The End of "30 Rock" and the Legacy on Modern Sitcoms

Left to right: Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan,
Jack McBrayer, and Jane Krakowski

Tonight marks the end of a significant cornerstone in the sitcom realm. After seven seasons, 136 episodes, six Golden Globe wins and 14 Primetime Emmy wins as well as twice as many guest stars, 30 Rock comes to an end. The show that once was considered to be the underdog to Aaron Sorkin's comparable Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip not only outlasted the show (don't worry folks, Sorkin's won an Oscar since), but went on to change the face of modern comedy, or at least in terms of what could happen on a main channel. While the legacy is now forged, I cannot help but feel of two minds about the show's departure. With the first four seasons being some of TV's best, I cannot entirely back the spotty three that followed. Either way, as I look back, I have to admit that it may be one of the most influential sitcoms of the post-2000's.

Left to right: Fey and Oprah Winfrey

- The Legacy on Modern Sitcoms -

For those wondering is the show's initial influence on modern TV, consider this. Upon the show's arrival, TV was overpowered by male dominated shows. When Tina Fey got Lorne Michaels to produce a show parodying her time on Saturday Night Live, nobody expected it to last. True, Fey's Weekend Update segment remained some of that era's bright spots and even her writing in cinema (Mean Girls) proved that there was a strong new voice out there. Still, TV was a vast wasteland for women, who couldn't exactly be taken as seriously as men. 

That was pre-2006. Cut to today. On network TV alone, shows like New Girl, the Mindy Project, Parks and Recreation, 2 Broke Girls, Whitney, and even Don't Trust the B in Apt. 23 have emerged with female lead comedies ranging in quality, but all with vibrant personalities. This is hard to imagine in a world where 30 Rock was just a gamble and became a one season wonder. However, just as much as Ricky Gervais' the Office did for mockumentary sitcoms, the show has left a mark for better or worse. While there is still some ways to go, it feels like women now have more chances to produce shows, and the online community will attest that some of them are pretty good, despite some not getting the desired ratings.

This is predominantly what should be applauded for when people think of 30 Rock. It remains the strongest impact that the show has had on our pop culture pantheon. In fact, Tina Fey's success recently lead her to becoming the youngest recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor this year. The most that can be said is that it reaffirmed a long standing argument on whether or not women can be funny. In many ways, Fey is a modern pioneer in proving that this is the cast, regardless of what people like Adam Carolla say. They have even addressed this issue multiple times and in many ways has taken on social commentary as well as the initial workplace satire it started as.

But why is the show a success in this regards? It is one thing for women to be funny, but there needs to be a more concrete reason. With that, I turn to what the show has actually achieved for comedy on a broader spectrum. More than any other show, it launched what could be possible when it came to alternative comedian cameos. There are just so many to the point that in its shorter run, it almost rivals the Simpsons for a lexicon of names ranging back to Buck Henry and Steve Martin to then-unknowns like Rob Huebel and Aubrey Plaza. 

Chris Parnell

The show may single-handedly be responsible for introducing the general public to names that otherwise would remain local heroes. While they went on to have the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Paul McCartney, and even Aaron Sorkin, they were also key in giving people like Chris Parnell (as the brilliant Dr. Spaceman), Paul Scheer, Will Arnett, and Will Forte memorable bit roles that at very least helped to show the diversity of the program and that even the smallest of roles could produce a laugh. It was a list of comedians of comedians and for the most part, the show never faltered in producing laughs. 

While cameos have been an obligatory part of the sitcom for decades, this show feels like a companion piece to the Simpsons in how to do it right. While some spots seemed gratuitous, it was also effective in giving roles to lesser known performers. This alone showed that 30 Rock was very confidently written. It knew its cast and managed to play humor on a wide spectrum based on the performer. While not everyone was catered to, it really did feel like the cameos popped out of nowhere and just brightened up the episode. 

Cut to today with the modern sitcom. There are numerous examples of comedians guest starring on shows that essentially launch them into the public consciousness. Maybe not quite on the 30 Rock scale of celebrity-to-unknown performer, but even on NBC's Community, actors like Kevin Corrigan, John Goodman, and Steven Tobolowsky have become integral parts of that show's legacy. Even politicians like Joe Biden have appeared on Parks and Recreation. The numbers are limitless and almost every cameo comes with a memorable quote.

I know that I am saying everything about the show's legacy that I feel will be shining lights for the future. However, I would like to just get into a more personal view of the show that is how I will perceive 30 Rock in the grand scheme of things.

Left to right: Fey, David Schwimmer, and Baldwin

-The End of 30 Rock -

I first became aware of 30 Rock one day in college. We were in the middle of shooting footage for a journalism class when someone pulled out a laptop and popped on season three's premiere episode "Do Over." My initial thoughts was that I was impressed with the show's ability to do recurring gags and that it was just spitfire funny. I knew about the show's existence and that for many, it was really funny, but at the time, it wasn't the runaway hit that overpowered television for me. I had heard references to 30 Rock creation MILF Island a few times, but never associated the two. In fact, I don't think I watched NBC outside of the first few seasons of My Name Is Earl.

Immediately following this, I slowly integrated 30 Rock into my weekly viewing. It was just crazy good. Tina Fey as Liz Lemon was a breath of fresh air to TV. Of course, like most people, one of the bigger draws immediately was Tracy Morgan as Tracy Jordan: a slightly misogynistic player who may have had the most fascinating evolution of a character on the show (seriously, rewatch season one episodes before tonight's episode. It will blow your mind). Being familiar with his Saturday Night Live days, I was not ready for his performance. He talked in nonsequitors, took little responsibility for his actions, and wanted to make everything pregnant. Way different from his characters like Brian Fellows.
I knew that he was very funny in the idiot realm of Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), but he somehow grounded the show as the problematic character. I actually haven't doubted him since I heard Kevin Smith talk on KROQ's Kevin and Bean Show in promotion of Cop Out. He claimed that 30 Rock was the best thing that could ever happen to him, as it was all of his personality. I wouldn't doubt it. I have tried to find anything else (even his stand-up) that compares. I kind of hope he finds a niche soon, because he definitely has a great personality.
As a writer during that time, I also empathized more with the writing staff scenes. The amount of time that they spent crafting ridiculous sketches felt voyeuristic to me. As much as I was laughing, I couldn't help but wonder what portion was real and what was satirized. The dumb hats that Judah Friedlander would wear or the antsy nature of Scott Adsit was always a delight. Already, without a single guest star, the cast and crew of this program was amazingly packed. Even Jack McBrayer, who unfortunately hasn't quite evolved in as satisfying a way as the predominant leads, still manages to pull out a laugh or two. This sincerely feels too voyeuristic, and for that entire third season, I was fascinated, right down to the video that ended the season:

I felt it deserved all of the awards just for that three minutes of television alone. In fact, it was because of this season that I blindly bought the first two DVD sets from Best Buy on Black Friday. Somehow, that batch of episodes not only made jokes clearer, but somehow quickly turned it into one of my favorite shows. It managed to satirize media in a more slapstick the Larry Sanders Show type of way and even the cutaways at times were great. I must admit that of everything, Liz's scenes of troubled childhood did get old, but with jokes flying every second and three plots going at once, 10 seconds of mediocre humor were easy to overlook.

I rewatched a handful of season one episodes just to remind me of where the show came from. "Pilot" opened with a parody on That Girl that somehow set the tone for the rest of the show. It had an "I'm going to make it!" vibe and made everything seem like a meta commentary on the culture past and present. Even the introduction of Alec Baldwin as the new head of NBC seemed like an inside scoop on how networks work. Apparently it involves ridiculous home products. Most of the elements were already there and while the first batch of episodes were a little raw, they were still confident and a strong representation of where the show would go. Of course, who knew that it would include appearances by Ghostface Killah and Paul Reubens. The freshman season was able to do whatever it wanted not only because of Fey's reputation from Saturday Night Live, but also just because NBC had nothing to lose. By season two, it cranked up the meta humor with the fiascos on camera parodying how the show was perceived by the general public. It wasn't the only show of the time to do so (Arrested Development), but this pretty much set up the possibility of Community (which featured former 30 Rock writer Donald Glover) and the infinite realm of live action comedy being able to commentate on itself in clever ways. 

Jack McBrayer

In fact, the show was doing great for me up until "the Shower Principle" from season six. By season five, I began to notice cracks, but felt that the ratio of quality was still strong. However, with an episode that felt based on deja vu, the show officially crossed the line of meta humor and entered the "we're out of ideas" stage of their lifespan. Suddenly, I no longer perceived it as the great show that influenced a change in modern comedy, but as the show that no longer cared about what it did. True, it did go on to produce "Leap Day," which was an excellent episode, but I noticed that the show wasn't so much evolving as it was shoving things into odd directions that made no sense. Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski were now being teamed up for pointless storylines and Jack McBrayer tried dating Kristen Schaal, which seemed insufferable the more that season seven carried on. Even the choice to sympathize the writing staff only made me feel like the time when 30 Rock was cutting edge and had something to say was over. The shows that it paved the way for were churning out a better product. Also, the slapdash humor felt desperate and in a time when NBC's alternate programming was going into dry, more elaborate jokes, 30 Rock attempted to compete with them by just making the plot more complex, as proven with "Game Over." The Simpsons continue to try this, and the results are middling examples of comedies sacrificing jokes for inventive plots. This isn't necessarily bad, but it feels desperate sometimes.

After "the Shower Principle," I felt like it was impossible to find stuff to love about the show. Everyone was now a caricature and I kind of loathed watching the show. This isn't to say that it was bad. Most of my recaps reflect an average rating. However, it was painful because even the meta humor was playing against it. I also am still opposed to the idea that 30 Rock spent half of its final season commenting on the 2012 Presidential Election. Yes, if I didn't think "the Shower Principle" established that they were out of ideas, the six episode arc that attempted to be meta just made the show feel terribly dated. Still, it isn't like the show has lost all of its charm. While I don't feel like the Liz getting married and having children story is particularly amazing (just another example of how far the show strayed from its roots), it at least has moments of earnestness. However, most of the performers still feel like caricatures, and Tracy Morgan feels like a hit and miss joke machine now.

This is why I am having trouble accepting the finale as nothing more than praise. True, the first four seasons are still very solid, and almost every season since has produced quality episodes. Even the guest stars have remained high caliber, especially with the impressive live shows. However, its time has come to go and as sad as I am, I will at least be able to stop loathing the show's painful existence. It has had a terrific run and while I worry what NBC will replace it with, it belongs to history now, and maybe they will understand the significance it had on the modern sitcom and meta humor in general, even if it felt like a very old hat type of show. In fact, I still will rank it as one of my favorite comedies.

In closing, I'll leave you with a video of 30 Rock at its height that more than justifies why Alec Baldwin will be sorely missed as Jack Donaghy. But don't worry. He has a podcast called Here's the Thing that is pretty good.