“But we can use ‘It’s Your B-Day, Bitch’ by Snooki’s mom.” – Pete
When an episode of a fictional television show is filmed live during “modern times,” is it being adventurous or merely relying on a gimmick?
It’s been done several times in the past with varying levels of success, but what about the decision to try it in the first place? Part of me thinks it reeks of desperation. It’s about creating excitement for the sake of creating excitement.
And what does it say about 30 Rock that they resorted to the live episode phenomena? Have they hit a creative lull? Or is this just an extension of their creativity? I’ve been greatly enjoying this season’s first three episodes and think they are among the strongest stretch the show has aired in a while. And that made me almost feel optimistic about the prospects of “Live Show.”
Unfortunately, the results weren’t very successful. I can’t say that there weren’t a great deal of funny lines and moments, but the overall episode as a whole was clumsy and awkward, relying far too much on the metafictional aspects of the process. Yes, I know 30 Rock has always been meta-heavy, but when something is as obvious as a live episode, you don’t need to get even more obvious. And honestly, the jokes that hit had little to do with the live format. They were just funny in and of themselves.
The other flaw that severely hurt the episode was the audience. 30 Rock is a show known for having snappy line after snappy line without giving the viewers a chance to miss a new joke. For a program that exists in a fairly surreal world, it generally sounds “natural.” Having dialogue interrupted by fits of laughter can work on some shows (though, I must admit, I despise laugh track sitcoms), but not on a show that moves as fast as this one.
Except the funny thing is, this isn’t the first time 30 Rock has gone “live.” In 2007, during the writer’s strike, the cast performed a live version of the Season Two episode “Secrets and Lies” at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade theater in New York City as a show of support to their writers. A pretty grainy video of the performance appears on the Season Two DVD and it’s easily the highlight of the special features. The sparsely decorated set and amateurish special effects give off more of a Max Fischer-vibe. “Live Show,” on the other hand, just felt overly stiff.
The one reference to the live-ness that I enjoyed was how it was framed. Jack wants to show solidarity with Avery during her pregnancy, so he chooses to quit drinking until she can too. In his sober state, everything looks strange… almost… live. Jack can’t handle the sober life as he thinks all men need alcohol in their lives (I’d disagree but I’m drinking a Blue Moon as I write this, so who am I to judge?) and resorts to huffing paint and smelling Jenna’s breath to get any kind of buzz.
But that was the B-Story. The A-Story dealt with Liz’s disappointment that nobody remembered her 40th birthday. Even Carol forgot, as he called Liz during a particularly rough flight just to have her hide his porn stash in case of death and to Tivo Bones in case of survival.
Speaking of porn and people named Carol, Tracy watched the non-porn version of The Carol Burnett Show for the first time and was enamored by the scene where the cast broke character and were laughing too hard to finish a sketch. He decides that this kind of “mistake” is hilarious and decides to break on purpose, much to the chagrin of Liz, Pete, and Jenna (who vows to flash a nipple in order to keep her attention meter squarely in the red).
Eventually, Liz calls Jack out on forgetting her birthday, so he gathers the troops and tries to come up with an idea to make Liz feel special. Eventually they settle on stealing the Happy Days-themed birthday from a Polish cleaning lady (played by Rachel Dratch, making her first 30 Rock appearance since Season One). The cleaning lady isn’t okay with this, though, and destroys the Fonzie cake before attempting to gouge out Pete’s eyes. But Liz is happy with her friends’ effort and asks Jack to share a drink with her as a birthday wish. He gladly accepts and the perspective shifts back to a taped segment of Jack saying, “That’s better.”
And honestly, I was thinking the exact same thing. As a 30 Rock episode, “Live Show” wasn’t terrible, but the live broadcast shenanigans were more distracting than interesting. I can’t say the episode was a complete failure, I just fail to see its point.
More thoughts about “Live Show”:
- I did greatly enjoy both of the live “commercials” that aired before the real act breaks. Dr. Spaceman appeared to promote his album of love songs sure to cure erectile dysfunction (“It’s not just a dog problem anymore”). Jon Hamm’s Drew returned to promote a new non-profit organization that started out as a pitch for a horror movie, Hands from Executed Criminals. Drew even showed off his new mitt, which just happens to be quite a bit darker than his own skin color (“Oh God no, that’s a Black Power thing.”).
- Also mildly humorous was Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as “Liz Lemon.”
- We did see a couple real live TV mishaps. Alec Baldwin drops a book in the opening scene and Scott Adsit struggled with the line about cutting a Capitol One sponsorship bit (which quickly turned into a Capitol One sponsorship bit).
- “Slumdog Millionaire ref. Blammo.” – “Liz Lemon”
- “Surprise! I was totally in on it!” – Carol
Some stats and info about 30 Rock, “Live Show”
TV SHOW – 30 Rock
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 5, Episode 4
AIRED ON – October 14th, 2010
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – NBC/Peacock
GENRE – Comedy, Office Culture
CREATED BY – Tina Fey
CAST – Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, Jack McBrayer, Jane Krakowski, Scott Adsit, Chris Parnell
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.