'30 Rock' Strikes Comic Gold
Celebrating its 100th episode in style last night, the NBC sitcom whips up an instant classic.
30 Rock exceeded itself (not easy to do) last night with a riotous hour-long program celebrating its 100th episode.
There were barbs directed at everyone from Nate Berkus to John Stossel.
The slate of guest appearances was remarkable: Rachael Ray, Rachel Dratch, Regis and Kelly, Matt Lauer, Michael Keaton, a Bono lookalike, and the topper: Tom Hanks doing needlepoint while singing the bad Billy Joel song, "My Life" which just happened to be the theme song from Hank's embarassing '80s sitcom, Bosom Buddies (Jokes within jokes!) .
The episode marked the return of Liz's epically bad boyfriend, Denny (Dean Winters, who may be better known now as the accident-causing Mayhem in the Allstate commercial campaign).
Even the throwaway lines were funny, as when Denny mentioned that he went to Gerry Cooney Elementary School in Queens. Others name checked ranged from Elia Kazan to Amare Stoudemire.
How about when Dr. Spaceman checked out Pete to see if he had recovered from the gas leak? He asked him to recite the alphabet and Pete delivered an exact syllable-by-syllable recreation of that L.A. TV reporter at the Grammys spouting gibberish on camera.
30 Rock matadored NBC's new owner, Kabletown. Just to make sure you knew they were spoofing Comcast, the show began with Jack knotting up a Flyers tie to impress his new boss, Hank (a perfectly unhinged Ken Howard).
Taking Liz in bearhug, the Kabletown exec said, "I know a Philly girl when I hug one."
After visiting the NBC News studio, Hank observed with some alarm, "Brian Williams sure gets close to you when he talks. Very feminine energy."
There was a Scrooge-like subplot, with four Jacks. (Good poker hand, no? See three of them in video, below.) Is it just me or did the slicked back hair of Sideways Jack made Alec Baldwin look like his brother, Daniel? And how did Future Jack acquire a Southern accent?
Brava, 30 Rock. I hope Hank was serious when he said he was renewing you for "a million more episodes".
Read more Dave on Demand or follow him on Twitter @DaveOnDemand_TV