I Came For Donald Glover, And Stayed For Jon Hamm!

30 Rock, S06E19

I haven't commented on 30 Rock much because I haven't thought this season was too funny, and I have enough unfunny things to discuss.  However, since they were doing their live show again and I heard that Donald Glover was going to make an appearance, I decided that it would have some good material.  The main story was about Kenneth trying to convince the TGS staff (minus Jenna) that it should remain a live show.  He used several examples of past TV to convince everyone.  Only Jack and Liz resisted agreeing until Tracy shared his first live appearance on a telethon where he realized how hilarious he was.  Jack and Liz also realized that Tracy's first live experience also impacted their careers and got them all where they were today.  In a side story, Jenna wanted to have Paul propose to her on live TV, but he was against it.  When he came around and did as he thought she wanted, she actually wanted what he originally desired and requested that he propose again to her in private.

I really did watch this episode for the guest stars.  I liked that Amy Poehler played teenage Liz.  She's just such a cute dork.  I miss all the nutty characters she used to play during her SNL career.  Not to say that I don't like her work on Parks and Recreation (one of my favorite shows now), but it's nice to be reminded of her past every now and then.  Jimmy Fallon, who I usually don't care for, was pretty good as a younger Jack too.  But mostly when he was talking, I was checking out the wide-eyed expression of Fred Armisen staring at the camera behind him.  Seeing him, I really wish that Portlandia was still airing new episodes.  He's so hilarious.  When I finally saw Donald Glover as a young Tracy Jordan, he was indeed cute, but not as funny as I was hoping.  If I had only had his part to enjoy (which was rather short) I would have been pretty disappointed watching this episode.

Who was a surprise guest for me (since the SNL buddies are pretty much a given and I'm not too interested in Paul McCartney) and made the episode great was Jon Hamm.  It was actually his hostings of SNL that made me give Mad Men a try.  He was just so handsome and hilarious on live TV, I thought he had to be good in a drama.  Anyway, Hamm, made that "Alfie and Abner" skit incredibly funny.  Blackface is usually something you don't want to see anyone doing, but Hamm pulled it off because he just looked so ridiculous in his overalls, afro, and stereotypical speech.  Besides, they were only poking fun at the Amos 'n' Andy show from back in the day, so there's no reason to take offense by it.  Tracy Morgan's serious and proud character opposite of Hamm acting like a cartoon character was comedy gold.  You gotta love when he hit him over the head with a chair!  And It was just as good when they were just staring tensely at each other and Tracy choked him when he said "banjo."  I couldn't stop laughing.  It's one of the funniest things I've seen in a while and definitely the funniest thing I've seen on 30 Rock the entire season.  Before they even showed the "Alfie and Abner" bit, Kenneth had a really good line:

For Alfie and Abner NBC hired one African American and one Caucasian because they thought two black people on the same show would make the audience nervous. A rule NBC still uses today.

 Best line of the whole show.  It makes me think of this old sketch from MAD TV (so old it was when UPN and WB were still networks, instead of the CW).  They were parodying Chris Rock and talking about how there aren't many black people on the major networks.  I'm not so sure if it's gotten better or worse, really.  Usually, I don't notice diversity issues (as long as the show is really good) until something in the show brings my attention to it.  But anyway, I'll post that sketch because I was a big fan of MAD TV:

Jenna's story wasn't that interesting, except that when Paul interrupted TGS show with his proposal, he was singing the popular "Zou Bisou Bisou" song from Mad Men as he descended from the sky.  I enjoyed that, as a fan of that show.  And I just like Will Forte in general.

Apparently Kim Karshadian appeared too, but I don't remember her.  Since I was waiting for Donald Glover, I pretty much ignored most of the other guest stars who weren't people I was happy to see.  I'm wondering if she was in that sketch when Alec Baldwin was playing this guy named Joey who was talking into the camera and seemed confused about where he was.  Oh, well.  I don't care for her anyway.

Although, I do enjoy most prerecorded shows better than the live ones like SNL, I do appreciate those kinds of shows for all of the surprises that can happen during them.  Maybe live television isn't as popular now as it was in the past, but I wouldn't like to see it become a complete relic of the past.  After all, growing up, I was a huge fan of watching such comics as Chris Farley and Adam Sandler every week.  This week's episode of 30 Rock, which is its best of all this year, really proves to me that, like Kenneth suggested, live TV is a necessary and amazing way to broadcast a TV show.  Hope they do another one next year (if they have a next year)!