30 Rock season 1

Synopsis

The season begins with the introduction of Liz Lemon, the head writer of The Girlie Show, a live sketch comedy series which airs on NBC. When The Girlie Shows network executive Gary dies, Jack Donaghy replaces him. Jack, the head of east coast television and microwave oven programming, makes many changes to The Girlie Show, including adding Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), a loose cannon movie star, to the show's cast and changing the title of The Girlie Show to TGS with Tracy Jordan. Various story arcs are explored, including the rivalry between Tracy and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski), Liz's relationships with Dennis Duffy (Dean Winters) and Floyd Debarber (Jason Sudeikis) and Jack's relationship with Phoebe (Emily Mortimer). Most importantly, the relationship between Jack and Liz develops as he offers to be her mentor, which becomes the anchor of the show. A few minor story arcs are carried over into season two, including Cerie Xerox's (Katrina Bowden) ongoing engagement to the unseen character Aris and Pete Hornberger (Scott Adsit) living with Liz to deal with his marital problems with his wife, Paula Hornberger (later seen in "Greenzo" played by Paula Pell).

Cast

Main cast

• Tina Fey as Liz Lemon, the head writer of TGS, a live sketch comedy television show.
• Tracy Morgan as Tracy Jordan, a loose cannon movie star and cast member of TGS.
• Jane Krakowski as Jenna Maroney, a vain, fame-obsessed TGS cast member and Liz's best friend.
• Jack McBrayer as Kenneth Parcell, a naïve, television-loving NBC page from Georgia.
• Scott Adsit as Pete Hornberger, the witty and wise producer of TGS.
• Judah Friedlander as Frank Rossitano, an immature staff writer for TGS.
• Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy, a high-flying NBC network executive who becomes a mentor to Liz.

Recurring cast

• Katrina Bowden as Cerie Xerox, the young, attractive TGS general assistant.
• Keith Powell as James "Toofer" Spurlock, a proud African-American staff writer for TGS. (15 episodes)
• Lonny Ross as Josh Girard, a young, unintelligent TGS cast member. (15 episodes)
• Maulik Pancholy as Jonathan, Jack's assistant who is obsessed with him. (14 episodes)
• Kevin Brown as Walter "Dot Com" Slattery, a member of Tracy's entourage. (11 episodes)
• Grizz Chapman as Warren "Grizz" Griswold, a member of Tracy's entourage. (11 episodes)
• Rachel Dratch as various characters (11 episodes)
• John Lutz as J.D. Lutz, a lazy, overweight TGS writer who is often ridiculed by his co-workers. (8 episodes)
• Jason Sudeikis as Floyd DeBarber, an attorney working for GE and love interest for Liz.
• Chris Parnell as Dr. Leo Spaceman, a physician who practices questionable medical techniques. (5 episodes)
• Emily Mortimer as Phoebe, a British art dealer and gold digger who Jack falls for.
• Dean Winters as Dennis Duffy, Liz's immature ex-boyfriend. (3 episodes)
• Ghostface Killah as himself (2 episodes)
• Isabella Rossellini as Bianca Donaghy, Jack's ex-wife
• Rip Torn as Don Geiss, CEO of GE and Jack's boss and mentor.

Guest stars

• Will Arnett as Devon Banks, NBC's Vice President of West Coast News, Web Content and Theme Park Talent Relations, and Jack's nemesis. (Episode: "Fireworks")
• Joy Behar as herself (Episode: "Up All Night")
• Wayne Brady as Steven Black
• Tucker Carlson as himself
• Anna Chlumsky as Liz Lemler, an accountant for TGS and Floyd's girlfriend. (Episode: "The Fighting Irish")
• Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Patricia Donaghy, Jack's sister. (Episode: "The Fighting Irish")
• Will Forte as Tomas, a servant of Prince Gerhardt. (Episode: "Black Tie")
• Whoopi Goldberg as herself (Episode: "The Rural Juror")
• Donald Glover as young P.A. (Episode: "Jack-Tor")
• Sean Hayes as Jesse Parcell, Kenneth's hillbilly cousin. (Episode: "Hiatus")
• LL Cool J as Ridikolus, a famous hip-hop producer
• Nathan Lane as Eddie Donaghy, Jack's con-man brother.
• Chris Matthews as himself
• Stephanie March as Gretchen Thomas, a lesbian and friend of Jack's who he sets up on a date with Liz. (Episode: "Blind Date")
• John McEnroe as himself (Episode: "The Head and the Hair")
• Conan O'Brien as himself (Episode: "Tracy Does Conan")
• Maury Povich as himself (Episode: "Fireworks")
• Aubrey Plaza as an NBC page. (Episode: "Tracy Does Conan")
• Al Roker as himself (Episode: "Fireworks")
• Paul Reubens as Prince Gerhardt, the last surviving member of the Habsburg dynasty. (Episode: "Black Tie")
• Molly Shannon as Katherine Catherine Donaghy, Jack's sister. (Episode: "The Fighting Irish")
• Sherri Shepherd as Angie Jordan, Tracy's no-nonsense wife. (Episode: "Up All Night")
• Elaine Stritch as Colleen Donaghy, Jack's cold and overbearing mother. (Episode: "Hiatus")

Episodes

Production

Development ===

In 2002, Tina Fey was the head writer and cast member on the television show Saturday Night Live (SNL). She pitched the show that became 30 Rock to NBC, originally as a sitcom about cable news. NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly felt that "Fey was using the news setting as a fig leaf for her own experience and [he] encouraged her to write what she knew." The show was subsequently reworked to revolve around an SNL-style sketch show. After being presented to Reilly once more, the show was set to air during the 2005–2006 television season.

In May 2003, Fey signed a contract with NBC to remain in her SNL head writer position until at least the 2004–2005 television season and to develop a primetime project to be produced by Broadway Video and NBC Universal. Filming was postponed due to Tina Fey's first pregnancy.

During the 2004–2005 pilot season, a pilot was announced named Untitled Tina Fey Project. The 30 Rock pilot focused on the boss of a variety show who must manage her relationships with the show's volatile star and its charismatic executive producer. The storyline evolved into one that dealt with a head writer of a variety show who dealt with both of the stars, as well as the show's new network executive. 30 Rock was officially given the green light to air May 15, 2006, along with a 13-episode order.

Casting

Seven actors received star billing during season one. Tina Fey portrayed Liz Lemon, the head writer of a fictitious live sketch comedy television series named TGS with Tracy Jordan (commonly known as TGS). The TGS cast consists of three actors, two of whom are part of the main cast of the first season of 30 Rock. They are the loose cannon movie star Tracy Jordan, portrayed by Tracy Morgan and the dense, limelight-craving Jenna Maroney, portrayed by Jane Krakowski. The role of Jenna was originally given to Rachel Dratch but after the series was retooled away from sketch comedy Dratch was recast. Jack McBrayer played the naïve Southern-born NBC page, Kenneth Parcell. Scott Adsit acted as the witty and wise TGS producer, Pete Hornberger. Judah Friedlander portrayed the wise-cracking, trucker hat wearing, repulsive staff writer Frank Rossitano. Alec Baldwin played the high flying NBC network executive Jack Donaghy who, at the beginning of the season, is employed to retool TGS. Donaghy's full title at the start of the series is "Head of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming."

The season also includes a number of secondary characters including Keith Powell as James "Toofer" Spurlock, a writer for TGS, and Lonny Ross as Josh Girard who is a staff writer of TGS as well as a TGS cast member. Katrina Bowden was TGSs general assistant, Cerie Xerox. These actors were promoted to main cast members in season two. Other recurring roles include Maulik Pancholy as Jonathan, Grizz Chapman as "Grizz" Griswold, Kevin Brown as "Dot Com" Slattery, John Lutz as J.D. Lutz, and Chris Parnell as Dr. Leo Spaceman.

Crew

The season was produced by Broadway Video, Little Stranger, Inc. and NBCUniversal and aired on NBC in the United States. The executive producers were creator Tina Fey, Lorne Michaels, JoAnn Alfano, Marci Klein and David Miner, with Brett Baer, Dave Finkel, Jack Burditt, and John Riggi acting as co-executive producers. There were eight different directors throughout the season. The staff writers were Tina Fey, John Riggi, Robert Carlock, Jack Burditt, Dave Finkel, Brett Baer, co-producer Matthew Hubbard and Kay Cannon who all wrote, or co-wrote at least two episodes. Daisy Gardner, who co-wrote the episode "The Source Awards" with Robert Carlock, was a guest writer. Those who directed more than one episode were supervising producer Adam Bernstein, Gail Mancuso, Don Scardino, Michael Engler, and Beth McCarthy. There were three directors who only directed one episode each throughout the season; they were Juan J. Campanella, Scott Ellis, and Dennie Gordon. Fey and Carlock acted as the show runners for the season.

Reception

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an approval rating of 84% with an average score of 7.5 out of 10 based on 45 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "It isn't as consistently as funny as it could be, considering its pedigree, but 30 Rock is a clever, wacky comedy that benefits from a strong ensemble cast." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave the season a score of 67 out of 100 based on the impression of 31 critical reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. The pilot episode was generally well received; however, Marc D. Allan of The Washington Post said that "viewers who tuned in for the first month or more saw shows that weren't consistently funny", but after a few episodes "the writers discovered the core of the series—the push-pull between Fey's character, Liz Lemon, the harried head writer of The Girlie Show, and Alec Baldwin's domineering network executive, Jack Donaghy—that 30 Rock found its rhythm." Henry Goldblatt of Entertainment Weekly, whilst reviewing the DVD release of the season, called 30 Rock "[the 2006 –2007 television season's] finest sitcom". Goldblatt said that the episodes "Hard Ball" and "The Break Up" were "some of the strongest episodes", and awarded the first season an "A" grade.

Christopher Monfette of IGN thought that season one was "well-written and hilariously-performed" and that it was "refreshing to travel through the season and watch these characters grow and evolve". Monfette gave the season a score of 8 out of 10. UGO Entertainment's Kyle Braun said that the season "didn't start out as the funniest new show of 2006", but he praised the seasons progression, proclaiming "now that the show has found its audience, it's hard to argue with the laughs thrown down from high atop 30 Rockefeller Plaza." Anna Johns of TV Squad said that she was "particularly excited for the later two-thirds of the season, when Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan got into their groove and the supporting characters started getting better story lines." After six episodes, NBC picked 30 Rock up for a 21-episode season on December 1, 2006.

Ratings

The pilot episode garnered 8.13 million viewers, finishing third in its timeslot of 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time. After three further low rated airings on the following three Wednesdays, including a series low of 4.61 million viewers, NBC decided to move 30 Rock to Thursdays at 9:30 pm. Its first airing on a Thursday night was on November 16, 2006. Along with this change, the even lower rated comedy Twenty Good Years was put on hiatus and later cancelled. 30 Rocks first Thursday airing was viewed by 5.19 million viewers. The series then received ratings of a consistent amount of around 5.5 million viewers till the episode "Hard Ball" when a series low, set by the episode "Jack the Writer," was met with just 4.61 million viewers watching the episode. After a further three episodes, which were higher rated than "Hard Ball," NBC moved 30 Rock to 9:00 pm on Thursdays, serving as a lead-in to Scrubs. Upon its first airing at 9:00 pm, the episode "Fireworks," a "supersized" episode attracted the attention of 5.37 million viewers. 30 Rock aired at 9:00 pm for four episodes. The season finale, "Hiatus," was watched by 4.72 million people. The first season averaged 5.8 million viewers for all 21 episodes. Out of all regular primetime programming that aired during the 2006–2007 American television season, 30 Rock ranked #102 out of #142 according to the Nielsen ratings system.

Awards

The season was nominated for 5 Primetime Emmy Awards winning Outstanding Comedy Series.

References

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