It was some time during last night's dreary Offices when it really hit me: no more 30 Rock. No more Liz Lemonisms, no more Jenna Maroney alcohol-fueled ballads, no more Tracy Jordan movies, no more Jack Donaghy business ideas, no more Lutz. Call it denial, but despite the non-stop coverage this week, I hadn't really thought about that beginning today, one of the best sitcoms ever would no longer be around (except in non-stop syndication, that is).
It's a fitting memorial for the show, I suppose. We, or at least I, took 30 Rock for granted. Before the finale tributes, it received only a fraction of the amount of coverage fellow beloved sitcoms Parks and Rec and Louie, among others, have lately, and even the only other show that can match its joke-per-second pace, Happy Endings, is the one people rally around more. That's because 30 Rock has been so good for so long that we stopped worrying about it. We didn't bemoan its low ratings, like Community, or tell all our friends to watch it, like Archer; I've never once asked someone if they've "seen 30 Rock?" because I assume every smart person does. Or did. It was the best kind of TV comfort food: reassuring (hot dog), but still hyper-intelligent (jack cheese) and ultra-witty (folded in a pizza).
And "Hogcock!" and "Last Lunch" were everything excellent about the show, in a one-hour package. The mommy blogs, Liz's confused feminism, the digs at NBC, the self-awareness (like Liz commenting that cable allows more time for jokes to land, only for the show to do a smash cut to Jenna mid-tantrum), the willing-to-do-anything guest stars (in this case, have Julianne Moore and Salma Hayek participate in a threesome and reveal their true accents), Jack being described as an "alcoholic with a great voice," not to mention all the circular callbacks, like Liz and Tracy's strip club meeting, Kenneth being immortal, and, of course, the return of The Rural Juror.
It was hilarious, with just the right amount of sentiment, and for viewers to still care about these characters after 138 episodes is a tribute to the show's rarely-flinching consistency (take a look at the things people want to do to Jim on The Office for comparison's sake). But like Liz's no-BS chat with Tracy, I'm not gonna lie: by this time next week, I'll be ecstatic that Community is back, and will have forgotten all about the 30 Rock-inspired FEELS and EMOTIONS that I went through last night. I'll always know 30 Rock is there for me, though, either on Netflix Instant or a 2 a.m. repeat on Fox, the perfect compliment to my night cheese. To quote the show's final words, "And I love it."
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Just a note: I will be changing my username to “The Billionaire of Tanned-Pen1s Island.” Wait ‘til you see my avatar!
+∞
seconded Kungjitsu.
Am I the only one who is getting zilch in the slideshow?
Hm. I am, too. Minor technical difficulty. Stay tuned.
Up and running now. Just go to Alta Vista and search “UPROXX 30 Rock GIFs” if you’re still not seeing.
Alta Vista. Thanks for the nostalgia.
YOU DON’T DESERVE THE INTERNET, MASKE
Maske lives in Pawnee!
I am sad
“No! It okay! Don’t be cry!”
This racquet is a fart.
Part of me wants to have lunch at Blimpie’s today but then again ew Blimpie’s
I loved that they brought back this gag. The first time, when Lutz chooses Subway, is one of my favorite Lutz scenes.
I worked an entire summer at a Blimpies. Glad they brought that one back around.
Blimpies is horrible. It figures Lutz would like it.
A lot of funny moments, but I especially liked the jabs at NBC’s goal of dumbing down their content. Sorry I meant, “Appeal to a more broad audience.”
Those subtle jabs at NBC are what I’m going to miss the most abot this show. “Dark times are these”- Liz Lemon
I always wondered how 30 Rock got away with that so much. The Simpsons did because they have complete creative control.
@Stan: It’s easy to criticize the network when the network or anyone really, doesn’t watch your show.
I can’t believe 30 rock is over
I feel scared, shocked, angry. Like a dog in a sidecar when it comes loose from the motorcycle.
farewell sweet prince.
I already used Hogcock in a proposal call this morning. Felt good. Not getting that client though.
Here at the end I have to admit that I was never able to get into this show. While I appreciated that it was of a higher quality and had funny stuff, something about it never let it hook me. Maybe it’s my refusal to support any enterprise that keeps Judah Friedlander in hats.
I seriously want to see a glass dishwasher in action. Magical.
I honestly thought to myself… That is an item I would purchase for my dishwashing needs.
Right? Are stoners a big dishwasher demo? Cause uh…my friends would watch the whole cycle.
I yelled “genius!” when he came up with the idea.
Yeah, I seriously want one as well.
They’ve had them in appliance stores for years.
For demonstration.
Agreed!
I miss this show so much, I came back here to just relive the finale a little bit.
Lemon out.
As I said in another thread, I became convinced halfway through last night that “Do No Harm” was actually an elaborate prank. It looked so stupid, I wondered if it might really just be another insane fake show like “Bitch Hunter” or “MILF Island,” and they were pranking the shit out of us.
Nope. Turns out it wasn’t fake stupid, it was just stupid stupid.
Do No Harm was like NBC executives telling us, “If you kill yourself while watching this, it’s not our fault.”
When he did the head fake thing at the end of the promo…oh my Cthulhu that was amazing.
All I could think while watching the unrelenting promos for “Do No Harm” was that Steven Pascuale was probably playing himself all those years on “Rescue Me”.
My god that show was awful. I played the whole ‘hoe long can I watch this before I want to blow my brains out’ game. With the relentless exposition of ‘oh I’d love to but I can’t hang out at night cause I’m not myself’ and the insane plot holes of him gaining resistance to his serum randomly and completely over night AFTER FIVE YEARS, I nearly killed myself before the first commercial break. Then I got to the part where he writes DO NO HARM in the steamy mirror, and I just couldn’t do it anymore. 16 minutes in and WE DIDNT EVEN SEE JEKYLL YET?! At that point, only a rewatch of Hogcock could talk me down off the ledge.
FYI, if you havent seen Jekyll on Netflix, watch it this weekend. Fantastic miniseries.
All of the ads for TV shows or movies last night looked like fake 30 Rock ads. Do No Harm, Smash… it’s awful
any other super nerds catch the “St. Elsewhere” reference in Ken’s last scene?
Mashing up a St. Elsewhere ref with Ken’s running immortality gag with Lemon’s grandaughter was just a perfect way to go out.
Yup. Brilliant.
I’m very happy it wasn’t a straight-up reference, though. Ditto no Liz sleeping with Bob Newhart. The show’s better than simple parody.
anyone else caught the Tracy bobblehead Kenneth has? because I did just now watching that GIF
That was the moment the farewell went from “pretty good” to “oh my god this is genius”
I loved it, loved the fake out, loved the revelation that it’s probably her son who took her name’s granddaughter..
There was a Cloud City cloud car from “Empire” behind Kenneth in that future scene. That’s about all I have to offer to discussion.
yeah that bit really sent me through the roof, it was amazing I cried tears of joy, it was perfect
Also, Justin Bartha burn made my night.
the bartha burn and the conan/lemon scene set against the green screen elevator gave me all sorts of joys.
We had to go back and look at that again – I loved that he said no immortal characters.
I couldn’t remember who Justina Bartha was so I paused the DVR and went off to IMDB. Kenneth = genius.
If only they could have switched out Barth and put in Steven Pascuale as a final fuck-off to NBC that would have been the greatest boss move ever.
So…the glass dishwasher…that’s going to be a thing, right?
And I will call someone a soup line at a gay homeless shelter at some point in my life.
I want a glass deep fryer/washer. Cook the food then put your dishes in the fryer and “voila!”
That’s the best idea I’ve ever heard concerning deep fat frying and dishwashing.
I loved the reference to Godwin’s Law and I am glad that the title picture.
Hamlet the Mini Pig for the win.
That’ll do Liz. That’ll do.
I loved everything about the episode. Even the bad green screen with Conan and Liz in the elevator
was there a green screen during the Liz/Jack “we ruined each other” scene or was that just me?
They definitely went with “if we’re going green screen we’re going full shitty green screen.”
I’m not sure I understood why that Conan scene was done with a green screen. Was it because Conan refused to go to 30 Rockefeller and they had to shoot elsewhere, or what?
@JJ Junior. I bet it was more likely that since his show is in LA that Tina Fey shot it in Los Angeles.
I feel like that last GIF was definitely a good summary of seven seasons of a quality show.
I honestly didn’t notice the Grizz and Her ad was a 30 Rock joke until Liz mentioned it. I thought for real it was an ad.
oh 30 Rock how we’ll miss you!
Loved the show and will miss it a lot. I hope Alec Baldwin stays on TV.
Also, I wonder what’s next for Jack McBrayer.
He’s the voice of the main character in a cartoon called “Wander Over Yonder”. Sounds like his speed.
I have to honor the memory of 30 Rock in some unimportant but meaningful way.
I will never spell Cable with a C ever again. Going forward, it will be Kable. Time Warner Kable. I am a Time Warner Kable subscriber.
Feels good.
Time Warner, you say? I think the proper spelling is Time Warner Cabal.
Liz Lemon quoting T.I. was just magical on every level.
“Since when do you listen to T.I.?”
Good night you princes of Maine, you kings of New England
Why was Conan green screened? Is he not allowed on the premises at NBC?
Probably because he was in Los Angeles when they were filming the episode.
I agree that TmF is probably right, but I prefer to think Conan really isn’t allowed at 30 rock anymore and this was another way to stick it to NBC.
It’s because he’s in LA. 30 Rock wasn’t actually filmed in 30 Rock. It was filmed at Silvercup Studios in Queens.
Conan appeared on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon when he did his NYC shows to “rescue” Triumph from Jimmy’s couch. I doubt NBC barred him from the premises.
I like 30 Rock a lot, and parts of the last episode were fine, but I wasn’t bowled over like everyone else was. I felt it was really off-kilter, in that the proportions of time dedicated to certain characters was not divided the way I would like. Maybe because everyone was building it up so much. It was better than a lot of finales, but I expected a lot more from them. But I suppose that’s par for the course for a show that got kind of bad towards the end.
Although the Urban Baby thing was awesome. All of those mom’s are fucked up.
“I finally pissed off all my enemies. Pelosi, Maddow, Baldwin….”
“Oh God Lemon, I’ve got it! A clear dishwasher! I’m so glad I took that boat trip!” (I would buy a clear dishwasher. No questions asked.)
And Pete trying to fake his own death was more hilarious than I thought it would be.
The Pete story line was my favorite out of the writer’s room characters. It did work well.
“Good God, Lemon.”
I’ll be saying “Thank God I took that boat trip!” after every good idea I have for at least a year now.
I think that was my favorite part of the episode.
I wish Jack was reading the paper when he said, “Maybe I should buy a boat.”
I really enjoyed the episode as a whole, I thought it was a great balance of everything 30 rock.
That being said, I think I’m going to miss new 30 Rock GIFs more than I’ll actually miss watching the show. Happy Endings and Community are great, but 30 Rock was the king of GIF-able content.
I’m still holding out hope for a Griz/Dot Com spinoff.
Would watch it (or Grizz and Hers) in a heartbeat.
The Conan elevator scene had me in tears. I will have to watch the ep again soon because I definitely missed whatever happened right after that.
I read somewhere that the crew in the farewell shot is the real 30 Rock crew. That’s pretty goddam awesome.
Nice.
That’s a pretty classy move.
“Not many people watched…”
I figured it was, and started crying when they popped up. Thank you for the show! I’m glad you got paid!
That was a pretty great send off. Not overly sappy, but some nice opportunities for the cast to express its appreciation. Which I’m sure is more than we can hope for from The Office.
Sidenote: If Pam cheats on Jim with the fucking boom mic guy, I’m gonna flip out.
When the theory of a romantic storyline between Pam and Boom-Mic Guy was hypothesized here last week I don’t think any of us were prepared for that actually being a thing.
I was talked down from a kinda high ledge last night (I would’ve stubbed my toe probably) and it makes a little more sense if you realize the guy has been there for nine years, coming out from the shadows just now. It might spice up the Jim/Pam thing.
Then again, he’s a boom mic operator (those guys get all the gash, right?) and I’m ready for “The Office” to end.
I to notice the stark contrast between the two shows. It’s like the Office people are just trying to be terrible to prop up the other Thursday night comedies at this point.
*too
Conan was greenscreened in right? Is NBC that petty?
Yes, NBC is absolutely that petty.
Someone mentioned he was in LA so they probably filmed it there.
NBC wouldn’t be able to keep Conan out of the 30 Rock studio, because they didn’t film at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. They filmed at Silvercup Studios in Queens.
Correct. They only use 30 Rock for the live shows…and I assume some of the outside scenes.
Every time I think about 30 Rock I think about an essay a friend of mine wrote in it’s first or second season. He wrote about how people bemoaned the loss of Arrested Development (rightfully so) at the expense of other great, on-the-bubble shows, specifically mentioning 30 Rock.
I’m glad that 30 Rock ended when and how it did. It was a great show that had a great ending on it’s own terms. How many shows, nevermind sitcoms, can say that?
I completely agree. While it may be sad that there won’t be any new 30 Rocks, the show ended on as high a note as it possibly could.
I feel like a fool for not realizing that Kenneth was an immortal until now.
You can be forgiven for missing it. There have been two or three subtle references to it (and that apparently 30 Rock exists in the same universe as LOST because Kenneth wails to Jacob at one point).
I’m glad they sustained the “who says I’ve been alive forever?” joke into what became one of my favorite running gags of all time.
Is Mrs. Lutz actually pregnant?
You mean Pete’s wife. Who he had not seen in a year? That sounds about right.
No, Sue and Lutz are married in real life and she looks pregnant in the shot with the whole cast.
I don’t think she’s pregnant in real life, because she’s in a ton of recent commercials, and she’s not showing in any of them.
She’s showing in the red carpet pic of the two them on Lutz’s imdb.
They handled this exactly the way we knew they would. 30 Rock may have been the most consistent show ever. God it was good.
I don’t know about most consistent, but their highs were REALLY high.
I’d say it was one of the most consistent out there. Really the only time I remember not liking it was the “Queen of Jordan” reality show and even that had it’s moments.
HAM!
Shut it down……it finally came true
Not to start a trite discussion about 30 Rock’s place in the pantheon of great sitcoms but it’s gotta be up there, right? I’m not including the Simpsons (because of personal bias) but I’m ready to place 30 Rock over Seinfeld. There, I said it.
I can agree with that. My opinion, the last season or two of Seinfeld was iffy, whereas 30 Rock remained strong the entire run. The only show I think was as good throughout it’s entire run (other than the Simpsons) was the Larry Sanders Show. Then again, Larry Sanders Show was pretty much a more restrained, but also more vulgar (being on HBO) 30 Rock.
Just never liked Seinfeld (there I said it) so I’m gonna have your back dude on this one.
@JamaalCharles Neither did I. I have a hard time rooting for a show where none of the characters are remotely likeable (I’ll take heat for this one but it’s part of why I dislike It’s Always Sunny), but I recognize that while it’s not my personal preference Seinfeld was a really good show. THAT BEING SAID, I think 30 Rock was better.
Seinfeld, while great, was around at a different time. Back then, a network comedy without a laugh track was about as likely as a zebra giving birth to a mongoose. That’s a big reason why it seems so dated when you watch re-runs now (or for me, at least). My point is, the two are comparable in that they are NBC comedies, but they are different in so many other ways, that a comparison wouldn’t really be fair.
That being said, 30 Rock has been one of my favorite shows for the last 7 years, and I personally enjoy it more than Seinfeld.
@SHough610.. your dislike of Sunny should have you examining your humanity
One last time?
“Don’t go sleep with a frown in your pocket.
Take it to the yard and tie it a rocket.
Shoot it to the moon, you’ll feel better soon.
Don’t go to sleep with a frown.”
*pouring from a 40*
That’s excellent
I like to think Jack McBrayer leaves a single rose in front of that tombstone everyday.
Tremendous.
In an alternate reality 30 Rock was cancelled after its first season and we’ve had seven years of Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip.
The darkest timeline.
Don’t even joke about that!
The Darkest Timeline also includes Outsourced replacing a cancelled Community and Whitney taking over for a cancelled Parks and Rec.
Also, killing yourself before finding out how Mad Men and Breaking Bad ends is just insanity.
And Moore/Hayek threesome…..Mmmmmmm
Sans accents, even!
I just want to cry to the heavens and shout, “Why did you only give “30 Rock” a final 13-episode run, but let “The Office” fiddle fart its way to a full season farewell?”
It’s not fair.
NBC aims to displease.
i wonder if the scene with Conan was a callback to last week’s joke about terrible green screen
I think it was because Conan and Tina weren’t in the same room when they shot it. I don’t think Conan wanted to fly to New York to film a cameo, but you could be right.
I think if he sets foot on NBC grounds, he’ll be shot on sight.
Kenneth’s List of No-Nos is a little too scary. Though, the irony of “Immortal Characters” after the ending tag is delicious.
Was going to post exactly this. I’m so sad this show is over.
Good on NBC for letting them go out the right way.
This finale deserves to be in the list of great comedy finales if for no other reason it gave us the term “romance industrial complex.” Which is totally a real thing. Looking at you De Beers. I don’t like Alex Baldwin but I’m sure gonna miss Jack.
30 Rock did a genius job of unexpectedly answering the question I’ve been asking myself all season – “Scott Adsit is still in the credits, but I can’t remember the last time I saw Pete, what’s up with that?”
This was my “Scrubs” show- the one that I never made an effort to watch, even though I loved every episode I happened to catch.
But even with just seeing maybe… 15? episodes as of tonight, the finale still had me tearing up. Kind of like the Angel finale, the sign of a good show/moment is when it gives you feels with no previous emotional connection.
Oh well, time to catch up online!
Incidentally, was the obvious green-screen on the Conan scene a call-back?
I didn’t necessarily laugh that hard during the finale, but I did have a smile on pretty much the entire time. Great way to go out.
I don’t know, the message board Hitler comments and Mickey Rourke reference breaking the fourth wall totally got me. Tip of the hat to the whole cast and crew.
I always enjoyed the show and the writing was always phenomenal. That said, I was pretty tired of all the characters that weren’t Liz or Jack by the end. Most of them always just seemed so one note and I was pretty sick of their shtick a few seasons in. Have to say though, as much as I grew to despise Kenneth, I thought one last joke about his immortality was a great way to close the episode.
Great send off, loved this show since the get go, will miss it a lot.
Thanks, 30 Rock. You kept it tight.
Oh, and Grandchild Lemon… Me-ow
Not only was Thursday night a sendoff for 30 Rock, but I also feel that it signals, in a weird way, the end of quality network comedy. 30 Rock is over, Community is essentially a zombie, How I Met Your Mother has already chewed through it’s credibility, and Happy Endings is always on thin ice; right now it seems that out of all of these, Parks & Rec might be the only one still on the air in 2014. Maybe.
Plenty of great comedies on cable, but they just can’t afford to bring together the ensemble talent that shows like 30 Rock could. A comedy era is truly coming to an end….can’t wait for an all new episode of 1600 Penn!!!
The gynecologist line killed me. I’ll miss the hell out of this show.