For its seventh-season premiere, “30 Rock,†the sitcom that makes an art of self-loathing, went after one of its favorite targets on Thursday night: its own network, NBC. Returning for work on another season of the show-within-the-show, “TGS With Tracy Jordan,†Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) discovered that her boss, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), having despaired of fixing the network under its current Kabletown ownership, had decided to run it into the ground by programming the worst possible new shows. The only way to save NBC, he had decided, was to tank it.
Hence we were treated to glimpses or mentions of shows like “Hunchbacks,†“God Cop,†“O.J. Simpson Live†and “Cricket Night in America.†“30 Rock†loves to skewer NBC for its run of dismal ratings and the aura of general ineptitude it has acquired: Season 2 began with Jack promoting another idea to save NBC, SeinfeldVision, in which images of Jerry Seinfeld would be edited into all of the network's shows.
This new takedown was awkwardly timed, however: behind the singing competition “The Voice†and new shows like “Revolution†and “Go On,†NBC has actually been doing fairly well in the ratings in the early weeks of this season.
Thursday's episode was titled “The Beginning of the End,†as NBC has announced that this 13-episode run will be the show's last. While Liz gradually figured out Jack's dastardly plan, she also had to deal with throwing a last-second bachelorette party for a crazed Jenna (Jane Krakowski). A third story line involved Hazel (Kristen Schaal), the pervy page, dropping her top in an attempt to get Tracy (Tracy Morgan) to cast her in his new movie. (Liz announc ed that she and her boyfriend, Criss, were “trying†- presumably for a baby - but James Marsden did not appear in the episode as Criss.)
Let us know in the comments how you thought “30 Rock†performed as it embarked on its final, abbreviated season.
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