Posts Tagged ‘Tina Fey’

The third-season premiere of NBC’s “30 Rock” Thursday night reminded us why it won Outstanding Comedy at this year’s Emmys with its offbeat humor and strong acting by stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin.

Recently “Must See TV” Thursday night has turned into “Maybe watch something else” Thursday night with the awful addition of “Kath & Kim” and the decreased funniness of “My Name is Earl” and “The Office.” Luckily, “30 Rock” came back just in time to give us some much needed laughs.

Thursday’s show began with Liz Lemon’s (Tina Fey) boss, Jack (Alec Baldwin) returning to GE to work his way back up to the top at GE after Devin Banks (guest star Will Arnett) took over. Devin’s making a mess out of the place – even selling the “E” in GE to Samsung who’s now known as “Samesung.”

Jack happily starts out in the mailroom but not to worry because he’s already promoted to director of mail services the next day.

Meanwhile, Bev (“Will & Grace’s” Megan Mullally), an adoption agency official follows Liz around at work to see if she’s fit to adopt a child. Chaos ensues with her outrageous employees botching the interviews, the fake greenroom-turned nursery’s furniture needed to be returned by 5, and a set falling apart to subsequent cussing right after Liz tells Bev it’s a great place for a child to hang out.

“30 Rock’s” only main flaw is trying to take on too many storylines and then quickly wrapping them up to make a tidy ending to its 30 minute show, such as giving Liz a second chance to impress Bev after she gets knocked out by Frank’s nunchucks and then forgets she had already spent the whole day surveying Liz. Yet, the show keeps its reality by not giving Liz a happy ending because Bev still rejects her. Not so lucky for Liz, but lucky for the show because it keeps it from becoming too corny.

The best part of the show is Liz and Jack’s comfortable, easy-going chemistry in scenes such as when they quickly lapse into a pretend corny soap opera scene to fool Devin’s soap opera obsessed wife, Cathy, into thinking they’re lovers.

Yet, maybe could-be couple Liz and Jack just couldn’t force themselves to kiss at the end of the scene. But whether they ever become real lovers or not, we still love “30 Rock.”

If only the Emmys itself was as great as the shows and actors it awarded.

The 60^th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards held Sunday night awarded well-deserved shows “Mad Men” and “30 Rock” as Outstanding Drama and Comedy Series, respectively.

So Emmy knows good shows when she sees them – she just doesn’t know how to be one herself.

The major faux pas of the night was having the five nominees for Outstanding Reality TV Host share the hosting duties at the ceremony. Ryan Seacrest, Tom Bergeron, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum and Jeff Probst may be great hosts; but, their opening gig was so awkward it made us wonder why the Emmys decided to honor them with the new reality TV host category. 

Mandel and Probst rambled for about 10 minutes about how the five hosts couldn’t agree on anything so they “literally have nothing,” while the rest of the hosts uncomfortably stared straight ahead. Were their awkward expressions intentional or unintentional? Either way the audience felt awkward.

Supporting Actor in a Comedy winner Jeremy Piven, who won for the third consecutive year, spoke what we all were thinking: “What if I just kept talking for 12 minutes? Wait, that was the opening,” Piven quipped.

One star who chose to sing rather than speak was Josh Groban who sang snippets of 30 famous TV theme songs in a manic couple of minutes. The normally serious singer showed his silly side and exceptional impressions mimicking “South Park” characters and late night show announcers in an entertaining, nostalgic musical number.

Other funny moments included last year’s Lead Actor in a Comedy Series winner Ricky Gervais “demanding” his Emmy back from always funny Steve Carell. (Gervais didn’t attend last year, so presenters Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert gave Carell Gervais’ Emmy instead.)

Sparse funny moments like these did their best to make up for the dull middle and rushed end of the show, as well as the deserving winners. Glenn Close, Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey took home acting awards (Fey also won for writing), and surprise winners included Bryan Cranston and Zeljko Ivanek for Outstanding Lead and Supporting Actor in a Drama, respectively.

Hopefully, the Emmys will award deserving actors next year too. But as for hosting duties, how about no hosts at all?

Really the presenters do most of the work transitioning the show and handing out awards anway, so the host position is almost obsolete. Or instead of the reality host nominees hosting, how about the five nominees for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program host? They’re at least funny.

A lot of women (and people in general) in real life wear glasses.  So it’s only natural for our favorite movie characters to be sporting such a common and fun accessory. 

If Harry Potter can make 8 movies wearing glasses, then any woman can too.  Here’s a list of some of the greatest leading ladies who have already worked the specs!

Scarlett Johansson: Sondra Pransky in Scoop

Julia Roberts: Kiki Harrison in America’s Sweethearts

Nia Vardalos: Toula Portokalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Meg Ryan: Sally Albright in When Harry Met Sally

Nicole Kidman:  Silvia Broome in The Interpreter

Meryl Streep: Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada

Uma Thurman: Jenny Johnson in My Super Ex-Girlfriend

Daryl Hannah: Annelle Dupuy Desoto in Steel Magnolias

Tina Fey: Kate Holbrook in Baby Mama

Reese Witherspoon: Elle Woods in Legally Blonde

Jennifer Garner: Sandra in Pearl Harbor

Tara Reid: Aline Cedrac in Alone in the Dark

Lacey Chabert: Jenny in Daddy Day Care

Kristin Davis: Charlotte York in Sex and the City

Christine Taylor: Matilda Jeffries in Zoolander

Amy Adams: Susan in Talladega Nights

Hope Davis: Joyce Brabner in American Splendor

Michelle Pfeiffer: Claire Spencer in What Lies Beneath

Queen Latifah: Nina Brewster in Mad Money