30 Rock 12/6/2012

I don't know whose face was more frightening, Elaine Stritch or Florence Henderson? Flo looked awful like her face was melting. Too much plastic surgery? Had the MTM "Joker" appearance at one point. Gargoyle! Elaine just looked ancient. They killed off her character at last. Well, it is the last season, so I guess that makes sense.

• A show that used to be funny has dissolved into just weird and not very funny. Maybe I just don't get it.

• So glad they dumped that annoying "Hazel" bitch!! She was not funny and obnoxious. And why is Alec dying his hair brownish red?

• Is it just me or was Alec hotter in the previous seasons before the weight loss and his hair its natural color with some gray in it? Now, he looks almost sickly.

• I had to pause it several times to get over my fits of laughter. When Elaine said, "My father didnt kill all those Germans just so his daughter could die in a van!" "Mother, Granddad wasn't in the war ..."

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• Baldwin also looks too orange.

• R4 Dont get me wrong. I LOVE 30 Rock, but as funny as that joke was, it was funnier the first time I heard it on The Simpsons almost twenty years ago.

• I loved when Florence Henderson said to the 2 guys, "I'm here for the gig. Are you the two that want to get it on while I make a pie?" and "I'm stuck in an elevator without my flask!". And she said "turd" on tv!

• Parks and Recreation is and always has been a much better show. The characters actually seem human, not cartoons, and they're actually LIKABLE. Everyone on 30 Rock is a fucking irritating caricature. I'm baffled that Parks & Rec isn't as popular as 30 Rock or The Office.

• Parks and Recreation was good but they ran that campaign story line too long and most people I know lost interest and never went back.

• You know some strange people R9. I think both 30 Rock and Parks and Rec are enjoyable but obviously very different in tone. 30 Rock is showing its age, but still good for a few laughs every week. And there are those things that have never worked for me (like Jenna getting involved with her impersonator) that they kind of cram down your throat.

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• [quote]Maybe I just don't get it. You don't.

• Parks is total garbage, unsatchable tripe.

• Unsatchable?

• I agree with R12, even the "unsatchable" bit (although I think he/she meant "unwatchable"). R8 is so off the mark. First, 30 Rock's characters are meant to be cartoons, but even so, I can identify with them more than the Parks and Rec cast. It was funny for most of season 2, but now it's completely unwatchable. The writers will make the characters do whatever they want for the sake of a plot, and it shows. They don't seem like real people at all, just tools of plot. Every week they try to throw different characters together for some wacky hijinks, and Adam Scott just stands around acting surprised by everything. The few jokes that worked in the second season have been driven into the ground. I've felt that way since before the election plot, and I have finally stopped watching it. It's shit, no better than Modern Family. Amy Poehler is barely holding the whole thing together. She is brilliant.

• Parks & Rec was good in season two but has subsequently become too cozy and lost its mojo. You know who looked great on 30 Rock? Andrea Martin. If she's had work done, it's done well because she still looks like herself. She also made me laugh the hardest with this. Bonnie: "God I miss Gary so much, I put a sweater on a body pillow....and I took it for a canoe ride."

• Parks & Rec crashed and burned after the writers made Leslie became completely infallible in every way.

• Parks and Rec is a great show.

• Who changes Elaine Stritch's undergarments when she messes herself these days? My ex- needs a job.

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• Why doesn't someone start a Parks and Rec thread and you can trash 30 Rock all you want there. It would be nice for a 30 Rock thread to be about 30 Rock not having to compare it to other shows. Or start a comparison thread.

• No comments on a nearly naked furry Wil Forte. I think he gives Alec a run for his money as Most Hirsute.

• Most people need to be slapped. Some people need to be viciously slapped

• Even bad 30 Rock is still pretty funny. The eulogy was great.

• AIs Robin Williams' daughter, Zelda, covered in fur, too?

• Jenna Maroney: "America needs a president who understands the importance of a human fetus......as a hair volumizer."

• R19, the problem is, the eldergays around here really hate 30 Rock, probably because they don't get it.

• Tracy Jordan: "I finally understand the end of The Sixth Sense. Those names are the people who worked on the movie!"

• P&R is cute and I love the cast but it is the kind of show where I can't really get into it if it's not at the top of its game. These days it reminds me of The Office in the couple of seasons right after Jim and Pam got together, still entertaining but kinda corny. 30 Rock appeals to me more on a base level so I enjoy it a lot even at its worst. I like that it's absurd and kind of mean but like someone said upthread, I actually relate to it more than most comedies with a more realistic and humane vibe.

• When is the final episode?

• [r19] and [r25] I love it

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• That's good to hear, R29. I like old people who still have an open mind.

• Stritch has been ill and looked shockingly unwell. I loved the ladies' lunch, esp. Sue Simmons, wineglass in hand, zinging Judy Gold about her sexuality (battling lesbians!) (and Wendy Williams and Pat Battle!) And the exposing of Jenna as a vampire who looks like Dorian Gray's portrait when exposed to direct lighting. Knowing they're leaving the air forever in January has really inspired the 30 ROCK writers for their final season. Their replacement, the Bill Pullman-Jenna Elfman White House sitcom, looks awful.

• Cecily Strong

• MY WHOLE LIFE IS THUNDER!!

• No mention of the great Andrea Martin, who did more with six lines that some of the other characters did in six years?

• [quote] MY WHOLE LIFE IS THUNDER!! Praise Xenu.

• I can't believe I failed to get a mention. The Age of Oprah is really truly officially OVER.

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• Will Forte nearly naked was kind of hot.

• This weeks episode of Parks & Rec was one of the best of the whole series.

• Blow on the disk!

• I bought seasons 1-6 on DVD over Thanksgiving. I keep them on as background 'music' because they're that funny. And speaking of music, I think the show works in part because they have a composer. Few shows do anymore.

• Stritch wasn't standing or walking in any of her scenes.

• [quote] A show that used to be funny has dissolved into just weird and not very funny Agreed. It really devolved. I used to watch it twice to make sure I heard ever joke because I laughed so long at some of them I knew I'd missed a lot of dialogue. Now it's just creepy. There was a line somewhere that got crossed. This last season had been disjointed, awkward and unfunny. Hazel has never been funny. Kenneth stopped being funny. They never should have taken him out of his page suit. I also think Elizabeth Banks was a big mistake. (I think Jack's best gf was Selma Hayak). The Liz/James Marsden story didn't work. Marsden's character seemed so malleable to whatever Liz wanted that he came across as almost retarded. Compare him to Dennis, Drew, Wesley And Carroll. He doesn't hold up. Seeing Dean Winters on the wedding episode made me nostalgic for the old days. One problem with 30 Rock is a problem I've noticed with lots of tv sitcoms. They start off with lots of characters, but by the end of the series they only focus on a few characters lives. The show was better when Cere, Twofer, Frank, Lutz and Pete played a larger part in the action. And recurring characters like Dana Banks, Don Geiss, Kathy Geiss, Dr Spaceman, Danny Baker, Grizz and Dotcom helped move the action along (notice I don't include Sherri Shepherd's character Angie or Will Forte's Paul). Having those characters around more often in the last 2 seasons would have made the show better. But all shows eventually come to an end. They run out of ideas. I can understand. I thought the show was better when Liz was trying to corral the crazy people (Jenna, Tracy, the writers) and point out what the right, moral thing to do was, with her craziness only peeking out from her sane facade. In the end, they made her full-on crazy like everyone else, and it rendered other crazy characters useless.

• Kathy Geiss was too funny, I wish they'd used her more.

• I'm going to miss this show. I looked forward to new episodes.

• [quote] Stritch wasn't standing or walking in any of her scenes. In one scene when she is sitting in a chair arguing with Baldwin, you can tell that she and Baldwin aren't even in the same room. You can see someone is standing in for Baldwin, only being seen from behind.

• Stritch looked ill and frail.

• Strichie has made no secret about being a diabetic, and at 80+ that disease has taken its toll on her feet (as it often does to diabetics). I'll bet that's why she was never seen standing or walking. And in her last appearance on Broadway in "A Little Night Music", she spent the whole show in a wheelchair (conveniently, that's how the character is written). Is she on the death list for 2013?

• I agree with a lot of what R42 said, But I would like to add that the episodes written by Tina Fey, which seem to be few and far between, always seem so much better than the others. One example is the one this year where Tracy is recorded saying women comedians arent funny, and the one last year where Liz found a new friend to replace Jenna. They were both very funny episodes to me, and were grounded in some kind of reality.

• Kathy Geiss always stole the show, as does Dennis, but I think that is also because since they are used rarely the joke does not get played out. I hated Hazel, they must be friends with her in real life and hooked her up, she added nothing to the show. Amy Sedaris was also wasted in her cameo.

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• Dennis: "My cousin Teddy broke his ankle running from some black guys who pulled a gun on him." Liz: "Why is it important to tell me that the muggers were black?" Dennis: "They weren't muggers; they were cops." Liz: "So why don't you just say he was running from some cops?" Dennis: "You're a racist for assuming that they weren't cops!"

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• Why do you all hate me?

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• R42, that's a very long post about a show you claim not to care about.

• Kathy Geiss with a car in her mouth.

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• I still think Florence Hendersen is the most fuckable 75-year-old I've ever seen.

• Agree that Amy Sedaris was wasted in her cameo a few weeks ago. It just didn't make sense to give someone that funny a throwaway part like they did. I also hate Hazel and agree she must be friends in real life with Fey or others on the show. I wish Cere was used more - I always loved her clueless remarks about anything that was more than five years old.

• [quote]Is she on the death list for 2013? Fingers crossed!

• [quote] [R42], that's a very long post about a show you claim not to care about. I never claimed not to care about 30 Rock. I said it used to be a funny show that isn't funny anymore and explained why I think it has devolved from the funny show it used to be. Kristen Schaal was funny on Flight of the Conchords but Hazel was an annoying character.

• 30Rock is hysterical.

• I would assume they've cut down on some recurring character use due to budget cuts.

• Where did they get the actress who played Kathy Geiss? She was perfect. And she coud make a career out of playing 1970s nuns, if there were any movies or tv shows about 1970s nuns.

• R60, the actress is Marceline Hugot who's been great in loads of small parts. Apart from 30 Rock, I know her best playing a cranky french woman opposite Meryl in "Julie & Julia."

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• Watch watching James Marsden on a rerun of Parks and Rec. He looks 18 years old to me. He is almost 40. It was always inconceivable to me that he could be a love interest of Liz. Better her son.

• I'm disappointed Liz didn't wind up settling for Wesley. That would've been a great spin off.