30 Rock,this week gave a double surprise – a live show and 2 versions of it .The East coast and West coast. There were subtle differences; some planned,and others because of live improvisation. Interesting though, were the tweaks made between the two different versions taped for the east and west coast .The whole cast has the live acting experience ,mostly on Saturday Night Live! hence the show was expected to be error free.
Performing in front of an audience, the producers and writers came up with hilarious and smart ways to maintain 30 Rock’s signature single camera, whip around style and included some very welcome surprise cameos that added to the show’s crispiness.Special mention for how Julia Louis-Dreyfus is introduced as flashback Liz Lemon.
The live show concept also helped to bring lots of terrific cameos from Mad Men’s Jon Ham, Leo Spaceman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Matt Damon. But I did miss Avery(Elizabeth banks) and Cerie (Katrina Bowden)in those cameo cavalcades.The live shows had lots of meta jokes -references to Seinfeld, Slumdog Millionaire,Bones, Happy Days, Oprah,Brett Farve and his texting his ‘deal’ indiscretions and Barack Obama’s troubles mid way into his term, so on and so forth.
30 Rock has been awesome for the whatever episodes we have seen this season and looks as good as it was in the first 3 .But doing a live show and that too twice ,one for each coast and time difference,deserves praise. As always it was funny, entertaining and cerebral.
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