TGS with Tracy Jordan: A Hellscape [30 Rock]

It's a lot to deal with.

Last week on 30 Rock Thursday Rock, we made an all-inclusive list of Liz's love life and celebrated her marriage to Criss Chros. Rather than pair that with a list of Jack Donaghy's ladies, we thought we would turn instead to Liz's professional life.

As Head Writer for TGS with Tracy Jordan, much of Liz's job involves wrangling the two (sometimes three) leads of the show, each with their own brand of extreme narcissism. Tracy leans more toward pure crazy and bouts of ennui, while Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) is a fun mix of sexually conniving trickster and paranoid baby. As much as 30 Rock is about
the corporate and sometimes insidious underpinnings of the creative world, it's also just about poking fun at celebrity culture. And nothing is more fun to poke than that!

Our Mantra is "I'm a Star, I'm On Top,
Somebody Bring Me Some Ham!

Of course, Liz has had her own brushes with fame during the show's run. Most notably is her coining of the phrase "That's a Dealbreaker, Ladies", which leads to talk show appearances, magazine covers, a book deal, a failed television pilot, and a lucrative venture as the background noise in soap operas. When Liz gets a taste of fame, it's clear that crazy people don't become famous - being famous makes you crazy.

In one of Tina Fey's greatest turns in  front of the camera, Liz Lemon fights with the sane person inside her and the selfish greed monster that she's become. It's a comedic tour de force. And trust us - we use that term lightly and often.

Ultimately, Liz is a great foil for Tracy, Jenna, and Josh/Danny, because deep down she wants to be them. She wants the glory and the attention, she just can't handle it. And, thankfully, she gets out before doing a full Lohan.

Liz is great at her job. She writes all the Fart Doctor sketches, for crying out loud. We don't know where the show will take her in the last episodes, and we're not sure if she'll ultimately choose a child over her career (a recent episode hinted to as much). Still, at its heart, 30 Rock is about making television, and nobody makes television quite like Liz.