It was a coastal duel Thursday night as both the East and West coasts were treated to their very own live versions of "30 Rock," each broadcast following a nearly identical script, with several tiny but hilarious differences thrown in to bring a terrifically unique flair to each. Scene for scene, the episode was quite likely the best of the season.
Adopting a format far more in the vein of its model skit show "Saturday Night Live," both cast and crew showed a fantastically graceful ability to translate their taped show to the live format, utilizing a handful of great guests and a hyperawareness of comedic evolution to outshine SNL in their own game. That's right, the TGS crew - along with Jon Hamm, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bill Hader and Chris Parnell - made SNL look like the creaky old rocking chair that Lorne Michaels has forced it to become.
The dueling episodes showed their differences from the get-go. Jane Krakowski greeted East Coast fans in lyrical take on "30 Rock's" theme song, while for the West Coast, Cheyenne Jackson took the opening sequence spotlight with a slight lyrical twist on the same song. And while the main plot thread line - everybody forgot Liz's birthday - remained largely unchanged, the show was peppered with commercials and scene flashbacks - each featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Liz's spot because, as she explains, "my memory has Seinfeld money."
Jack is firmly on the wagon in a show of solidarity with Avery while she's pregnant (pretty much the only thing he's doing), and he misses alcohol so much that he'll stoop so far as to sniff Jenna's breath for a reminder of the good juice (see above). Kenneth the page is finally back in uniform, with no hustle or fuss made of his return, while Carol calls Liz in a near-death aviation experience - not to tell her happy birthday, but to go to his house and get rid of his porn so his mother doesn't find it.
It was the commercials that truly made the show. In the first faux commercial break, East Coast viewers caught Dr. Leo Spaceman's ad for his erectile dysfunction-curing album, complete with his would-be hit "Let's Let the Dog Watch Us":
The West Coast experienced a whole different kind of boner jam, when viewers caught Spaceman's take on the "Love Storm" track "Let's Take it Slow":
In the second commercial, Jon Hamm took on the role of hand-impaired Dr. Drew Baird in the "Give Someone a Hand" ad. East Coasters caught Hamm's criminal donor hand...
While the West coast welcomed Hamm's new lady hand:
The closing thank-yous were very strongly set in SNL world, a fitting birthday celebration for Liz, whose entire existence was made possible by the years Tina Fey spent cutting her teeth while climbing the rungs under that codger & SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels.
The love for "30 Rock" is at an all-time high, as the show has remained as laughably consistent and subversively clever as any comedy lover could ask for. Couldn't happen to a better batch of players.
Comments, complaints, questions or mama jokes?
