Wednesday, February 8, 2012

SUPERMAN DOES GOOD; YOU'RE DOING WELL. YOU NEED TO STUDY YOUR GRAMMAR, SON: The twice-daily 30 Rock reruns on Comedy Central have restarted their cycle this week -- last night, I re-learned that Lutz had a first name (J.D.) and Toofer is really "James Spurlock."  (Seriously, it's like that rarely-aired pilot of Gilligan's Island where you learn the Skipper's and Professor's full names.)

It's fun watching the show figuring itself out -- Tracy's even more antagonistic than he ends up being (and, at the time, his entourage was more thuggish than lovable), Pete and Josh have larger roles (and they're still trying to figure out a place for Rachel Dratch), but hot damn is Jack Donaghy fully formed from the first moment. There are far worse ways to spend an hour each night than to watch the show that ended up winning the war with Studio 60. Also, here's a compilation of Liz Lemon flashbacks.

11 comments:

  1. kd bart10:52 AM

    Liz: Are you wearing a tux?

    Jack: It's after six.  I'm not a farmer.


    Still one of my favorite lines from the show.

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  2. Watchman12:14 PM

    I know this is heresy, but has there ever been any broadcast network show with a smaller audience that was taken so seriously?  Nobody watches the thing...or is that the point?

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  3. The show's had 5-6 million viewers.  Two others with lower ratings that we embrace wholeheartedly--Arrested Development (4 million), and Party Down (which was lucky to get 100K per episode on Starz, though Netflix pumped its ratings dramatically).

    It's also had an enormously harsh ratings year this year because of being against Big Bang Theory--the ratings certainly seem to indicate that a lot of folks watch Big Bang, then flip over to NBC for Parks/Office.

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  4. Marsha12:53 PM

    Just rewatched the pilot as well. I find I miss all the jokes about microwave programming.

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  5. I've wondered if Lonny Ross (who played Josh) ticked off someone powerful (Lorne? Tina? Alec?) leading to his abrupt writing-out.

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  6. Was it abrupt?  He kept showing up as the cast member everyone forgot about (even after he did a national commercial that aired, IIRC, during 30 Rock).  I liked Ross, but my suspicion is that they didn't have anything to write for him.  Cheyenne Jackson rarely appeared after his arc, too. 

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  7. Joseph J. Finn6:13 PM

    Which they referenced in last week's episode, come to think of it.

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  8. Joseph J. Finn6:15 PM

    it is interesting to see how Grizz and Dot Com gradally make their way forward and become distinct characters (and man, once they did they just killed in every scene they were in; there was a brillaint 2 season stretch where the use of those two was just dead on in both the amount of time and how they were used).

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  9. J. Bowman6:34 PM

    And that itself may be because they had gotten used to ignoring Community at 8.

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  10. I saw him in promos for a new Cartoon Network show - it looked a little awkward considering he was at least 10 years older than everyone on the cast.

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  11. I found it really interesting that in Bossypants, Tina Fey revealed that she never intended for the show to become a cult hit.  The thinking was getting Baldwin & his movie star pedigree onto TV would translate to more eyeballs.  

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