TV reviews: ‘30 Rock,’ ‘Twenty Good Years’
“30 Rock” (Wednesdays, NBC): This is the other new series set backstage at a live sketch comedy show, written by and starring Tina Fey, who until May was the head writer at “Saturday Night Live.” Unlike “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” “30 Rock” is a half-hour comedy (not dramedy), and the pilot got quite a few laughs from me. Fey plays the head writer at “The Girlie Show,” and a new executive (Alec Baldwin) has convinced her to hire insane movie star Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) as a cast member. Alec Baldwin is perfect for this role, and I’ve always liked Fey and Morgan. This one’s a keeper. TiVo verdict: Season Pass.
“Twenty Good Years” (Wednesdays, NBC): Wow. Of all the derivative, unfunny, insulting, dim-witted sitcoms I’ve ever seen, this one’s right up there. Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow — both funny in other series — play two old friends who, at age 60, decide to start living every day to the fullest. The jokes in the pilot JUST. WEREN’T. FUNNY. As in, not a single laugh the entire episode (though that didn’t stop the editors from inserting rampant amounts of grating canned laughter). Tambor went from “Arrested Development” to this. It makes me sad to think how embarrassed he must feel. TiVo verdict: It isn’t just one of the worst TV shows I’ve ever seen. It’s one of the worst THINGS I’ve ever seen.
October 12th, 2006 at 9:09 am
I’m right there with you — I’ve always liked Tina Fey and this one is off to a good start. The writing was decent and it’s so nice when they don’t insist on hitting the viewer over the head to indicate when they’ve just made a joke.
Contrast that sharply with 20 Years, which I immediately placed on probation with the first laugh track 10 seconds in, and then 15 seconds later when they went to the first of what I assume will be many cheap gags involving the groinal region, I declared that the show would not again be allowed under our roof. I literally could not make it through the first scene. What a waste of Lithgow & Tambor.
October 12th, 2006 at 11:00 am
30 Rock was indeed good, and is definitely a keeper. To say any more would just be piling onto what’s been said already.
Twenty Good Years I was looking forward to, because Lithgow and Tambor are both very funny. There were a few chuckles, I thought (”We grew up on the same street together.” “And yet you have a British accent!” in addition to John’s being a general a**hole). Everything else felt so forced, though: John shows up to his birthday party drunk, Jeffrey dumps his girlfriend (SWERVE~!), John in a speedo, the requisite ballshot, etc. And, typically, fart jokes and ballshots are a writing staff’s way of saying they lack confidence in their abilities.
I’d give Twenty Good Years another chance, though, just to see if it mellows out in the coming episodes.
October 12th, 2006 at 11:54 am
I thought the “and yet you have a British accent” line would have been funnier if the character actually, you know, HAD A BRITISH ACCENT. John Lithgow isn’t British, he doesn’t speak with a British accent, and neither does his character. So where did that line come from?
Another stupid thing in that show: They mention that Jeffrey’s wife died 20 years ago, yet they also mention that his son is 19. What, he was born a year after his mother died? How does THAT work?
October 12th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
I thought Lithgow was British, even before seeing that show. Hmm…
The only way the son can be 19 is if he has not yet turned 20 in this calendar year. But I doubt the writing staff is THAT clever…
October 12th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
I am really disappointed. I didn’t watch 20 Good Years but I had really high hopes with it…mostly because Jeffrey Tambor did so well in Arrested Development.
October 13th, 2006 at 3:39 am
Early in the first episode of “30 Rock,” Alec Baldwin’s corporate character preached about a new product from NBC’s parent company GE. I assumed that the “trivection” oven (a combination convection oven and microwave, apparently) was the clever idea of a scriptwriter, a parody contraption like a diesel-powered Veg-O-Matic. Baldwin amusingly described its virtues, including something called the “third heat,” and promised an oven to a grateful employee.
Later in the half-hour, however, there was an actual commercial for this oven. I learned that it’s a real product!
And at the end, Tracy Morgan proclaimed, “I am the third heat!”
Has product placement reached a new high?
October 16th, 2006 at 5:25 pm
Alec Baldwin made the show work for me. I hope they tone down the Tracy Morgan character, because we found him a little difficult to watch. (I liked him more than my wife did.) Nice to see Jane K. again, post-Ally, but I hope they develop her into something more than a vamp. She does make a nice one, though. =)