Inside Television with Alan Sepinwall

'30 Rock' - 'The Live Show': Live from New York, it's Thursday night

Tina Fey and company pulled off the live episode, but did they need to bother?

By Alan Sepinwall Thursday, Oct 14, 2010 10:40 PM

Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin rehearsing "30 Rock" live episode.

Credit: NBC

A review of tonight's "30 Rock" live episode (the East Coast version, anyway) coming up just as soon as my lizard's album drops...

A few minutes after I finished watching "The Live Show," I mentioned on Twitter that it was about as awkward as I had feared it would be. One of my followers asked, "You didn't at least admire the way they converted their show into a stage show?"

Well, sure. This wasn't like when multi-cam sitcoms like "Roc" and "The Drew Carey Show" have done live episodes that didn't look much different from an episode that was taped in advance. Given how completely non-stage-y a regular "30 Rock" episode is, making it work as a live event on a stage in front of an audience was an incredible challenge, and one that Tina Fey and company managed to pull off. On yesterday's podcast, I asked Dan what the show would be like without the cutaways they can edit in in post-production, and was amused and impressed that they figured out a way, involving Julia Louis-Dreyfus (herself an "SNL" alum) as Cutaway Liz. They threw in some topical humor (Chilean miners, Brett Favre pix) and a couple of "SNL"-style parody commercials (the Dr. Spaceman one was by far the funniest part of the episode). They offered a vaguely character-related explanation for the change by suggesting it was all a function of Jack's forced sobriety, and they laid on the meta by making Tracy's plot be about his desire to break during a live sketch(*).

(*) Near as I can tell, nobody actually broke during the episode. Liz briefly forgetting the end of a joke could have been, but I wouldn't be surprised if Fey and Robert Carlock scripted that.

So A for effort, sure. But it was a silly, completely counter-productive effort. It would be like if you had a friend who chose to run a marathon wearing Crocs and a Storm Trooper costume, finished two hours behind everyone else with a ton of blisters and asked to be congratulated for finishing at all given the circumstances. Sure, it's an achievement of a sort, but when you have sneakers and sweats available, you're just giving yourself an unnecessary obstacle so you can say you did it.

So much of what makes "30 Rock" the show that it is comes from the pace, and from the mix of reality and cartoon logic that the filmed look creates. Doing it live in front of an incredibly enthusiastic audience who were hooting and clapping at everything (they even, for a while, cheered at the end of each scene), completely ruined the pacing, and the look and the laughter also took away the structure of the world, even an absurd one like life backstage at "TGS." The whole thing played out like an "SNL" parody, only played straight, and very little of it worked. (Like I said on the podcast yesterday, I gained a new appreciation for both Fey and Tracy Morgan once they got away from the constraints of "SNL.")

I appreciate the energy, and the way they had to work around the limitations of the format. And I never, ever want to see "30 Rock" try this again.

What did everybody else think?

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

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Next 118 Comments

Shitegeist

Well I thought it was fun (and funny) as hell.

Sure, it wasn't a true 30 Rock episode, and it was far from necessary, but it made me laugh a lot.
October 14, 2010 at 10:52PM EST Reply to Comment
Snap! First time we've had the exact same topic line in our reviews.

Pretty much agree with you. It was an interesting experiment - but unlike Science, which repeats an experiment two or three times for good measure, I hope they never do 30 Rock Live again.
October 14, 2010 at 10:53PM EST Reply to Comment
- Me too! I didn't need to see that. Though I loved Julia Louis Dreyfus.
  October 15, 2010 at 10:32PM EST
CJ

I completely agree with your assessment. There were a few very funny moments, and I thought Julia Louis-Dreyfus killed it as bizarro Liz. But everything just seemed "off." And I know they tried to poke fun of that fact in order to make it okay, but it just didn't work for me.
October 14, 2010 at 10:53PM EST Reply to Comment
- Crumdawg97 Thinking back to Tina Fey's Emmy acceptance speech about just acting like Julia Louis-Dreyfus would when in doubt, I thought this live show proved that the wrong person won the Emmy that year. Tina's okay, but Julia was a WAY funnier Liz Lemon!
  October 15, 2010 at 9:31AM EST
- Nathalie JLD was waaaay funnier than Tina Fey in this episode.
  October 15, 2010 at 10:34AM EST
Baylink

If I know Tina (and, of course, the odds are much better that you do :), that's exactly the reaction she'd want to hear.

"The bear waltzes at all..."
October 14, 2010 at 10:54PM EST Reply to Comment
Cheyenne Jackson couldn't help smiling during Tracy's Oprah freak-out, but that's arguably in character.
October 14, 2010 at 10:54PM EST Reply to Comment
renton

I was less bothered by the "live" than the studio audience. Agreed. One and (hopefully) done.
October 14, 2010 at 10:54PM EST Reply to Comment
- conrad agreed. the cheering, laughing, and clapping threw me off more than anything. that said, i don't think the actors would like it as much if it weren't in front of an audience.
  
  i was really impressed by the cutaways to j.l.d. as liz.
  October 15, 2010 at 9:17AM EST
Cheyenne Jackson couldn't help but smile during Tracy's Oprah freak-out, but that was arguably in character.
October 14, 2010 at 10:54PM EST Reply to Comment
Agreed. It was a frustrating night for NBC, and save the Spaceman spot there was nothing to take away from tonight. After a couple of better episodes than the series provided all of last year it's frustrating.
October 14, 2010 at 10:55PM EST Reply to Comment
filmcricket

I dunno. It wasn't necessary, that's for sure, but it made me laugh more than most of last season's episodes. That's obviously not a function of the live format, but I'm not complaining.
October 14, 2010 at 10:56PM EST Reply to Comment
filmcricket

I dunno. It wasn't necessary, that's for sure, but it made me laugh more than most of last season's episodes. That's obviously not due to the live format, but I'm not complaining.
October 14, 2010 at 10:58PM EST Reply to Comment
Zach L

Didn't despise the episode, but wasn't awe Inspiring. I did like seeing Hader, Matt Damon, Dreyfus, etc playing along. But agree bout the raucous audience. Kinda threw the flow off of the show
October 14, 2010 at 10:58PM EST Reply to Comment
marcusmash

I thought it was funny enough, though not close to a a good episode, but I could have done without it. Like you (or Dan) said on the podcast, I watched it just to get through it so next week will be a normal episode of 30 Rock. The worst part is that I think the storyline of Liz's 40 birthday would have been much better, funnier, and more important if it were in a normal episode.
October 14, 2010 at 10:59PM EST Reply to Comment
G

Kenneth was giggling a LOT in his first scene with Liz
October 14, 2010 at 10:59PM EST Reply to Comment
Jim

Some good stuff, but overall not worth it, I'd say. Tracy Morgan was exactly the same, which I guess is a testament to the way they wrote a character around his limitations. Seemed to me the people who had spent the most time on SNL seemed the most comfortable in the format. I like that people like John Hamm, Matt Damon and Julia Louis Dreyfuss are game for this kind of stuff. I guess Betty White was unavailable. The pay off at the end was the best part, but again, not worth the work it took to get there.

Oy, Jane Krakowski is even more painful to watch live, and Jack McBreyer was really off his game (not that he had much to do).

I love the way they make fun of Alec Baldwin's faded heart throb status, and even more the way he paid it back tonight.
October 14, 2010 at 10:59PM EST Reply to Comment
- Dorothy I actually though Krakowski was one of the few who turned in a performance as polished and in character as in the taped shows - she was very strong, as was Tracey Morgan (but I take your point about the character being written for him) The others seemed off - especially my beloved Tina Fey. It definitely makes me appreciate the editing process. Her reaction shots in a typical taped show are much funnier.
  October 15, 2010 at 9:33AM EST
- janine It's funny how people think that Tracy Morgan is "that guy" all the time. Anyway, I thought his bit was the funniest, given what he said about Jimmy Fallon's breaking back in 2007 "Laughing and all that dumb sâ€”t he used to do â€” he wouldnâ€™t mess with me because I didnâ€™t fâ€”king play that sâ€”t. Thatâ€™s taking all the attention off of everybody else and putting it on you, like, â€˜Oh, look at me, Iâ€™m the cute one.â€™ I told him not to do that sâ€”t in my sketches, so he never did."
  October 16, 2010 at 5:17PM EST
glogz

Kenneth was giggling a lot in his first scene with Liz
October 14, 2010 at 11:00PM EST Reply to Comment
Ed W

I enjoyed it a lot and while I wouldn't want 30 Rock to become that way permanently, if there were another series that was well written that was live each week like that I'd be interested. It is sloppy sure but it seems braver, less timid than the usual way of doing a show.
October 14, 2010 at 11:02PM EST Reply to Comment
jimmybing

I feel like your being unnecessarily harsh. The show had its clunky bits to be sure (most disappointing was the way in which Jon Hamm was shoehorned into the episode), but I thought that overall it was pretty funny, and the cast and crew did a great job. Even more so considering the change in style. You can make the "why do a live episode?" argument for any show, but I think it works a lot better and makes a lot more sense for a show like "30 Rock" than "ER," or even other sitcoms, like "Drew Carey."
October 14, 2010 at 11:02PM EST Reply to Comment
Kendra

I agree. Sure I can admire the achievement and appreciate the winks about how the look of the live show was different (Mexican soap opera)but in the end I don't know what the point was. JLD was truly a highlight but I think she would have been had this episode been filmed.

The next time a show does a live show, I want there to be something experimental and at stake. Tracy talked about the brilliant Carol Burnett show and I realized I wanted someone to go Tim Conway on the cast and aim for a Siamese Twin elephant moment. Or the next time someone goes live, why not have the show semi-scripted and do more improv?

Theoretically, anything could have gone wrong but the likelihood was pretty low since it was well rehearsed, the script was tightly written and the actors have live experience. There was little gained and a lot lost.
October 14, 2010 at 11:02PM EST Reply to Comment
Perhaps it'll work better on the West Coast showing; they may have worked out the kinks using their experience of the East Coast showing by then.
October 14, 2010 at 11:03PM EST Reply to Comment
- sepinwall Other than telling the studio audience to calm down - which I'm guessing they did during one of the commercial breaks on the East Coast - I'm not sure what else they can do. It is what it is.
  October 14, 2010 at 11:08PM EST
- Bob @sepinawall: Nope. the West Coast broadcast had the studio audience laughing and cheering at almost every line. I thought at the beginning of the episode that the show was doing a meta satire of shows taped in front of audiences, and had instructed the people to laugh at the unfunny jokes. But no, they were sincere and the lines were just not funny, not even close to the creative, zany material they usually have.
  
  I wonder why studio audiences lately seem to exhibit a lower threshold for comedy than people watching at home. SNL audiences are like this too. It must be the excitement of watching the show in person.
  October 15, 2010 at 1:23AM EST
- filthyfowl Bob, I think you're right about the thrill of watching in person, but I'm not sure that this is exclusive to current studio audiences. It seems to be a (painful) practice that live audiences partake in with any established sitcom or characters.
  
  Every time Kramer or George entered a room, the audience went nuts. Whenever a celebrity did a surprise walk-on, they go crazy.
  
  While I don't have any stats or research to prove it, it seems that after the second or third year, the show's audience begins to follow and anticipate the character first, and considers the plot, story, gags, etc. second. Maybe this is why so many non-laugh track/non-audience shows hold up better as they get older.
  October 15, 2010 at 10:28AM EST
- Rob I live in San Diego so I saw the west coast version and yes, they worked out a lot of the kinks in the second go-round, even rewriting a bunch of the jokes. Tracy flubbed a couple of his lines, but overall I guess it was better than the east version according to the differences noted here:
  
  http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/10/the_17_differences_between_30.html
  
  October 15, 2010 at 5:57PM EST
Ed W

I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. Would I want every episode of 30 Rock to be done this way? No but it made me wish there were a couple of comedies on each week that were live. What it loses in polish it gains in feeling braver and more demanding of "in the moment" smarts.
October 14, 2010 at 11:04PM EST Reply to Comment
- Ed W Apologies to all for commenting twice. The first one didn't seem to stick so I thought I'd done something wrong and took another stab at it. :)
  October 14, 2010 at 11:10PM EST
ohonestly

why so bitter? i'm a sucker for gimmicks, so i'm biased, but it's not like the show gave us a live episode by sacrificing a week of important plot or character development. they kept their trademark randomness, cut-aways, and cameos, the cast handled it extremely well, and it was funny. i agree that this should probably be kept as a one-off stunt, but i guess where you see counter-productivity i see "30 rock" just being "30 rock".
October 14, 2010 at 11:10PM EST Reply to Comment
- fritanga Exactly. I think Baldwin was particularly insane and I loved it, as well as Louis-Dreyfus's Bizarro!Liz. And if loving Jon Hamm's creepy girl hand is wrong, I don't want to be right
  October 15, 2010 at 2:58AM EST
- LJA This is how I feel. Who cares if it wasn't necessary, and I don't agree with the "counter-productive" jab at all. I love that they took the risk, and for the most part, succeeded. Jon Hamm KILLED on the West coast version, he was so damn funny. I had a great time watching it. The weak spot for me was Kenneth the page who I found waayyyy too hammy. Baldwin was perfect. Loved the JLD cameo and the joke about Seinfeld money. Dr. Spaceman was a scream, too.
  October 15, 2010 at 12:03PM EST
- Harold in LA Right on! I don't get Sepinwall's eternal bitterness towards 30 Rock that he's had over the past few years. It's as if they can do no right in his eyes. Ligthen up Alan. Not everything can be as hilarious as your beloved Cougar Town.
  
  And for the record, I watched both versions. The West coast version was a lot finer tuned. They had much improved sound levels. The audience was much too loud on the East coast version. It also seemed as if they told the West coast audience to not give giant Kramer-esque ovations to all the guests. That helped a good deal as in the East coast feed, the audience was constantly drowning out jokes and dialogue.
  
  Also, Jon Hamm's bit in the West coast version was much funnier. Instead of a black hand, he had a womans hand that carressed his face and they went down on him. Very funny stuff from Hamm.
  October 16, 2010 at 3:43PM EST
Helene

I agree that live is not the optimal way to enact the show, but I actually thought it was brilliant, esp. considering all the obstacles. Really enjoyed Louis-Dreyfus, and Hamm, Damon, Dratch, et al, were great fun. Everyone got into the spirit of capturing the "live" experience.
October 14, 2010 at 11:11PM EST Reply to Comment
I agree with everything Alan wrote, it really was embarrassing to watch. I also found "Kenneth the Page" especially awful on a live show.
October 14, 2010 at 11:14PM EST Reply to Comment
lannes314

It had its moments (Krakowski, Hamm, Parnell), but it wasn't a true 30 ROCK episode. If you recommended it to a friend who had never seen the show, they'd wonder what the hell was going on. And it was a sad reminder of how far SNL has fallen.
October 14, 2010 at 11:14PM EST Reply to Comment
diemunkiesdie

I thought it was funny and I think it almost worked, but I think it would have been better without an audience clapping or hooting every few seconds!
October 14, 2010 at 11:15PM EST Reply to Comment
DefRef

I thought it was a hoot and it was fun to see all the SNL vets and Matt Damon and Jon Hamm cameos. Yeah, the pacing felt a little odd and the use of all hand-held cameras (SNL uses rostrum cams) made it feel a little chaky, but I think the people who are chin-stroking and crapping all over this for even trying it as a goof are killjoys. Lighten up, Francises!
October 14, 2010 at 11:16PM EST Reply to Comment
- cgeye As it is with Nazi comments and Godwin's Law, so it is with comments criticizing criticizers on a blog all about criticism: Moff's Law must be invoked:
  
  http://www.racialicious.com/2009/12/21/and-we-shall-call-this-moffs-law
  
  To quote:
  "So when you go out of your way to suggest that people should be thinking less â€” that not using oneâ€™s capacity for reason is an admirable position to take, and one that should be actively advocated â€” you are not saying anything particularly intelligent. And unless you live on a parallel version of Earth where too many people are thinking too deeply and critically about the world around them and whatâ€™s going on in their own heads, youâ€™re not helping anything; on the contrary, youâ€™re acting as an advocate for entropy.
  
  And most annoyingly of all, youâ€™re contributing to the fucking conversation yourselves when you make your stupid, stupid comments. You are basically saying, â€œI think people shouldnâ€™t think so much and share their thoughts, thatâ€™s my thought that I have to share.â€ If you really think people should just enjoy the movie without thinking about it, then why the fuck did you (1) click on the post in the first place, and (2) bother to leave a comment? If it bugs you so much, GO WATCH A GODDAMN FUNNY CAT VIDEO."
  October 17, 2010 at 9:52PM EST
J

Don't be such a spoil sport
October 14, 2010 at 11:18PM EST Reply to Comment
Reminds me of the Arrested Development episode S.O.B.s where the show did a faux live airing to make fun of shows that do it a lame attempt to boost ratings. I never thought 30 Rock was gonna be that show.
October 14, 2010 at 11:18PM EST Reply to Comment
Hannah Lee

That was the best SNL episode I've seen in a long time. :-)

I thought it was pretty funny, from the framing device of Jack's sobriety to the use of JLD for the Liz Lemon cutaways. The smashup of the ending of live 30 Rock with live TGS oddly slowed things down a bit (and may have hammered home the SNL roots/similarity a bit too much.)

Tracy's scenes seemed a little flat; in an effort to make him go crazy on "live tv" they actually toned him down to much for live tv. Or maybe it's just the type of comedy that character brings works better with closely framed camera shots (where his mania/insanity is more in your face and seems more likely to spin out of control), whereas in the live show they did a lot of his scenes as more distant shots on the TGS sets, so he seemed more contained, and less a comedic loose cannon.
October 14, 2010 at 11:19PM EST Reply to Comment
Heather

I dunno. It was the funniest SNL episode I've seen in years, that's for sure.
October 14, 2010 at 11:21PM EST Reply to Comment

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Comments

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Shitegeist Well I thought it was fun (and funny) as hell.Sure, it wasn't a true 30 Rock episode, and it was far from necessary, but it made me laugh a lot.

Snap! First time we've had the exact same topic line in our reviews. Pretty much agree with you. It was an interesting experiment - but unlike Science, which repeats an experiment two or three times for good measure, I hope they never do 30 Rock Live again.

Me too! I didn't need to see that. Though I loved Julia Louis Dreyfus.

CJ I completely agree with your assessment. There were a few very funny moments, and I thought Julia Louis-Dreyfus killed it as bizarro Liz. But everything just seemed "off." And I know they tried to poke fun of that fact in order to make it okay, but it just didn't work for me.

Crumdawg97 Thinking back to Tina Fey's Emmy acceptance speech about just acting like Julia Louis-Dreyfus would when in doubt, I thought this live show proved that the wrong person won the Emmy that year. Tina's okay, but Julia was a WAY funnier Liz Lemon!

Nathalie JLD was waaaay funnier than Tina Fey in this episode.

Baylink If I know Tina (and, of course, the odds are much better that you do :), that's exactly the reaction she'd want to hear."The bear waltzes at all..."

Cheyenne Jackson couldn't help smiling during Tracy's Oprah freak-out, but that's arguably in character.

renton I was less bothered by the "live" than the studio audience. Agreed. One and (hopefully) done.

conrad agreed. the cheering, laughing, and clapping threw me off more than anything. that said, i don't think the actors would like it as much if it weren't in front of an audience.i was really impressed by the cutaways to j.l.d. as liz.

Cheyenne Jackson couldn't help but smile during Tracy's Oprah freak-out, but that was arguably in character.

Agreed. It was a frustrating night for NBC, and save the Spaceman spot there was nothing to take away from tonight. After a couple of better episodes than the series provided all of last year it's frustrating.

filmcricket I dunno. It wasn't necessary, that's for sure, but it made me laugh more than most of last season's episodes. That's obviously not a function of the live format, but I'm not complaining.

filmcricket I dunno. It wasn't necessary, that's for sure, but it made me laugh more than most of last season's episodes. That's obviously not due to the live format, but I'm not complaining.

Zach L Didn't despise the episode, but wasn't awe Inspiring. I did like seeing Hader, Matt Damon, Dreyfus, etc playing along. But agree bout the raucous audience. Kinda threw the flow off of the show

G Kenneth was giggling a LOT in his first scene with Liz

glogz Kenneth was giggling a lot in his first scene with Liz

Ed W I enjoyed it a lot and while I wouldn't want 30 Rock to become that way permanently, if there were another series that was well written that was live each week like that I'd be interested. It is sloppy sure but it seems braver, less timid than the usual way of doing a show.

Perhaps it'll work better on the West Coast showing; they may have worked out the kinks using their experience of the East Coast showing by then.

sepinwall Other than telling the studio audience to calm down - which I'm guessing they did during one of the commercial breaks on the East Coast - I'm not sure what else they can do. It is what it is.

Ed W I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. Would I want every episode of 30 Rock to be done this way? No but it made me wish there were a couple of comedies on each week that were live. What it loses in polish it gains in feeling braver and more demanding of "in the moment" smarts.

Ed W Apologies to all for commenting twice. The first one didn't seem to stick so I thought I'd done something wrong and took another stab at it. :)

fritanga Exactly. I think Baldwin was particularly insane and I loved it, as well as Louis-Dreyfus's Bizarro!Liz. And if loving Jon Hamm's creepy girl hand is wrong, I don't want to be right

Helene I agree that live is not the optimal way to enact the show, but I actually thought it was brilliant, esp. considering all the obstacles. Really enjoyed Louis-Dreyfus, and Hamm, Damon, Dratch, et al, were great fun. Everyone got into the spirit of capturing the "live" experience.

I agree with everything Alan wrote, it really was embarrassing to watch. I also found "Kenneth the Page" especially awful on a live show.

lannes314 It had its moments (Krakowski, Hamm, Parnell), but it wasn't a true 30 ROCK episode. If you recommended it to a friend who had never seen the show, they'd wonder what the hell was going on. And it was a sad reminder of how far SNL has fallen.

diemunkiesdie I thought it was funny and I think it almost worked, but I think it would have been better without an audience clapping or hooting every few seconds!

J Don't be such a spoil sport

Reminds me of the Arrested Development episode S.O.B.s where the show did a faux live airing to make fun of shows that do it a lame attempt to boost ratings. I never thought 30 Rock was gonna be that show.

Heather I dunno. It was the funniest SNL episode I've seen in years, that's for sure.

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Shitegeist

Well I thought it was fun (and funny) as hell.

Sure, it wasn't a true 30 Rock episode, and it was far from necessary, but it made me laugh a lot.

Snap! First time we've had the exact same topic line in our reviews.

Pretty much agree with you. It was an interesting experiment - but unlike Science, which repeats an experiment two or three times for good measure, I hope they never do 30 Rock Live again.

CJ

I completely agree with your assessment. There were a few very funny moments, and I thought Julia Louis-Dreyfus killed it as bizarro Liz. But everything just seemed "off." And I know they tried to poke fun of that fact in order to make it okay, but it just didn't work for me.

Baylink

If I know Tina (and, of course, the odds are much better that you do :), that's exactly the reaction she'd want to hear.

"The bear waltzes at all..."

renton

I was less bothered by the "live" than the studio audience. Agreed. One and (hopefully) done.

conrad agreed. the cheering, laughing, and clapping threw me off more than anything. that said, i don't think the actors would like it as much if it weren't in front of an audience.

i was really impressed by the cutaways to j.l.d. as liz.

filmcricket

I dunno. It wasn't necessary, that's for sure, but it made me laugh more than most of last season's episodes. That's obviously not a function of the live format, but I'm not complaining.

filmcricket

I dunno. It wasn't necessary, that's for sure, but it made me laugh more than most of last season's episodes. That's obviously not due to the live format, but I'm not complaining.

Zach L

Didn't despise the episode, but wasn't awe Inspiring. I did like seeing Hader, Matt Damon, Dreyfus, etc playing along. But agree bout the raucous audience. Kinda threw the flow off of the show

G

Kenneth was giggling a LOT in his first scene with Liz

glogz

Kenneth was giggling a lot in his first scene with Liz

Ed W

I enjoyed it a lot and while I wouldn't want 30 Rock to become that way permanently, if there were another series that was well written that was live each week like that I'd be interested. It is sloppy sure but it seems braver, less timid than the usual way of doing a show.

Ed W

I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. Would I want every episode of 30 Rock to be done this way? No but it made me wish there were a couple of comedies on each week that were live. What it loses in polish it gains in feeling braver and more demanding of "in the moment" smarts.

Helene

I agree that live is not the optimal way to enact the show, but I actually thought it was brilliant, esp. considering all the obstacles. Really enjoyed Louis-Dreyfus, and Hamm, Damon, Dratch, et al, were great fun. Everyone got into the spirit of capturing the "live" experience.

lannes314

It had its moments (Krakowski, Hamm, Parnell), but it wasn't a true 30 ROCK episode. If you recommended it to a friend who had never seen the show, they'd wonder what the hell was going on. And it was a sad reminder of how far SNL has fallen.

diemunkiesdie

I thought it was funny and I think it almost worked, but I think it would have been better without an audience clapping or hooting every few seconds!

J

Don't be such a spoil sport

Heather

I dunno. It was the funniest SNL episode I've seen in years, that's for sure.

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