...if NBC can't successfully market this brilliant comedy.

Fey knows a thing or two about ensembles, which is probably the only reason 30 Rock is 30 Rock and not The Alec Baldwin Show (even when his character figures prominently). As wickedly funny as Baldwin is, the show - with its killer cast and smart writing to match - is *easily* strong enough to withstand his departure.

If the series meets a premature end, it will be because of the usual gross incompetence on the part of the network.

30 Rock IS smart, Studio 60 was ABOUT being smart. It's never a good sign when the characters are describing each others genius and artistic integrity without showing us any.

Also, Sting + Lute = Cancellation. That is as it should be.

Can someone please post the great line from the moment Baldwin has the cardiac episode? Something about riding the cardiac episode all the way to hell? It was so great but I failed to write it down.

[Prologue]

You know this show is freakin' good when it makes giving a job to Judah Friedlander seem like something that maybe shouldn't get an executive fired.

Everybody must come back! That includes Alec (I'm not sure that I have ever loved a wingnut more than Jack Donaghy) and even Judah (can't believe I'm saying that).

[/Prologue]

Now, on to the flame war: I don't know why *YOU PEOPLE* didn't enjoy Studio 60. What *I* enjoyed about the show was that it celebrated intelligent people. Sure, those people were (mostly) in TV.

So, maybe y'all had a problem with the premise. I don't know/care. As long as crap shows like Idol and all the other poorly written, watered down shows rule, I'll wear your scorn as a badge of honor.

As far as dogging-out the use of "All Along the Watchtower" in BSG...It's not like they played a version with Dylan's nasally voice or Jimi's possessed guitar.

YES, YOU KNOW THE SONG! OF COURSE YOU RECOGNIZE THE SONG!

That's the godsdamn point!

We are Borg.

Which explains why 99% of shows written with respect for the audience's wit and intelligence are yanked after twenty minutes.

Thank the frakin' gods for letting us keep 30 Rock around for a bit longer. Guess I owe them a sacrifice. Or maybe a prayer...

I completely agree about NBC Thursday this year. I think they should not bother replacing the almost-gone "Scrubs" (it's OK, never my cup of tea) and expand "Earl", "Office" and "Rock" each to 40 minutes.

Never happen, of course. Zucker (Mr. Lame Game Show) isn't that smart.

What I would like to see (maybe in the DVD?) is the three or four episodes they did and then scrapped, before they replaced Rachel Dratch with Jane Kazmarek. In HD, please.

Not that I don't like Jane. I thought the physical stuff she did last week (trying to get into a thong while drunk in the department store) was terrific.

And more Judah Friedlander, please.

God I love this show. Maybe over the summer Baldwin will get nominated for an Emmy and figure out what side his bread is buttered on...I can dream (and while I'm at it, a supporting actor nom. for Rainn Wilson too).

This is the only show my husband and I have taken the time to unspool out of our TiVo on to VHS tape, for after the apocalypse and/or if the DVD never comes out. I need to be able to watch The Robot-Bear Sketch over and over and over...

Thank you for setting me straight on the reference. I obviously need to catch up on missed episodes.

I enjoyed the heart-monitor-as-lie-detector bit, and considering how so many shows of recent vintage leave their plotlines in shambles at the close of a season it was downright refreshing to watch one make a passable attempt at tidying up before going on vacation. And it's always a gas to see Elaine Stritch, whatever the context.

You can also find the relevant line (although it was a running gag on the whole episode) at http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/30_Rock.

I loved the whole damn season, but my vote for favorite moment may go to Alec Baldwin's dirty sounding admission that he "was pedaling swan boats for the tourists in Boston" and confusing Kenneth.

It wasn't a comedy or a drama. It was a selfserious nattering canticle about how precious it thought it was.

I do not watch television as a matter of course - we have one TV and it is in the basement. That said, every Thursday, I put my child in his crib, wrap up reading to him and make sure he is asleep before 30 Rock starts.

I hope it stays on the air and I hope Alec Baldwin stays on it - he is too funny for words.

PS about Baldwin yelling at his daughter - as a child of a broken home (who isn't these days?) I know what mental and emotional torture parents can inflict on one another...not that it's good practice to take it out on your child.

Hey Jeffery D.

Download 30 Rock episode #15 (Hardball) and everything will make sense.

ENJOY!!!

First of all, NBC billed Studio 60 all wrong. It was never meant to be a comedy, and instead of highlighting its strengths (the fact that its a commentary on Television in general, NOT SNL or late night sketch comedy), they pitted it against 30 Rock. Both shows could've found a home on NBC (in my opinion, the last network with Taste and Class).

I love 30 Rock, and loved your piece until the last line:

"And at its center is "30 Rock," a show so good we want to take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant."

Now, I need a shower.

Congratulations for the strangest praise ever heaped upon an underage television show.

All the smart people I know who would fucking LOVE 30 Rock keep telling me that they're addicted to Grey's Anatomy.

Grey's fucking Anatomy?

I want to take those people behind the middle school and beat the crap out of them.