard Tina Fey chatted with the media the other day, and there was too much Liz Lemony goodness to cram into a single post. So Remote Access is doling it out over a couple of days, replete with real audio so you can hear for yourself just how awesome she is. Check out Part I here.

By Brian Howard Fey could only talk about 30 Rock, which is finally returning from the writers strike with a new episode April 10. But she did say that Liz Lemon’s endorsement of McCain (in a season one scene with Jason Sudeikis as love interest Floyd) was an example of the way the show likes to put things out t...

By Brian Howard Jack (Alec Baldwin) meets with German TV executives to close a deal on the purchase of the largest cable network in North America. Motivated by Jack’s financial advice, Liz (Tina Fey) decides to invest in real estate, but must appear before a co-op board to lobby for the apartment she loves....

By Amy Vernon Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series Alec Baldwin / Jack Donaghy – 30 Rock (NBC) (my pick, though Carell is a close second!) Steve Carell / Michael Scott – The Office (NBC) Ricky Gervais / Andy Millman – Extras (HBO) Jeremy Piven / Ari Gold – Entourage (HBO)

Remote Access 30 Rock holiday episode will be LudaChristmas Remote Access, NY - Dec 13, 2007 You’re going to wish every week was Shark Week because the prime-time pickings are getting slim, and you won’t have Tina Fey and Co. to kick around for a ...

By Brian Howard Download: (more…) Looking back at last week’s 30 Rock, we still can’t believe they landed Al Gore AND David Schwimmer AND Meredith Vieira AND Tina Fey. Well, OK, they had a leg up on the last one since its her show and all. Party with your colleagues at your own risk. Ignore global warming at your...

By Chris Serico Handle the “Truth” after the jump. (more…) As far as scripted television is concerned, the vast majority of my viewing these days involves programming on NBC: Tops with me right now are “The Office,” “30 Rock” and “Chuck”—with “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and a resurgent “Saturday Nig...

By Chris Serico While Seinfeld was a big reason for the ratings surge, I think the bigger factor you forgot about (or at least forgot to mention above) was the fact that “30 Rock” won the Emmy for best comedy series. That would get me to watch if I’d never seen the show before.