I could write a long-winded post expressing my concern about how 30 Rock’s recent surge of big-name guest stars (Jennifer Aniston! Matthew Broderick! Oprah!) might eat away at screentime for members of its brilliant ensemble cast — Jane Krakowski, Tracy Morgan, Maulik Pancholy, and Scott Adsit, to name a few — but my colleague Dalton Ross’ email pretty much sums up my feelings on Tina Fey’s great sitcom in just two sentences.
From: Ross, Dalton
Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2008 5:47 PM
To: EW TV Department
Subject: Re: Oprah In Talks To Do 30 Rock
There is a dangerous amount of stunt casting going on with this show. Does it really want to be the new Will & Grace?
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It’s not the doing it that matters, it’s the doing it right. I tuned out of W & G long before the show became short hand for stunt casting. But 30 Rock’s best episodes featured guest stars: Paul Reubens, David Schwimmer, Carrie Fisher. If it attracts more viewers then everyone wins.
Not only are all the guest stars distracting (especially if they use them as much as W&G), but I can’t stand Oprah and I’m not exactly excited about Jennifer Aniston (one of Oprah’s minions), either.
Hope they don`t get all sentimental.
The show is good because it is clever and FUNNY.
It’s all about the writing. “W&G” wrote some guests well (Minnie Driver for example) and most others poorly. I’m confident Fey & Co. can write great episodes with guest stars.
If they can still write lines like “you know how I love my big beef and cheddar” for people like Isabella Rosellini, I have faith they’re use Oprah, Jennifer Aniston wisely. The only guest star I didn’t like was David Schwimmer as Greenzo. That didn’t work so much.
The real question is what will Oprah do in her episode – WHAT WILL SHE DO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOO?!
i don’t know. i see dalton’s concern, but i have faith in tina. i think the show allows actors to play around and try new things. for some reason, because there’s so many cast memebers on the show to begin with, it doesn’t seem out of place to have new people.
Yeah, I agree with NineDaves.
While it’s true that the show has a tremendously talented cast top to bottom (some of the bit players are great and Jane Krakowski deserved an Emmy nom) the influx of guest stars doesn’t feel as forced here as it did on Will & Grace.
The premise of the show is conducive to its central characters running into outsiders (non-regular cast members) as opposed to “Will and Grace”, which forced us to believe that its main characters regularly ran into Cher, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Kevin Bacon, etc.
But the best part of 30 rock is that the guest stars work well in it and don’t become the focal point of the episode. Even when a guest is involved in a big part of the plot, it becomes more about how Liz, etc deal with it than the guest themselves, which is great. Although the Seinfeld episode got on my nerves a bit, I thought Greenzo overall was hilarious.
I also have faith in Tina & co., and as long as they don’t lose focus, I’m down for most anything that brings attention to this “Rock”, the (somewhat)-ratings-challenged-but-(inarguably)-funniest show on TV.
Also, there are far worse things one can be than “the new ‘Will & Grace’” (though I’m pickin’ up what you’re puttin’ down, Dalton).
I just want a scene with Oprah and Tracy Morgan. It almost sounds too good to be true.
Oprah rocks. I’ll watch anything she does.
30 Rock doesn’t need the REAL Oprah! Tracy can just dress up like Oprah again!
Julia, you didn’t like Greenzo? I thought he was hilarious. “You know what also takes a long time? Building a new Earth!”
tina fey, tracy morgan, known from snl, they might as well have special appearances, thats what they are known for and what makes them fun and different.
This show lends itself to guest spots since it’s about running a TV show. It would actually be kinda weird without the guests. Like a TV version of WKRP.
Plus, one of the central themes for the show’s jokes is exaggerating the the egos and narcissism of celebrities.
I usually save disagreements with Dalton for “the Glutton”, but now that it’s all video I lost interest. Maybe he needs some guest stars?
Regarding 30 Rock, this show’s taken on all challenges head on. Poor ratings? They found a way to a second season anyway. People stop watching ads thanks to tivo and they get forced to do “in show” adverstising? They went and made it into one episode’s (incredibly funny) theme. Writer’s strike? They just invite people to a stage and read the lines out loud. Special guests are nothing compared to that kind of adversity. Besides, I’ve got two words for anyone who believes 30 Rock can’t handle a guest star: Beeper King.
I’m looking forward to this, especially since it will hold Oprah to her word. I see nothing wrong with the guest stars, especially because of how well 30 Rock incorporates them. Cooter Burger, anyone?
As much as I love it, Ugly Betty’s already the new Will & Grace. 30 Rock’s got nothing to worry about.
30 Rock has always had stunt casting: David Schwimmer, Al Gore, Nathan Lane, Molly Shannon, Paul Reubens, Isabella Rossellini, Tim Conway, Rip Torn, Conan O’Brien, Chris Matthews, Al Roker, LL Cool J, Wayne Brady, Jerry Seinfeld, Carrie Fisher, Will Arnett, Steve Buscemi, Sherri Shepherd, Edie Falco, Andy Richter, Elaine Stritch, Edward Herrmann, Gladys Knight, Jason Sudeikis, Brian Dennehy, Matthew Broderick, Kristen Wiig, Will Forte, etc.
Jennifer Aniston and Oprah Winfrey are just following in the footsteps of other great names that have come on the show.
30 Rock has always done a great job of incorporating these big names into great characters that serve the story, so I’m not too worried about it.
I’m looking forward to both guest appearances because we’ll get to see Liz as the “Monica” she was called by Jack in S1 and hopefully, she Tracy interacted with the woman he has tried to perfect his impression of.
WHAT I WANT TO KNOW HOW THIS ARROGANT POMPOUS WOMAN WHO CLAIMS FAIRNESS CAN REFUSE SARAH PALIN (NOT TO MENTION CLARENCE THOMAS IN THE RECENT PAST)AN INTERVIEW.
HEAR THIS OPRAH…Sarah is not going away and Barack will be yesterday’s news by January..in spite of your efforts to further socialism in this nation.
The difference between stunt casting on “30 Rock” and on “Will & Grace” is that “30 Rock” actually makes good on its guest stars. “Will & Grace” just had guest stars in order to shout, “OMFG! Look who we can get on here because of our ratings! Applaud! Applaud!”
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I don’t know if anyone else wrote this, but… The new WILL & GRACE? How about the HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREETS of comedy?! Anyone remember that awesome show? They had Robin Williams in the second season. Not to mention later with Steve Buscemi, Lilly Tomlin, and Tim Russert just to name a few. And that show had low ratings too. Just the same it went on for seven seasons.
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I want to know how we can validate support for Obama (a wonderful aniditate) for the suppressed black population when wome in America have been oppressed for ever, even now. We are black, white, red, yellow, and all of the combinations that are American. Sara Palin speaks to all of us. She is what all of us feel, think, and want, not only the black American heritage. How can we not support this wonderful women????
I understand the support of Obama, we have two great candidtates. When do women ever have the, excuse the “balls” join togeter and support out gender, not just race???
I represent nurses, over 30 years, that respect McCain, just beause of the experiences we have observed.
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