One of the only funny people on SNL says her final "Good Night... and have a pleasant tomorrow."

Rachel Dratch is also leaving for 30 Rock.

I suspect they'll both be free to return sometime before Christmas.

(Was that my out-loud voice?)

There isn't room enough for two meta-SNL shows, and I think the other one is going to go further.

Oh, how I am looking forward to the other one.

I'm not the only one here with a wicked crush on Tina Fey, right?

SNL is also scaling down the cast list, from what Lorne Michaels has said recently.

TexasWill wrote:
: Rachel Dratch is also leaving for 30 Rock.

Fey AND Dratch? Swoon.

Rumor has it Horatio Sanz is leaving, as well.

Thank God.

A week later and I am still stunned that you would swoon over Rachel Dratch.

Peter is not the only one who likes Rachel Dratch. Sara and I are big fans as well.

I've never been able to figure out why so many people dislike her. Most of the SNL fan sites that bash her complain that she's "ugly." While she's no glamour model, she has a face for comedy and carries herself well.

She and Tina Fey have a long history of collaboration so it doesn't surprise me that they are leaving together.

The thing that always amazed me about Dratch is that she played boys so well. She seems to relish the opportunity. I found her one of the more versatile cast members. That Sanz is leaving is an immediate improvement for SNL. Even his movie roles and cameos brought the level of any project he touched down a notch.

I have a funny story involving Sanz, David Dark and David Bazan...but it'll have to wait 'til another time.

sounds like Seth Myers will be the new head writer. ugh.

CNN story on the changes and cuts at SNL

A good thing out of this: he will no longer be doing sketch comedy.

Nick

Can anyone report on last night's "30 Rock"? I had a meeting and had to miss it.

It was a lesser episode. One of the female characters dresses inappropriately for work, and everybody is distracted (while all the men state that it wasn't a problem AT ALL). Baldwin insists to sit in on the creative meetings, and begins to take it over.

Tina Fey's humor is mostly reactionary. That means she can sell a terrible joke, and milk yuks out of it, by showing Baldwin laughing hysterically, and thus the joke is that this GE "suit" has no concept at what comedy is. Good for her.

Me, I fell asleep watching it.

Hah! I just came to post that it was my favorite episode so far and I think it's improving. I love watching Alec Baldwin and I thought the bits with Kenny the Page were funny.

30 Rock moves to Thursdays beginning tonight, and it gets a major endorsement today in The Washington Post, courtesy of Tom Shales:

"30 Rock" clearly deserves another shot, and tonight's episode shows why. The series has consistently and considerably improved since its premiere, and although it unfortunately shares its setting -- backstage at a "Saturday Night Live" kind of comedy show -- with NBC's congested windbag "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," the sitcom is refreshingly bright, sweet and, lest one forget, funny. ...

Donaghy's prominence in the story lines has grown because Baldwin's performance is so rare and rich. He isn't doing the easy thing, which would be portraying a network executive as a clueless doofus. Although it's true that Donaghy is full of stupendously wrongheaded notions that he foolishly mistakes for ideas, as well as a pronounced bullying streak, Baldwin gives him an unlikely subtle poignancy. Instead of merely hating Jack, you're likely to develop a soft spot for him, especially when he tries to dismiss failure as mere foible. ...

Regardless of problems, "30 Rock" has earned its spot on the schedule, and not just because comedies are in such woefully short supply -- although, come to think of it, that might be reason enough right there. "30 Rock" is as good as "The Office," "My Name Is Earl" and the rapidly aging "Scrubs." ...

Baldwin's performance, on the other hand, seems perilously close to perfect, beyond improving ...

Most of the time, Baldwin's character is the one doling out abuse and yet, in a truly neat trick, Baldwin makes him the show's most sympathetic soul. That's beyond acting; it's more like alchemy. And a crazy joy to watch.

--If you haven't been watching, try it out tonight. Baldwin alone makes it worthwhile.

Last night's episode had a few good belly laughs, but all in all, it was a let down. I hope future episodes improve.

Alan, can we change the thread title to "30 Rock"?

I’ve come to enjoy the lack of activity in this thread, and being the only person to highlight each week’s episode of “30 Rock.” Maybe Sara will have something to say about last night’s episode, but until that time, let me … well, let me repeat myself, since my thoughts on the earlier episodes continue to apply to the most recent outing:

This show’s humor is wildly inconsistent, but when it’s good, it’s really good. And it’s really good whenever Alec Baldwin is on. His interplay with Tina Fey is one for the ages. Give the man an Emmy.

Last night's was the first full episode of "30 Rock" I've seen since the premiere, and I was more impressed than I expected to be.

Dale

I've been following it all along, and while I thought the interplay was okay, and the joke that "technology is cyclical" ("No it's NOT!")... the final scene with the three lead characters having three very different facial problems was utterly priceless. (And the Deus ex machina resolution directly afterwards was so left-field, it gets a total double-priceless from me....)

I watched it for the first time last night and I was mildly impressed. Alec Baldwin was pretty hilarious. Tracy Jordan's face tatoo stuff was pretty funny as well. I especially enjoyed the cut of the magazine feature about him titled "NORMAL".

Still though, after watching I wasn't terribly disappointed I've missed the entire season. Overall, it wasn't half bad, mostly good actually. BTW, my wife really likes the show. She's pretty funny, so I trust her.

After last night's episode, I commented to Sara that I liked what Tina Fey was doing with the writing...

The character of Jack is something of a buffoon, but at the same time he has genuine helpful insight into Liz Lemon's character. Essentially, he wants to help her, but has no clue about appropriate boundaries or limits.

And Alec Baldwin's portrayal of Jack seems to be organic. He seems to be channeling "Pete Shweaty" (from the two infamous SNL holiday sketches a few years ago) crossed with the power-mad executives that many of us have known from personal experience. His character has no clue that he is saying things that are both perceptive and asinine in the same breath. His character is an idiot savant of human behavior, having extreme insight into the motivations of other characters, but no strong meditative inner life of his own.

I'm still enjoying 30 Rock and think it's gotten better and better. Baldwin is pretty much a genius, and all the off-the-wall stuff from the other characters tickles me. I love this trend (is two shows a trend?) of comedies with no laugh tracks.

Actually, all four of NBC's Thursday-night sitcoms lack a laugh track, as do the CW's "Everyone Hates Chris" and ABC's "Help Me Help You" and (I think) "Big Day." Network half-hour comedies are now split pretty evenly between ones with laugh tracks and ones without -- shocking, since just five or six years ago the only non-animated network comedy without a laugh track was "Malcolm."

Dale

What's everyone's take on last Thursday's episode? I couldn't watch it. The next day, in an online chat. a TV critic complained about how it was the least funny episode yet.

So I just watched it online, and even with numerous streaming "freezes" that broke the comic rhythm, I thought it might be the funniest episode yet. Am I just giddy to have had the opportunity to catch up on a missed episode during my lunch break?

Remind me... was this the one with Conan O'Brien? If so...

Flat. Out. Hysterical.

But it was also mad-cap and leaning on older tricks... not a lot of original (or challenging) material there, just effectively-played for yuks, "Night Court" style.

"The Rural Juror." I'd be first in line to see this if it existed, just so I could say "I saw Rurrr Jurrr"...

Yes, the Conan O'Brien episode.

"Old tricks," eh? If that's what made the episode work, I say, "Bring it on." This is the first time I've enjoyed Tracey Morgan's performance. And the stuff with the boyfriend is pretty amusing.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who enjoyed the episode. I was sitting at my desk, in a quiet office, laughing out loud.

I remain confident that Alan will change to the title of this thread to "30 Rock."

In the meantime, here's a li'l story about Brian Williams' reaction to a great visual gag from last Thursday's episode:

At one point, Kenneth is shown scrubbing the office wall where Williams has apparently scrawled a message to his CBS rival: "Katie Couric Sucks."

When we caught up with Williams last Friday, he told us that 30 Rock creator and star Tina Fey, an old pal, had showed him the script weeks ago—without the Couric gag.

"It was a heart-stopper to see that on the wall," he said. "I hope my old friend Katie knows that’s not really what I do with my free time."

Williams called the send-up "brilliant and hilarious," and noted, for the record, that he’s a teetotaler in real life.

Thanks for changing the thread title, Alan.

This link could apply to any number of TV threads, but I'm placing it here because seeing "30 Rock" praised alongside "The Office" is a bit unusual:

In the past year, ‘‘The Office’’ has blossomed into a signature comedy of the ’00s, as it has reinvented the workplace genre for a more-bust-than-boom era. Among its virtues, ‘‘The Office’’ has perfected the fine art of making what’s unsaid funnier than what is said; it has slyly ridiculed the excesses of both political correctness and political incorrectness; it has celebrated misfits in all their pathos and geekiness; and it has added a dash of Don Quixote poignancy as its paper salesmen face a paper-free world.

And since its premiere last fall, ‘‘30 Rock’’ has begun to look like a breakout comedy. It operates at the opposite end of the explicitness spectrum from ‘‘The Office,’’ with broadly witty swipes at the business of making funny. And it rocks.

Dude, take a little time, get your act together during the off season, then get back to doing what you do best.

Stop with these threats. There aren't enough good comedies on TV. You're not expendable.

Yeah, I saw that, too. An example of a good (great?) actor being flatly uninspired. I hope it doesn't drag the show down. I'm guessing he was just blowing off steam, which kind of fits with his tempramental and impulsive history.

Still, I'm guessing that would end up being a revoling role, anyway, but the show is too vulnerable right now. It needs a solid base before it rotates someone else in.

I should note: There are very few shows on TV right now that I'm enjoying as much as this one. VERY funny, especially Baldwin's character and the rather literate stabs at things like Six Sigma.

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Yes! (Although I can't second the "Six Sigma" bit, which is an unfamiliar concept to me, and must've gone right over my head). Baldwin was the show until later in the season, when it began to come together as an ensemble piece (Fey has become really great, I think). But he still gives the show most of its energy. Losing him would be a terrible blow.

Tonight is the season finale, I think. I bet the show plays great in reruns.

Last night's episode started sluggishly. The Greenzo thing wasn't really workin' for me, although it got funnier during the second half of the program.

But that second half -- mainly the post-party gathering -- was unbelievably funny, maybe the funniest sequence I've seen in a sitcom in years. Even better than 30 Rock at its best, before last night.

You can watch the entire episode here, although I've never had good luck with the player.

You have to wonder what this episode is going to do for pop tarts.

Excellent question. We have Pop Tarts in our home -- for the kids, of course.

I don't know if I can eat another brown-sugar Pop Tart after last night.

Wow -- that was one amazing comedy episode. Zany with a soul. I loved the last line. This show keeps getting better and better.

Baldwin is thinking beyond the show, while stiffing his interviewers.

"It's just that what you do, it doesn't have as important a place in the lives of people now," he said. "The world is in a really tough spot. And you can make people laugh and do a TV show and that's important to them but . . ." he breaks off mid-thought to marvel over Chopin's Nocturne No. 1 in B-Flat Minor. And then he's back. "How long does that last, that effect? How long do you take their mind off other things? And the second question becomes: Should you be taking their mind off other things? ...

Then he suddenly stood up and said, "Lemme go find out something, hold on" and, inexplicably, went to lunch.

The guest list for the upcoming season is growing.

Basically...he has now become Jack Donaghy.

Season 2 comes out on DVD today, loaded with what appears to be a generous portion of extra features, which almost makes up for the fact that the WGA strike cut it down to a 15-episode season.

A glimmer of good news, from the Washington Post's TV columnist:

Mocking Palin has paid off handsomely for NBC, and Fey. Thursday's season debut of Fey's "30 Rock" attracted nearly 9 million viewers, its biggest audience ever.

Nine million isn't a great number, but it's an improvement for this show, which badly needed new viewers.

I watched the episode online, two days ago, then read a review somewhere that called it subpar but still better than every other comedy on TV. I didn't find it subpar; I thought it was hilarious. But it's possible that I've been away from the show so long that I don't remember how funny the earlier episodes are.

30 Rock is brilliant.

And last Monday, after Charlie Kaufman told me about his problems with The Sopranos, I asked him if there was anything on television he really admired, and he said without hesitating, "30 ROCK!!", grinning with enthusiasm. "I would love to do something like that!"

Well, lets face it...a sub-par episode of 30 Rock is pretty much still far above other comedies.

The Night Court thing didn't really work for me -- I never cared for the show; used to turn off NBC's Thursday-night comedy block at 9:30 -- but Jennifer Aniston killed last night. I had no idea she could be that good as an actress. Of course, I don't think I've seen any of her movies, and I never could stomach more than 5 minutes of any episode of Friends, so ...

Agreed about Aniston. But I'm a big fan of Night Court, so the reunion of three of its principal players was something I thought I'd never see. Last night's episode was a rare five-starrer for me.

Last night's episode didn't do much for me, although Anniston was great. Now the previous week's episode with Oprah...I hadn't laughed that hard in awhile.