30 Rock running thread

Not trying to be cruel, but I can't think of a celebrity who has aged worse than Jan Hooks. Not that being a beauty queen was ever her claim to fame, but damn, the years have not been kind.

 

The big thing, obviously, is the weight gain. I could swear I'd seen her fairly recently and she wasn't anywhere near that big. On 30 Rock, I barely recognized her.

 

Me either. I honestly wondered whether that was a prosthetic stomach.

 

This thread largely has lost steam, but the end is here.

 

This thread lost steam about the same time the show did...

Still funny, but not nearly as funny as it was during the first few seasons...

 

I think that this season has been great. It dropped down my DVR list until last season, when it got funny again.

Last line is "shut it down"?

 

It really hit its stride again at the end. I didn't think I was so emotionally connected to these characters, but that was a touching and funny finale. And the episode before it, last week, was even better. Here was a show that won three Emmys for best comedy, lasted seven mostly funny seasons and went out with its head held high. The finale felt right, from the timing to the humor to the plot lines.

30 Rock was a show that raised the bar for humor. It did more for women in comedy than any show since I Love Lucy. It didn't draw a huge audience, but it drew a smart audience. The legacy, though, should be that 30 Rock was an adventurous, bold show with great acting and writing that never took the cheap way out for ratings. The show runners could have turned it into the Tracy Morgan show or turned up the emotional dial on Liz's life, but they didn't. The last season was uneven, but the final handful of episodes were strong in the same ways that defined the show.

 

I thought it was an excellent final episode full of laughs. Oddly, 30 Rock is really good for syndication, because you can watch the same episode three times and get something new each time.

 

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8900291/30-rock-race-identity-politics

 

Like a waitress.

What am I? A farmer?

 

Just watched the finale, which was fantastic. That might have been Lutz's finest hour.