By Curt Schleier
I finally figured out why 30 ROCK is the funniest show on television. It’s because Tina Fey isn’t selfish. If you didn’t know who she was or what she did and watched the show for the first time, you’d think Fey was just a supporting player among many – the one who doesn’t get anything funny to say.
It’s not often that the person who creates a series and serves as its show runner (that means she supervises everything) as Fey does, so willingly accepts a secondary role -- straight woman, not star. Holding your ego in check is a very difficult and usually under-appreciated job; Fey does it exceptionally well. She’s the glue that holds 30 ROCK together. Her ability (and humility) to let everyone else around her shine is what makes this ensemble work so well.
And she has another important talent – the ability to get scathing humor that makes fun of NBC’s parent company, GE, past the network censors. She scores again this week with “Greenzo,” which mocks the network’s real-life Green is Universal marketing campaign. (It’s a play on the word “universal,” the movie company that GE also owns and combined with the TV network to form NBC Universal.)
When Jack Donaghy (Alex Baldwin) announces that the network is going green, Liz Lemon innocently asks, “To save the planet?”
Actually, no. The idea is to “drain the remainder of its resources.” GE’s top honcho, Don Geiss, is “pitting all the divisions against each other to see who can save the earth while making the most profits.”
Donaghy’s idea is for a sports team-like mascot named Greenzo, who is “non-judgmental (and) business-friendly.” Jack hires an out-of-work actor named Jared (David Schwimmer), who is thrilled to be working again. His one regret: “”I just wish my mother were still alive – so I could rub it in her face.”
Meanwhile, Kenneth the page (Jack McBrayer) wants to have another party, oblivious to the fact that everyone thinks his shindigs are boring. But Tracey Jordan (Tracy Morgan) feels sorry for him, and starts a rumor that suddenly makes the party a hot ticket. Instead of being boring it becomes a drunken bacchanal that includes a brief reprise of “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah.”
But you don’t have to be at the party to be going a little crazy. Some people believe Pete Hornberger (Scott Adsit) is having an affair? He’s been staying with Lemon while he’s separated with his wife and seems so different, “acting all happy and full of life.”
Lemon comes home unexpectedly to find Pete in her bed with his wife. They’ve been dating and rekindling their romance. They also use pop tarts. Lemon had found one earlier in the day and taken a bite – clearly not knowing where it had been. Apparently getting caught hasn’t dampened the Hornsbergers’ ardor. In fact, Pete asks Liz to “come home early tonight. Paula wants to get caught again.”
Finally, Jared/Greenzo has turned psychotic, taking his role as the planet’s savior far too seriously. So Jack tries to convince guest star Al Gore to take over for Greenzo. After revealing the unlikely – that Jack was an intern for Ted Kennedy years ago – Gore suddenly picks his head up and holds his hand to his ear – as though he hears something off in the distance. “A whale is in trouble,” he says, “I have to go.”
A drunken Greenzo comes to the set and inadvertently sets a globe on fire, prompting some one to say, “The earth is ruined; we need to get another.”
A perfect ending to a perfect show.