Live from 30 Rock It's 30 Rock Live

The 30 Rock Live episode was like finding two bosses or two teachers making out in a back room: Not what I’d expect and didn’t feel quite right.

Compare it to “Live from Lincoln Center,“ for instance. Something originally written for live performance - a stage production like “South Pacific” (which aired on PBS in August) - actually works better on live TV than a TV show that’s usually written/directed/performed/edited in a filmic format.

The look, the timing, everything seemed just that little bit askew tonight.

For instance, a couple lines that should’ve gotten bigger laughs got lost in the shuffle.

And a number of people on other blogs mentioned how much fun the cast seemed to be having. I thought almost all the regulars except Broadway vet Jane Krakowski looked nervous as hell at the start.

Cameraman must've been nervous too. Shaky handheld camera? Might want to rethink that. Oops, too late. It was live.

And did the show actually run short? Seemed they were stalling at the end.

Not to be all Debbie Downer -- here were a few of the fun, funny moments:

Well, yes, nice that Dratch was back and she and Tina fell into their old Second City/SNL/first-year 30R rhythm easily.

Jack sniffing Jenna’s alcohol breath was hilariously bizarre enough that I want to make it my Facebook picture.

Didn’t see the Julia Louis-Dreyfus stuff coming. Man, do all the successful SNLers eventually come back to the fold? (Except Jane Curtin.) Oh wait. This wasn't SNL.

(But speaking of that - I'd seen a picture of Jay Pharoah hanging around 30 Rock this week. Damn, I thought we were going to get him playing Tracy in flashback.)

The executed-criminal hand was dark/ sick - but it made me laugh anyway. Damn you Hamm.

So 30 Rock, it was like our own game of seven minutes in heaven. After today we’ll be glad we got it out of our system, and then move on.

Things I Need to See on TV This Year

• "Outsourced" outsourced to Mars. OK, the show has an attractive-looking cast. And the film that suggested the TV series was sweet and mildly amusing.
• But you know what's funny about the TV show? When the customer service guy from India tells someone he's in Detroit. Ha-ha. That's especially hi-larious to those of us living (and barely making a living) in Detroit. This show is perfect proof that the coked-up network Suits have no clue what's really happening in Flyover Country.
• I really need Leslie Knope, Ron Effin' Swanson, MouseRat & "Shut up, Jerry" back on the teevee. ASAP. In the plum 9:30 spot the network maroons gave to "Outsourced."
• I've heard no  buzz at all about it, but I had hopes "Raising Hope" would be good. Because for some reason I loved the "threw up on the baby"  bit.

• "Wesley Snipes" and Liz Lemon getting together.  Curling up under the Snuggie, enjoying a cheesy blaster, watching a DVD of "Chums."  (Tina Fey, you managed to sink my good ship Jack& Liz.  So gimme this at least.)
• Julianna Margulies' character getting together with Josh/Dan from "Sports Night"?
• Or "Sports Night" coming back.
• On a bill back-to-back with "Better Off Ted." Followed by "Moonlighting," "Gilmore Girls" and "Northern Exposure."
• "Dancing With the Stars" with actual stars. Which means actors, musicians, athletes. Not someone whose claim to fame is being a dope on "reality" shows or the daughter of a dope in politics.
• All reality TV disappearing. Except the ones I occasionally watch.
• Two-and-a-Half Men getting outsourced to Uranus.
• My name in the credits somewhere.

This Old Photo: Shorpy.com Part One

Shorpy.

First Shorpy was a kid coal miner who had a short, hard life. But because a few pictures of him were taken one day long ago, he lives on in that ephemeral way that photos can bring us immortality - randomly, sometimes whimsically, very often poignantly.

This is Shorpy the boy.

Shorpy the Website

And now Shorpy lives on as the very name of a website devoted to the mystery and yet the immediacy of old photos.

Each day brings a few new photos, some of which have been lovingly restored by the site runners. And with these instant portraits of long-ago days comes witty, informative, nostalgic, always fascinating and fascinated blog commentary.


It Takes a Village, ca. 1905

Here’s a recent gem from New York City, 110 years ago. Sure, it's a chance for non-New Yorkers to discover this beautiful, still existent architectural gem which has had at least three lives. (Market, courthouse, library.) A kremlinesque colorful lower Manhattan landmark which has posed for paintings, from the Ashcan School all the way to present-day sidewalk artists.


But on a nonspecific day, circa 1905, was the centerpiece of this quick study on early 20th-century urban street life.


HD Web-See
Ramp open the Hi-Def view and drink in the details of a day when George M. Cohan was actually performing somewhere in that city: Take a look up 10th Street - The laundry airing on the roof opposite. The cop, the stairway loiterer, the streetcars, the horse-and-buggies, the wagon piled high with barrels, the horse fountain(?) on the corner of the building. And to the left, on Sixth: The train pulling away, the guy below striding along, reading his paper, a sign on a more distant building advertising a Famous Old Remedy Painkiller (Keep It Handy).


30 Rock, '33

Now quick, jump forward with me. Is this moment in time in the Village really only 28 years before this stunning central Manhattan image? 
And is there any more spectacular city image anywhere than this moody night shot of the brand-spanking new, now-iconic 30 Rockefeller Center?

All images courtesty http://www.shorpy.com/

I Hate These End-of-Decade Lists But I’m Doing One Anyway

It doesn’t seem like we’re 10 years into the new century. Time flies when you’re having a sh**ty decade.

And after the big brouhaha over the new millennium (ah, remember our 2K worries, how quaint and innocent) this seems tres anticlimactic.

However, this is what writers do when they need something to do. A trendy little list. You know that. It’s either this or talking about some horrible “reality” stars.

So a Best Of Blog.
We all live in different cities, me and my many readers. Ahem.

So I won’t talk about The Local Detroit Entertainment Scene. (OK, just a shout-out to some “smaller” Detroit groups of various stripes, like Go Comedy! and Eisenhower Dance and Detroit Chamber Winds.)

MOVIES?
Meh, I don’t feel like talking about movies. (See "Too Much Boy Stuff" below.)

POP MUSIC?
I heard a Best Of list the other day. Half the bands I couldn’t hum anything if you put a gun to my favorite teddy’ bear’s head. The other 50 percent Ithink their music is crap.

But some runners up on the list, like Outkast's “Hey Ya"? - Now THAT I liked. What can I say - I’m hip. ***

And finally -
BEST OF THE TEEVEE MACHINE

DRAMAS
For the past few years longer-form series haven’t held much interest for me. Many recent critical favorites never sounded that appealing to me, and when I catch up with them on DVD or in syndie, that’s been confirmed. Why?

1. Too much Boys Stuff.
The Wire, Sopranos, Deadwood. Perhaps even Mad Men. They’re about The Guys first, with women as sometimes interesting accessories.

2. Too many shows with overly-bizarre premises. I definitely like whimsical (the 90s show Northern Exposure). But not over-the-top weird (Pushing Daisies).

3. So my dramas list would probably be short:

The West Wing (even though I never forgave Sorkin for treating Sports Night like Tiger Woods treated … fill in your own joke).

The Gilmore Girls. The first hourlong since Northern Exposure to pull me in with just the right mix of banter (in this case, mile-a-minute) and fully developed characters.

But wait. Was it really an hour-long comedy. That brings me to-

COMEDIES (SITCOMS)
With a dearth of hour-longs to enchant me I’ve become more a sitcom girl in recent years.

But I miss seeing newly minted faves on other critics‘ lists. Too new, they say.

Bah. Here’s my thought: Put Parks & Rec and Better Off Ted on a Great Newbies with Potential for Long-Lasting Minor TV Immortality If Not Prematurely Canceled list.

And in the veteran cateogry put 30 Rock on the Oh God You Frustrate Me But I Still Love You list.

You get my point. Give me funny. Offbeat.
And some female characters that aren’t just The Wife.


*** I’m Hip

I dig, I’m in step,
When it was hip to be hep, I was
When it was hip to be hep, I was hep.
I don’t blow but I’m a fan
Look at me swing, ring a ding ding
I even call my girlfriend “Man,” I’m so hip.

I’m hip, I’m alive
I enjoy any joint where there’s jive.
I’m on top of every trend
Look at me go vodee odo
Bobby Darin knows my friend
I’m so hip.
---Dave Frischberg

Blossom Dearie Sings I'm Hip