by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
Tina Fey took a huge chance by leaving SNL to star in her own show–a thirty minute comedy called 30 Rock about behind-the-scenes at a Friday night variety show. Her old boss Lorne Michaels signed on as executive producer along with Fey, who created the show. Fey’s first sound decision was to eighty-six the laugh track, which unfortunately, the producers of the following show, 20 Good Years opted to keep this annoying and archaic device.
Nonetheless, both shows are funny and well written, especially Fey’s creation, which is more like NBC’s other behind-the-scenes dramedy, Studio 60 on The Sunset Strip, which is sinking faster than the Titanic in the ratings. Still, both 30 Rock and Studio 60 are quality shows. However, Studio 60 is up against an established hit CSI: Miami. What marketing genius scheduled the show to run up against a huge hit?
Fey’s creation features snappy dialogue and funny situations as Fey portrays Liz Lemon who has taken over a show that desperately needs revamping. Her new boss, Jack Donaghy, (Alec Baldwin) is a marketing expert who has no experience in sketch comedy. His last assignment was to design an oven to use three sources of heat. Jack is brash, hands-on, and, in the first hour he’s there, he managed to alienate the entire cast and crew. Liz is used to being in charge and not kowtowing to a suit.
Thus, Liz’s relationship with Jack gets off to a bad start when he tasks her with hiring a crazy black comedian Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) in the mold of Martin Lawrence, who he met on the flight to New York.
Joining Fey is an all-star cast including Jane Krakowski,( Ally McBeal) Scott Adsit, (Kicking and Screaming) the show’s producer, Jack McBrayer, (Arrested Development) and stalwart SNL regular Rachel Dratch. The show is built around Fey and Baldwin’s conflicting personalities as she struggles to keep sane with Jack’s inept interference.
30 Rock is shot on film, which gives it a more artistic tone. Fey is finally able to use all her talents which she displays with deft comedic elan. Baldwin has never been funnier as the bumbling suit who looks at numbers rather than the creative aspects of the show. He is always quoting marketing studies about what the desired demographic group likes and doesn’t like. This drives Liz up the wall. In fact, everything Jack does pisses-off Liz, whose show on the first episode is in danger of collapsing. Then at the last minute, to save a sketch, she has Tracy Jordan go on stage and improvise. The studio audience loves it, and Jack is pleased with the instant Nielsen numbers coming into his office. The comedic conflict between Liz and Jack makes for great comedy. Unquestionably, Fey made the right decision to leave SNL for her own show which is a keeper.
20 Good Years, 30 Rock’s sister show for the next thirty minutes harkens back to the old sitcom formula complete with the dreaded laugh track. Despite my vow never to watch a show with a laugh track again, I bit the bullet to view TGY, starring John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor, two sixtysomething wild and crazy guys who decide that sixty is the new forty. The show features funny writing but the laugh track plunges a steel spike through its heart. Still, Lithgow as a surgeon, John Mason, who is forced to retire and Tambor as a retired judge, Jeffrey Pyne, who breaks up with his girlfriend at the party to announce their engagement have explosive comedic chemistry together. The two geezers decide to throw caution to the wind and live la dolce vita for the next twenty years, which is what they figure they have left. Of course, it’s a take off on the Odd Couple concept. For their first adventure, they don Speedos and take a winter plunge into the ocean.
Why on earth did the producers of 20 Good Years opt to use a laugh track? It’s insulting and offensive, like TV viewers are too stupid to know when to laugh. Moreover, laugh track operators always over use the machine. Every utterance out of the mouths of the actors gets a laugh. The show doesn’t need the laugh track, but by using it, the producers have spoiled a great show. Laugh tracks are so over. To me, a show with a laugh track is not worth my time.
30 Rock and 20 Good Years run back to back on Wednesday night with 30 Rock at 8:00 pm and 20 Good Years at 8:30 pm ET
|
