I finally got around to watching the first season of 30 Rock!!!
- I can’t stand pilot episodes! I watch them and I think “ugh” and then I usually don’t watch the show until a season or two later, and then I kick myself for not sticking with it. The Office pilot felt like a mediocre copy of the original (using the same script didn’t help) , the Parks & Recreation pilot felt like a mediocre Office copy, and the 30 Rock pilot just felt too cutesy to me when I originally saw it. It’s not bad, now that I can appreciate it in hindsight of what the show later became, but it still feels weird.
- Ughh why is Rachel Dratch playing every single non-recurring female character
- I noticed they were more into percussion-heavy establishing music this season
- It’s hard to say when it evolves from embryonic 30 Rock into 30 Rock. The fifth episode, maybe?
- Former 30 Rock writer / current Community star Donald Glover appears briefly in that episode
- I like the dropped “paging [actor] to the stage for [name of a terrible-sounding skit]” running gag even though it definitely feels like the writers were thinking “oh no, there’s a 3-second stretch of no dialogue, better throw in an extra joke”