30 Rock: 1 Year Later

Do it for Television!

One year ago today, my favorite television show OF ALL TIME aired its final episode. That's right, 30 Rock has been gone from the airwaves for 365 days. After 7 seasons (many of them truncated), Liz and Jack rode off into the sunset, never to be heard from again. Except for in my fan fiction, where they're both fighting for their lives in a post-apocalyptic hellspace. Obviously, everyone has a mohawk, and eye patches are plentiful.

Over this past year, it's been nice to see the cast pop up time and again on other television shows and films.  Jane Krakowski has been making the sitcom rounds, and her Trop50 ads have become a television staple. Tina Fey pops up time and again, hosting awards shows and securing sitcom deals, thus guaranteeing that her rapier wit will remain on our screens for years to come. Even Jack McBrayer has been on The Middle quite a few

30 Things We'll Miss About 30 Rock

30 Rock ends its impressive 7(SEVEN!)-season run tonight at 8pm (7pm Central) on NBC, and we have been lamenting the loss for quite a while now.  Since we recently learned to count to 30 a few days ago, we thought is was only appropriate that we look at the 30 things we'll miss the most about one of the greatest shows of our time:

30 Rock's Final Week

We're currently four days away from the end of 30 Rock. The one-hour finale will air, we will cry, and then it will be over. Unlike other great comedies like Seinfeld, Cheers, or even older comedies like The Dick Van Dyke Show or The Mary Tyler Moore Show (we've got a whole Mary Tyler Moore obsession over here), it's not clear yet what the impact of 30 Rock will be. If anything, it seems like networks are hauling butt in the opposite direction, choosing to develop shows with easily digestible comedy and empty jokes with no relevance to the characters or their motivations. Despite a lot of wonderful comedies on the air right now, it seems like 'smart' comedy is quickly falling away. This season will mark the end of 30 Rock, but also the end of The Office and the possible end of countless others (Don't Trust the B, Happy Endings, Ben and Kate, etc.). More than any other show, though, 30 Rock feels and has always felt like a show created for us: for TV nerds that missed countless sporting events, mitzvahs (both bar and bat), holiday celebrations, and community events so that we could spend more time with our beloved TV boxes, who were always there with a new episode of Pete and Pete or a re-run of Alias just when we needed it. For people that count television among their loved ones and cried during the Friends finale, not because it was really that great an episode, but because it was the end of an era, dammit!

Is this the time to wallow in our suffering, crying "LIZ LEMON!" to the heavens and a vengeful god? Perhaps, but it's also a time for reflection, for soaking in the joy that the show brought us. Regardless of the strength of 30 Rock's final episode this Thursday, there's no denying the brilliant seven seasons that have come before it, nor the momentous final season that we have seen, gifted to us by Tina Fey, Robert Carlock, and all the other amazing people behind and in front of the camera.  We've followed Liz from the lettuce-hating creator of The Girlie Show to the woman that she is now: slightly more put-together, married with two children, still a hater of all things green and leafy, and the showrunner of the (just cancelled) TGS with Tracy Jordan. We've watched Jack wrestle with the contradictory nature of his conservative values and those of the hippie, 'feminista' employee that he loves so much. We've watched Liz and Jack Donaghy's relationship grow from antagonistic to friendly to pseudo-sexual to way-too-enmeshed to whatever they are now. We've seen Jenna go from a fame-loving nincompoop to a brilliant psychopath, hellbent on being famous no matter what the cost. We've been confused as Tracy Jordan does whatever it is Tracy Jordan does (WWTJD? IDK). We've enjoyed Kenneth as he used kindness to be continually fired and demoted, until he finally got the Head of Television for President of NBC title that was his all along (he loves TV so, so much). We've been simultaneously creeped out and overjoyed by the antics of Pete, Toofer, Frank, and Lutz, and we've stared too long at Cerie when we were supposed to be watching something else in the scene. We've cried with Jonathan, we've laughed with Colleen, and we've been shamed repeatedly by Jack's ex-wife Avery. We've even fantasized about astronaut Mike Dexter and considered settling with Wesley Snipes.

Now, more than ever, it's time to look back at the brilliance. We've spent many Thursdays enjoying 30 Rock, and we've spent the last few Thursdays looking at our favorite moments from the show. This week on Tableau Your Mind will be no different. We'll be checking in with old flames, favorite episodes, and missed moments. We'll be looking at Jack's relationships, 30 Rock's indelible mark on product placement, and so much more. Unless we're too busy crying - then we'll just be posting YouTube videos.

Jenna Sings "Muffin Top" [30 Rock]

Everyone Knows The Most Delicious Part of the Muffin...
Is The Top

We were going to really take time with our 30 Rock article this week, with insightful comments on Jack's relationships with women and quippy asides that really highlighted how much we love and appreciate the show.  However, we just got off the bumpiest and most nausea-inducing car-ride from Agra to New Delhi, and we're not feeling particularly inspired.

So, here is Jenna Maroney's "Muffin Top," a dance-pop techno hybrid which was, at one point, the number one song in Israel:



UPDATE: The previous videos we posted got deleted from the source, so here's a new one:

Great 30 Rock Moments

What do you do with the Pop-Tart?

There's no new 30 Rock tonight, but we made a commitment (basically to ourselves) that we would celebrate 30 Rock each Thursday on Tableau Your Mind. Since we're pretty tired from playing as hard as we work, we thought we would share a few of our favorite quotes from the show. Without really meaning to, all of these quotes are from the 2nd Season, so it doesn't necessarily represent a great cross-section of the show. Still, it's fun to remember:

"What do you do with the Pop-Tart?"

In the episode "Greenzo" Liz has the misfortune of walking in on Pete in her apartment, cheating on his wife.. with his wife. The scene that follows is classic 30 Rock, highlighting Liz's issues with marriage, sex, trust, and, most importantly, food.

"I only act out because I want your love. Dyno-mite!"

"Rosemary's Baby" is arguably one of the strongest episodes of the entire series, and it would be great if only for Carrie Fisher's guest spot as a terrifying glimpse into Liz's future. But then, in one of the most classic, racially charged and genius moments in the show, GE executive Jack Donaghy 'impersonates' multiple members of Tracy Jordan's family (including Tracy himself) during a therapy session. He's doing it ostensibly to keep Tracy from dog fighting, but once he gets going his impressions take on a life of their own. 

"I'm gonna cut your face up so bad you'll have a chin. You'll ALL have chins!"

Have you noticed how surprisingly weak-chinned the male cast of 30 Rock is? After this sandwich-theft-inspired threat in "Sandwich Day", we can't stop noticing.

There are plenty other great quotes and moments from 30 Rock's seven seasons that we absolutely love, but these are the three that we go to when times are rough, when hope is gone, and when it looks like things will never get better. Basically, it's the three moments we will play over and over again once the show goes off the air for good.