The series focuses on TGS with Tracy Jordan, a fictional sketch comedy series, and its head writerLiz Lemon, portrayed by Fey, as she juggles her job and her personal life. The season consisted of 21 episodes; 19 episodes were approximately 22 minutes long, and the other two episodes were approximately 26 minutes long due to NBC "supersizing" those episodes. The season moved timeslots three times during its run. The first four episodes aired on Wednesdays at 8:00 pm,[1] the next thirteen episodes aired on Thursdays at 9:30 pm, and the final four episodes aired on Thursdays at 9:00 pm.
The season received generally favorable reviews, and was nominated for ten Emmy Awards: six Primetime Emmy Awards and four Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Despite critical success, the series struggled in the ratings,[2] and the first season averaged 5.8 million viewers for all 21 episodes. The 30 Rock first season DVD box set was released on September 4, 2007, in Region 1 format,[3] and was released on March 17, 2008, in Region 2 format.[4]
Synopsis
The season begins with the introduction of Liz Lemon, the head writer of The Girlie Show, a livesketch comedy series which airs on NBC. When The Girlie Show's network executive Gary dies, Jack Donaghy replaces him. Jack, the head of east coast television and microwave oven programming, makes many changes to The Girlie Show, including adding Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), a loose cannon movie star, to the show's cast and changing the title of The Girlie Show to TGS with Tracy Jordan. Various story arcs are explored, including the rivalry between Tracy and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski), Liz's relationships with Dennis Duffy (Dean Winters) and Floyd Debarber (Jason Sudeikis) and Jack's relationship with Phoebe (Emily Mortimer). Most importantly, the relationship between Jack and Liz develops as he offers to be her mentor, which becomes the anchor of the show. A few minor story arcs are carried over into season two, including Cerie Xerox's (Katrina Bowden) ongoing engagement to the unseen character Aris and Pete Hornberger (Scott Adsit) living with Liz to deal with his marital problems with his wife, Paula Hornberger (later seen in "Greenzo" played by Paula Pell).
Rip Torn as Don Geiss, CEO of GE and Jack's boss and mentor.[18]
Guest stars
Will Arnett as Devon Banks, NBC's Vice President of West Coast News, Web Content and Theme Park Talent Relations, and Jack's nemesis. (Episode: "Fireworks")
Liz Lemon, the head writer for a female-based Saturday Night Live-style sketch series called The Girlie Show, butts heads with her new boss, Jack Donaghy, when he suggests that the show hire Tracy Jordan, a black, B-list comedy actor who has become a tabloid trainwreck thanks to his erratic behavior, to be a cast member.
Continuing from the pilot episode, Jack makes major changes to Liz's sketch show and angers the show's star, Jenna Maroney. An indignant Liz struggles to keep everyone happy, but Tracy saves the day by hosting a party for the entire cast and crew on a private yacht...until a scared maid (Rachel Dratch) reveals a horrible secret about the yacht.
Realizing that her near lack of a social life is having an adverse effect on her work, Jack sets Liz up on a blind date with a friend of his. Meanwhile, Jack infiltrates the writers' weekly poker game and starts winning hands until Kenneth the Page joins in and proves to be a surprisingly adept player.
Jack decides to join Liz and her staff in the writers' room, but his lack of writing ability becomes all too evident and his presence ends up stifling the others' creativity. Meanwhile, Tracy mentors Kenneth on how to be successful and Liz encourages Cerie, her young assistant, to dress more conservatively.
Forced by Jack to plug General Electric products on TGS, Liz integrates Jack himself into a self-referential sketch about product placement, despite the fact that Jack is not a good actor. Meanwhile, Frank and Toofer trick Jenna into thinking that her job is in danger and Liz wonders if Tracy might be illiterate when he refuses to read the cue cards.
When Liz takes back her sleazy ex-boyfriend Dennis Duffy, Jack takes it upon himself to convince her that she is headed for a life of mediocrity if she doesn't change her ways. Meanwhile, Tracy ramps up his crazy antics after a tabloid catches him walking out of a Starbucks with a dog and publishes a story on how normal Tracy Jordan has become (when really, he was moonwalking backwards into a Starbucks with a dog he recently stole), Jenna gets unorthodox beauty treatments after Jack grills her about her age, and Josh gets a surprise visit from Elizabeth Taylor (Rachel Dratch).
Jack bumps Jenna's scheduled appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and puts Tracy (who was on Late Night with Conan O'Brien before and tried to stab Conan in the face) on in her place, and things get worse when Liz (who just donated blood and hasn't had anything to eat), Pete, Grizz, and Dotcom discover that Tracy's new medication from Dr. Spaceman (Chris Parnell) causes Tracy to act weirder than usual. Meanwhile Jack encourages Pete Hornberger to wear a wig.
Liz finally dumps Dennis and prowls the singles scene, where she proves to be particularly inept at picking up guys under Jenna's tutelage. Meanwhile, Tracy and Toofer's latest fight leads to a racial slur and an afternoon in HR-sanctioned sensitivity training, and Jack dates a certain "high-ranking African-American member of the Bush Administration."
Cerie gets engaged so that she can be a "young hot mom", causing Liz to think about marriage and having a family. Meanwhile, Jack has trouble dealing with his own domineering mother, who wants to move in with him, and Josh uses his ability to do impressions to trick Tracy and Jack.
Liz and Jenna's friendship gets strained when Liz finally sees Jenna's new legal thriller film The Rural Juror (which most of the characters mispronounce or misname) and tries to sugarcoat the truth about it. Meanwhile, to get himself out of debt, Tracy places his name on a "meat machine" that eliminates the "bread" part of sandwiches.
Two guys, one a cerebral nerd and the other a gorgeous hunk, capture the attention of Liz and Jenna. Meanwhile, Jack and Kenneth trade places for "Bottom's Up Day" and Tracy enlists Frank and Toofer to write his autobiography in one day.
Liz attends a foreign prince's (Paul Reubens) birthday party with Jack and meets his ex-wife. Meanwhile, Tracy tries to convince Pete to cheat on his wife at a wild party while Kenneth talks him out of it.
The writers struggle to pull an all-nighter on Valentine's Day: Liz receives flowers from a secret admirer, Jack completes his divorce after years of legal separation, Tracy tries to spend the evening with his wife, Pete forgets the holiday, and Kenneth is encouraged to pursue Cerie.
After being criticized for her working habits by her co-workers and being called the worst thing a woman can be called, Liz decides to be more lenient with her staff and work overtime herself. Meanwhile, Jack brings Tracy to a major golf event to get closer to Don Geiss, the CEO of GE, but his plan backfires when Tracy decides to drop "truth bombs".
When Josh's contract comes up for negotiation, Jack tries to save money by not renewing it while Liz tries to prevent Josh from joining the cast of a rival show. Meanwhile, Tracy allows Kenneth into his entourage and Jenna tries to repair her damaged image after she's branded as homophobic and anti-veteran from a misquote during a magazine shoot.
Jack enlists a rap producer (L.L. Cool J) to unload his line of inferior champagne while Tracy reluctantly hosts the Source Awards. Meanwhile, Liz tries to sever ties with a black man she dislikes without coming off as a racist.
Jack's long-lost brother Eddie (Nathan Lane) shows up and announces their father's death. Meanwhile, Liz, forced to make staff cutbacks, fires her romantic rival "Other Liz" while Tracy seeks spiritual fulfillment at his lawyer's request.
Threatened by a sneaky West Coast NBC executive, Jack enlists Kenneth to help thwart any attempts to usurp Donaghy's TV throne. Meanwhile, Tracy discovers that he is a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson, Twofer discovers a disturbing secret about his Civil War ancestor, and Liz fakes being an alcoholic to get closer to her crush, Floyd.
Liz has found happiness with Floyd while Jack pursues a relationship of his own with Phoebe, an eccentric Christie's auctioneer. Tracy vies for Don Geiss's attention, hoping to turn his Jefferson movie idea into a reality.
Sick of New York and frustrated with his career, Floyd contemplates a move to the Midwest and asks Liz if she would consider leaving TGS behind. Tracy discovers that the "Black Crusaders" are after him and Jack continues to prepare for his marriage to Phoebe.
As TGS's summer hiatus approaches, Liz deals with the difficulties of her long-distance relationship with Floyd as she tries to find Tracy, who is hiding out in the sticks with Kenneth's uncivilized cousin. Meanwhile, Jack's impending marriage brings his mother, Colleen Donaghy, to town.
Production
Development
In 2002, Tina Fey was the head writer and cast member on the television show Saturday Night Live (SNL). She pitched the show that became 30 Rock to NBC, originally as a sitcom about cable news.[41] NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly felt that "Fey was using the news setting as a fig leaf for her own experience and [he] encouraged her to write what she knew."[42] The show was subsequently reworked to revolve around an SNL-style sketch show. After being presented to Reilly once more, the show was set to air during the 2005–2006 television season.[43]
In May 2003, Fey signed a contract with NBC to remain in her SNL head writer position until at least the 2004–2005 television season and to develop a primetime project to be produced by Broadway Video and NBC Universal.[44] Filming was postponed due to Tina Fey's first pregnancy.[45]
During the 2004–2005 pilot season, a pilot was announced named Untitled Tina Fey Project. The 30 Rock pilot focused on the boss of a variety show who must manage her relationships with the show's volatile star and its charismatic executive producer. The storyline evolved into one that dealt with a head writer of a variety show who dealt with both of the stars, as well as the show's new network executive.[46]30 Rock was officially given the green light to air May 15, 2006, along with a 13-episode order.[43]
Casting
The role of Jenna Maroney was originally given to Rachel Dratch but after the series was retooled away from sketch comedy Dratch was recast.[47]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an approval rating of 84% with an average score of 7.5 out of 10 based on 44 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "It isn't as consistently as funny as it could be, considering its pedigree, but 30 Rock is a clever, wacky comedy that benefits from a strong ensemble cast."[51]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave the season a score of 67 out ot 100 based on the impression of 31 critical reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[52] The pilot episode was generally well received;[53] however, Marc D. Allan of The Washington Post said that "viewers who tuned in for the first month or more saw shows that weren't consistently funny", but after a few episodes "the writers discovered the core of the series—the push-pull between Fey's character, Liz Lemon, the harried head writer of The Girlie Show, and Alec Baldwin's domineering network executive, Jack Donaghy—that 30 Rock found its rhythm."[53] Henry Goldblatt of Entertainment Weekly, whilst reviewing the DVD release of the season, called 30 Rock "[the 2006 –2007 television season's] finest sitcom". Goldblatt said that the episodes "Hard Ball" and "The Break Up" were "some of the strongest episodes", and awarded the first season an "A" grade.[54]
Christopher Monfette of IGN thought that season one was "well-written and hilariously-performed" and that it was "refreshing to travel through the season and watch these characters grow and evolve". Monfette gave the season a score of 8 out of 10.[55]UGO Entertainment's Kyle Braun said that the season "didn't start out as the funniest new show of 2006", but he praised the seasons progression, proclaiming "now that the show has found its audience, it's hard to argue with the laughs thrown down from high atop 30 Rockefeller Plaza."[50] Anna Johns of TV Squad said that she was "particularly excited for the later two-thirds of the season, when Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan got into their groove and the supporting characters started getting better story lines."[56] After six episodes, NBC picked 30 Rock up for a 21-episode season on December 1, 2006.[57][58][59]
Ratings
The pilot episode garnered 8.13 million viewers, finishing third in its timeslot of 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.[60] After three further low rated airings on the following three Wednesdays, including a series low of 4.61 million viewers,[61][62][63] NBC decided to move 30 Rock to Thursdays at 9:30 pm. Its first airing on a Thursday night was on November 16, 2006.[64] Along with this change, the even lower rated comedy Twenty Good Years was put on hiatus and later cancelled.[65][66]30 Rock's first Thursday airing was viewed by 5.19 million viewers.[67] The series then received ratings of a consistent amount of around 5.5 million viewers till the episode "Hard Ball" when a series low, set by the episode "Jack the Writer," was met with just 4.61 million viewers watching the episode.[63][68] After a further three episodes, which were higher rated than "Hard Ball," NBC moved 30 Rock to 9:00 pm on Thursdays,[69] serving as a lead-in to Scrubs. Upon its first airing at 9:00 pm, the episode "Fireworks," a "supersized" episode attracted the attention of 5.37 million viewers.[37]30 Rock aired at 9:00 pm for four episodes. The season finale, "Hiatus," was watched by 4.72 million people.[70] The first season averaged 5.8 million viewers for all 21 episodes. Out of all regular primetime programming that aired during the 2006–2007 American television season, 30 Rock ranked #102 out of #142 according to the Nielsen ratings system.[71]
^Hiatt, Brian (January 31, 2013). "The Last Days of '30 Rock'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on June 27, 2017. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
^ abD. Allan, Marc (August 26, 2007). "Polished 'Rock' Rolls On". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved September 2, 2007.
