...suffered from Sorkin telling us instead of showing us. Week after week, these supposedly brilliant-comic-genius characters would fight to put on a weekly comedy show as if it was a matter of life and death...and the results of all that hard work wasn't even funny. And were we really supposed to regard that woeful Paulson/Perry romance as some kind of great romantic pairing? Her character was insufferably doleful from the start, and since she didn't make sense as a comedienne, she wasn't interesting as a character or love interest. Sorkin was a lot more into his characters than he convinced us to be, which is S60 didn't work.

I *think* there was another line before it, something like:

"This is it, this is The Big One! Ride it, Donaghy! Ride it straight to hell!"

Something like that. Alec Baldwin should have been doing comedy all along. "Hunt for Red October" and all that type of stuff is fine, but when he showed up on SNL making out with Phil Hartman that's when bells should have gone off for everyone. He's born for deadpan.

"Ride it, Donaghy! Ride it straight to hell!"

(*collapse*)

Can someone please let me know if I am missing something re: vikings on 30 rock? What with the "by the hammer of Thor," and the "Ride of the Valkyries" ring tone, I feel like there is a joke, but can't quite find it...

Liz to Kenneth: You turtle-faced goon, I will cut you open like a tauntaun.

the reason Studio 60 was cancelled is exactly the kind of stuff that the show criticized about television.

I'm not sure why it was canceled, but I stopped watching because its sanctimoniousness grew tiresome and it WASN'T ENTERTAINING.

30 Rock, OTOH, has been a hilarious thing of beauty. I'm amazed at how many hysterically funny lines and images the shows crams into 22 minutes each week.

I read at TWoP that NBC doesn't have 30 Rock reruns on its summer schedule. I would think that once Grey's is into reruns, there would be a whole new potential audience to draw into this show. Well, heck, ALL the episodes are currently on the NBC web-site so tell your Grey-lovin' friends to check it out!

Yeah, look at Fox cancelling Family Guy. Best moment in that show was their first episode back, when Peter went through EVERY SINGLE SHOW Fox put on in their stead, then cancelled.

As for Studio 60, I don't think everyone's gotta like the show. Different strokes for different folks man, but I don't like it when it's called "pretentious". The West Wing wasn't pretentious. The shows had the same basic message: We deserve better. In West Wing, we deserve better politics. In Studio 60, we deserve better entertainment. We deserve entertainment that makes us laugh and think.

You don't have to agree with me on that one. I'm an entertainer, and the subject of "high brow" vs. "low brow" is something close to me. So I rush to the defense of shows like this, because frankly, the reason Studio 60 was cancelled is exactly the kind of stuff that the show criticized about television. I find it ironic.

If there is a network that understands that sometimes a brilliant, hilarious comedy needs a couple of years to really become a hit, it's NBC. They let Cheers have a chance, and they did the same with Seinfeld. If this were on Fox, they probably would have cancelled it already.

Another season of 30 Rock is just what the doctor ordered. The doctor also thinks others who haven't seen it should start watching the show. But what can you do, medicine's not a science.

TRT - Can't you ever post anything without sliding in a dig against Heather? You have serious issues. Did you like her predecessor (Carina Chocano)? It's obvious that Heather's style is not your cup of tea. We get it, you don't like her, move on. What else have you got to say? Obviously, the majority of us (and her editors at Salon) like her. Your childish rants and pompous ramblings are tedious and are not serving to advance the discourse.

Moving on...

30 Rock will likely die an ugly death if Baldwin is allowed to leave, and it's too bad. NBC hasn't had a killer comedy lineup since Seinfeld left and now they are just getting things working with the Office/Scrubs/30 Rock grouping. All 3 are on the top of my Tivo list and I laugh out loud every week.

Get over yourself. HH is the best TV commentator writing today, bar none.

P.S. I'm sorry your mommy/daddy called you names. Once again, get over yourself...

...but it was great for a change to read a TV column in Salon besides that latte-drinking, child-insulting Heather Havrilesky.

And by the way, the real phrase was created in Orlando by radio personality Bubba "Whoopass" Wilson, and it's certainly not Ms. Williams I wish to apply it to. As Bubba would, I'll provide an appropriate locale: "Otherwise I'll have to take you out behind the dumpster in the back of Salon and whoop your damned ass!

Love the reference to the middle school line. I didn't know about Alec Baldwin. I'm always behind the scene. If Friday Night Lights isn't renewed and Alec Baldwin doesn't come to 30 Rock I might actually have to find something productive to do with my life. Please NBC, don't unleash my creative genius upon this world. The ball is in your court.

I started watching Studio 60 from the start and really, really, wanted to like it but couldn't. I stopped watching about four or five episodes from the end of the season after I realized I was finding The White Rapper Show on MTV far more entertaining and plausible.

30 Rock was a show I came to much later but it's become must see tv. It is one of the few shows, along with the Colbert Report, that consistently makes me laugh out loud. It does make up a little bit for the late, great, Arrested Development though it does nothing for the Angel shaped hole in my soul.