It’s well known in my family that I haven’t watched a sitcom regularly on television for many years. But my son Cody and brother Mike recently recommended that I give the new NBC comedy sitcom “30 Rock” (8:30 p.m., CST, Thursday) a try, so I watched it over the past several weeks and found it to be quite clever and entertaining.
As this CNN.com article notes, the show is basically a 2007 version of the popular Mary Tyler Moore Show from 30 years ago, with former Saturday Night Live writer and performer Tina Fey playing the Mary Tyler Moore-type lead role and Alec Baldwin playing an absolutely hilarious combination of the Lou Grant/Ted Baxter character from the MTM show. Having seen Baldwin in several movies, I knew that he was a fine actor, but had no idea that he possessed the depth of comedic talent that he is exhibiting on this show. The scene of outtakes of Baldwin’s flubs (“product integortion?”) during the filming of a short corporate presentation — which can be viewed here toward the end of part two of episode 5 “Jack-Tor” — is already a cult classic. Check it out.