04.26.07

Cleveland Rocks “30 Rock” & Other Such Things . . .

Posted in Celebrities, Music, Television, Sports, News, The Diesel at 1:36 pm by Diesel The

So ever since I wrote that Loosely Based Sports article on the best television of 2006, I’ve been meaning to update my comments on NBC’s 30 Rock.* A great episode last Thursday night featuring my hometown of Cleveland (and the hometown of at least half the writers on this site, if you haven’t been able to tell) and the follow up episode airing tonight gives me the perfect opportunity.

First of all, 30 Rock has firmly planted itself on my “Must Watch” list. Its quality has improved each and every week (except last week – A British chick with hollow bones? Maybe a little much.) and with NBC making the wise choice of moving it to the spot right after The Office, Thursday night is Must See TV again. The show itself has become almost Seinfeldian, with the “normal” Tina Fey character, Liz Lemon, surrounded by a batch of misfits. George, Elaine, and Kramer were ridiculous (especially Kramer), but they were rooted in reality in such a way that we could believe them as real people and relate to their peculiarities, usually through Jerry as the straight man. Liz’s 30 Rock main co-stars are Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), the star of the show within the show, and Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), the NBC network executive overseeing the show.

These two, along with the 3 or 4 other regulars, were complete caricatures in the pilot. Tracy seemed to be stuck playing some variation of his Brian Fellows SNL character (with a little psychotic Martin Lawrence thrown in), while Alec’s character was just a stereotypical jerk executive. As the show evolved, however, Tracy embraced what is, believe it or not, a more nuanced portrait of zaniness. His character, instead of being a stereotypical crazy black actor, is obsessed with NOT being a stereotypical crazy black actor. The latest plot line finds him on the run from an organization headed by Oprah Winfrey and Bill Cosby who believe he is shaming the race. And, oh yeah, he’s apparently a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and he’s looking to play him in a movie.

Jack Donaghy quickly went from being the antagonist of the show (wow, uncreative executive comes in and ruins great show by looking to the bottom line – real original idea) to a mentor-protégé relationship with Liz – whether she likes it or not. (”Being a mentor? Is there any money in that?” – I paraphrase George Costanza). Of course, she’s far more mature and together than he will ever be, which makes it all the more entertaining.

Seinfeld brilliantly pushed the minutia of daily life to absurd extremes, with its “close talkers,” “man hands,” and the like, while 30 Rock takes the already absurd extremes of the entertainment world (seemingly every great black comedian starring in a movie as a large woman) to even more ridiculous heights (Tracy Jordan starring as a large female dog in “Fat Bitch”).

As far as the Cleveland episode goes, I have to admit I was afraid it was going to be another “bash Cleveland for laughs” kind of a thing. But it was actually far more clever. They praised Cleveland for laughs. “If the whole world lived in their favorite vacation spots, everyone would live in Hawaii, Italy, and Cleveland.” If only wishing made it so . . .

Anyway, it was a very pro-Cleveland episode, even if done somewhat ironically. I guess in real life Tina Fey’s baby’s daddy (and husband) is from Cleveland and attended Kent State. So I have to assume the positive sentiments are fairly sincere. “Sure Lemon, we’ve all wanted to ‘Flee to the Cleve” from time to time…”

Anyway, I highly recommend playing around on the NBC site to watch the Cleveland segments. You may even be able to catch the entire episode.

A recent Entertainment Weekly article compared the full cast to that of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which I think is an apt comparison. So if this show is drawing comparisons to two of the greatest television shows in history, it’s probably worth checking out. Plus they did a funny show about Cleveland. Gotta love it.

FYI: Apparently all is definitely not well with Alec Baldwin. In honor of him, here’s a link to one of the funniest commercial parodies SNL did this past season (not a long list, I know). “You’re not saying that we should offer . . . free . . . mustache rides?”

*Yes, I wrote an article about television for a sports page. It’s “loosely based,” kinda like this blog. Weird, I know.

The “Other Such Things”:

I hate to bring up serious stuff again, but it kind of angers me how the pundits are saying that now is not the time to have a national discussion about gun control. Just a week prior, some ancient jerk DJ most of us had barely heard of made a rude, insensitive remark and the country needed to have a national discussion about racism and racist language. Which I’m fine with (check out these articles from Jason Whitlock and Todd Boyd — two writers with very different arguments, but both valid and thought provoking — exactly what we need on the topic of guns and violence). But as the old saying goes, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me. In this case, guns can kill you, a dumbass disc jockey can’t, and I think we should talk about it to make sure something like this never happens again. I’d just like to see some thoughtful, intelligent articles and discussion. I think the countless number of people killed with legally purchased weapons every year would agree with me.

Okay, it’s impossible to make a smooth transition from that, so I’m not even going to try. If you happen to go to Disneyland or Disney’s California Adventure in the near future, be sure to check out the Aladdin stage show. The chick playing Jasmine is smoking hot. Jasmine, if you’re reading this, call me.

I’m also in love with the RGX body spray girl (Rachel Specter, according to a quick google search).

I hate the Yankees and Red Sox and I will avoid all discussion of them like the plague, even if it comes from my boys Kornheiser and Wilbon at PTI or The Sports Guy on ESPN.com. It’s April. They play something like 19 times over the course of the season. Who gives a damn? And ESPN? Can you show something other than Yankees or Sox games? Please? This follows closely on the heals of my Barry Bonds and Terrell Owens embargoes. I’m done with them, too.

So I’m going to try and post a new article every Tuesday and Friday from here on out. Yes, I know it’s Thursday. I’m going to try to write something about the NFL draft tomorrow.

Check out The Real Wedding Crashers, Tommy Boy’s and my friend Desi is one of the actors/crashers on the show.

Can one of you please eat the new Wendy’s bacon mushroom double melt triglyceride burger and email me what it tastes like? Because it looks outstanding. Come on, D, I know you used to order the Triple Phat back in the day.

Sanjaya: ‘I’m Not Just a Musician’ He’s a musician?

I’d like to do an entire article discussing music, but check out this version of “Round Here.” Hopefully it’s still posted on that page. Apparently Adam Duritz of Counting Crows wrote the lyrics while playing with another band, The Himalayans, and this is the version they recorded, even before the Crows did it.

Cavaliers coach Mike Brown with the understatement of the year: “I’m nowhere close to a genius.” Can we please hire Rick Carlisle immediately? I’m more than fine with trading a 50 win coach for a 35 win coach. I guarantee you that if Carlisle was the Cavs coach, they’d have won 57-60 games this season. Just sayin’.

Stay well and see you somewhere soon, I hope.

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