30 Rock in HDTV on NBC! - Page 2

I think I counted 3 people that thought this show was really funny. This is amazing. I can't figure out how anyone could even crack a smile during this program. It was totally empty of anything amusing.

I won't try to give reasons why I thought that it wasn't funny. It was just 30 empty minutes. I realized after about 20 minutes that I was just sitting there and there had been nothing so far. It remained that way. Too bad, I had high hopes and the talk had been so strong and Tina Fey looked so strong and confident in interviews.

I'm going to watch one more time to see if I can spot any hope for this one. Maybe it will start to grow on me like Seinfeld.

This show was bad but IMHO the new sitcom (with John Lithgow) that followed it was worse!

(From Marc Berman's Thursday, October 12,, 2006, Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com )

With three successful shows co-existing in the 8 p.m. hour (plus baseball in the mix on Fox), there was little room for the premieres of NBC's highly touted 30 Rock and the largely panned 20 Good Years. 30 Rock kicked off with a modest 6.3/10 in the overnights (#4), 8.26 million viewers (#3) and a 2.9/ 9 among adults 18-49 (#3) at 8 p.m. That led into 20 Good Years at a not-so-good 5.7/ 9 in the overnights (#4), 6.97 million viewers (#4) and a 2.5/ 7 among adults 18-49 (#4t) at 8:30 p.m. Compared to year-ago failed occupant E-Ring (Overnights: #2t, 6.4/10; Viewers: #2, 8.56 million; A18-49: #4, 2.3/ 7 on Oct. 12, 2005) that was, on average, a decline of 6 percent in the overnights and 640,000 viewers, but an increase of 17 percent among adults 18-49 for the two comedies. Of note: The last time NBC opened the season with sitcoms in the Wednesday 8 p.m. hour was in 1997 with The Tony Danza Show and Built To Last, and both those shows were gone by December.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/newslett...ider/index.jsp

The laugh track they used for 20 Good Years almost made me gouge my ears out. It was awful.
Sorry. Back on topic. 20 Good Years is not worthy of its own thread.

Wow. Not even a hint of a smile huh? I thought it had plenty of funny stuff in it. Some people just don't appreciate tongue in cheek humor I guess. Hey, "It's not HBO, it's TV" . I'd give it about a 5 but it was thick!


ron

I thought the show was pretty funny the first 5-10 minutes. After that, it was amusing but that's about it. So, I didn't think it was bad, but it definitely needs to improve. I just hope the show going forward is more like the first 5-10 minutes.

And I totally agree with the opinions of a few others that the GE product placement was done as a stab at product placement and the scope of GE's products in general. I thought it was pretty funny. Sure, it was indeed product placement, it's just too bad that most of you didn't see the humor in it.

I thought the show was great! PQ was pretty good too. Tracy Morgan stopping the car to take a pee, that was hilarious.

Count me in the group who was disappointed, especially after all the hype. Not terribly funny, and Baldwin did the best he could; he really is the only reason to keep watching. Tina Fey is cute and adorable and I'd like her to bear my children. Alas, she's not much of an actress - her expressions seem to be limited to "smirk" and "puzzled smirk".

Don't think this one is going to make it. It sure ain't no "Earl".

It's a bummer to hear that the show sucked so bad. My wife and I were anxious to watch it tonight on the DVR. Oh well, it's probably better for us to not have another show to take up our time.

Ditto that! John Lithgow is like a cartoon..one of the most overrated actors around. As for 30 Rock...I will stick with Jerico a while longer.

Overall, I was disappointed. I expected to like this show and I generally don't like Alec Baldwin. Yet, he was the best thing in it. His promotion due to his "product placement" knowledge was probably the most creative thing in it. Especially when the actual product was advertised for real later on. I'm a little surprised more folks didn't catch that one, along with the "it's not HBO..." line. However, little else amused me. Personally, I didn't like the somewhat elongated "hot dog" scene in the beginning - a bit Mary Richards/Tyler Moore? And that ending, with Fey showing up late and just in time to save the day with an appearance (unfunny) by Morgan??? Don't think so. A few nice moments, but mostly lacking given the hype. But then hype does emanate from hyperbole - and the critical raves were, in this case, hyperbole IMO.

Again, that bit was spoofing Mary Tyler Moore, not just imitating it. Was the HD reception so bad in some areas that people couldn't see that everyone she happily handed hot dogs to threw them away in disgust and gave her nasty looks like she was a mental patient? I'm pretty sure that never happened to Mary Tyler Moore.


Of course he wasn't funny. He didn't say or do anything to deserve applause except act like an idiot. The audience cheered for him because he was famous, and he's famous for being an idiot. I'm sure the ratings for their show will skyrocket with him on, even as the quality of their material plummets. That's the joke.

I guess it's true that satire is dead.

GOOD satire is.

Isn't Fey married to some higher up at NBC?? That's why her show is going to be pimped like it is. I watched the show and didn't find it very funny nor amusing. Won't be watching it again.

What I love is that in an interview Tracy Morgan tried to claim he wasn't mocking Martin Lawrence. And then he goes out and does TWO bits that mock him (naked on the freeway and the Big Momma's House thing). Yeah... ok Tracy. Sure.

I quite get the satirical point. I just didn't find it as satirically amusing as you. And not everyone threw away the hot dogs or gave her nasty looks. So I guess "the hd reception" around here is just fine - you may wish to check your antenna (and haughty attitude).




My point wasn't that he wasn't funny in that moment, which was why the "unfunny" comment was parenthetical. My point about that moment was the ridiculous idea of her missing 98% of the show and arriving at the last second for his show-saving walkon. It just stretched beyond believability, even for satire. As for Morgan's character (Martin Lawrence type), of course they cheer simply bcz he's famous - but he's famous for being funny as well as somewhat nuts. Nuts only gets you so far. He still has to be funny, though admittedly, not in the example used here.


First, like it or not, we don't all find the same jokes funny to the same degree and that doesn't necessarily equate with a condescending attitude of "not getting it". Second, I found some of the satire in this show amusing (as I said in my post). That I did not find all of it so, is not exactly the death of satire. We are, I believe, allowed to disagree on such things. Lenny Bruce would be proud of you though - and he is dead.

I liked it.

Sad to see it was pretty much standard primetime network sit-com. Woulda/Coulda/Shoulda been better given the folks involved.

I did like the bit where Fey shoved some cash in the stripper's G-String saying "This is for computer lessons"

she's married to SNL's music director.

Keep on topic. Personal comments will result in suspensions & ultimately, loss of the ability to participate at AVS.

best line "22 minutes to cook a turkey"...

Count me in the (apparently tiny) minority that loved it. Even though Arrested Development raised my sitcom bar impossibly out-of-reach for other shows, I still think there is quite a lot of potential in this one. The cast is just great, and I hope they get a chance at a full season to flesh out these characters.

You mean like Larry Sanders and (to a lesser extent) the Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore Shows and Murphy Brown? Not to mention other insider comedies in the UK, Australia, Canada and (for all I know) every other country that produces TV. The fact that SCTV was often satirizing local Toronto personalities and shows that were (deservedly) unknown outside (and often inside) Toronto didn't prevent its international success.

Shows rarely work or don't work because of their setting. They work because of a combination of writing and acting that offers something interesting to viewers.

I enjoyed the show quite a bit. However, I guess part of what I found funny was that I had never heard of a Tri-Convection oven until I came here. I thought part of what made the scene funny was that Tina Fey had made up this totally unbelievable product. Its even funnier now that I find that the product exists and someone might actually be buying it.

I liked the HBO line pretty well, but I thought the best one was "about five inches.... but it's thick". It wasn't hardly even a line and just came out of the blue and was so out of place that it cracked me up. Clearly this show is not for people that don't like off the wall humor.


ron

Put me in the catagory who loved it. Best new comedy in awhile!

The shows you mentioned are from a different era...People today are different from the people back then.

Count me in as one who like it a lot. Not perfect, but smart and funny. I'll be watching.

That was exactly my reaction as well. Then I came here and folks were talking product placement like it was real or something...on a whim I googled it, and what do you know?

Also liked the "five inches but thick" response to a message post-it after a series of conventional replies, probably best line of the opener.