30 Rock is one of those shows that seems to have found more fans after going off the air. The wild and hilarious sitcom about the mayhem behind the scenes of a late-night sketch show never got huge ratings but is now a show fans rewatch over and over again.
While the show is fun to revisit, like any show, some aspects age better than others. And yet there are also those parts of the show that remain as funny as ever even after all these years. Here are some things in 30 Rock that have aged poorly and some that remain timeless.
Aged Badly: Later Seasons
30 Rock is one of those shows that was hilarious and entertaining for the majority of its run but dropped off in quality during the end. It’s a common dilemma for long-running and beloved shows. They begin to run out of ideas and lose sight of what made it so great in the first place.
It feels a bit unfair to criticize the show too harshly as it gave us so many great episodes. But most fans would agree that the final seasons are a major letdown from the brilliant early seasons.
Timeless: Making Fun Of NBC
Though the show is too outrageous to be considered close to reality, a lot of it is inspired by the real-world. The initial concept of the show is inspired by Tina Fey’s experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live. The fictional TGS show is even on NBC, the same network as SNL and 30 Rock.
While setting the show within the business world of NBC might seem like self-promotion, 30 Rock has a great time poking fun at its own network. The NBC of 30 Rock is always depicted as a chaotic, low-rated disaster that produces some truly awful shows. It’s a fun bit of meta-commentary that makes for some hilarious moments.
Aged Badly: Gay Characters
Though the show often poked fun at narrow-minded people who exclude others, 30 Rock itself was not always so open-minded. One of the most problematic aspects of the show was its depiction of gay characters.
While the show championed gay rights issues, most of the characters who were seen as gay were made to be a punchline. While the show was a comedy, it seemed to suggest that simply being gay was something to laugh at. While 30 Rock is hardly the only show guilty of such jokes, it does stick out badly on repeat viewings.
Timeless: The Mystery Of Kenneth
Kenneth the NBC page is one of the most entertaining characters on the show. A highly enthusiastic do-gooder, he was first introduced as a naïve young man from the country who is eager to please. But as the show went on, the character kept getting more bizarre and hilarious.
Despite looking younger than almost everyone else, the show continuously drops hints that Kenneth is actually very, very old. The frequent and vague mentions of his unusual upbringing and unspecified cult-like religion just add to the hilariously outlandish mystery of the character that is never solved.
Aged Badly: North Korea Storyline
Part of what made those later seasons of the show so disappointing was the ridiculous storylines that were introduced. The show has often embraced outrageous storytelling but these moments felt like too much.
One particular storyline involved Jack’s wife Avery, a journalist, being taken prisoner in North Korea. It was ridiculous enough at the time but now it’s hard to look at the storyline in a comedic way. With the humanitarian issues of North Korea, the fear of the country’s leaders and the fact that actual journalists have been detained in North Korea, it just doesn’t seem funny.
Timeless: Tracy’s Movie Career
A lot of the insanity of the show is thanks to the character of Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan). The out-of-control and unpredictable comedy star is always starting fires that the other characters are forced to put out. While his life seems like a total mess, he has built a memorable career.
One of the best running gags on the show is Tracy talking about his many and presumably awful movies. There’s his kung-fu film Who Dat Ninja?, a movie in which he plays an overweight grandmother called Honky Grandma be Trippin’, and Fat Bitch in which he plays a talking dog.
Aged Badly: Political Divide
A large part of the conflict and banter from the show comes from the different perspectives of Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) and Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). While Liz is a progressive Liberal, she is forced to work for a brash and arrogant Republican.
This dynamic made for some very funny moments in the early seasons as their viewpoints clashed in amusing ways. Sadly, the political divide in America has gotten worse since the show has been on the air. It’s harder to make light of these differences when the country is so polarized by politics.
Timeless: Liz And Jack
Though they start off on poor terms, the relationship between Liz and Jack is one of the best aspects of the show. Fey and Baldwin have amazing chemistry, playing off each other so well. Their scenes together are often the funniest and most compelling in the show.
It is a real joy to watch their bond strengthen over time and develop into one of the best duos on television. However, the show refreshingly avoided ever making these two a romantic item, keeping their relationship a great professional friendship.
Aged Badly: The Cerie Obsession
Cerie is one of the characters who had been on the show since its very beginning. She is a very attractive young assistant working in the office. While there are some funny jokes throughout the series about how much longer Cerie is than the others, she is mostly just there for the other male characters to stare at.
Apart from the lack of character development, Cerie being the object of obsession for all these men is very creepy, especially since the show keeps pointing out that she is much younger. There is even an episode in which Liz tells Cerie she needs to dress more appropriately instead of telling the men in the office to stop being creeps.
Timeless: The Side Characters
The central characters on 30 Rock are all hilarious and entertaining, but it is the wacky side characters that really make the show so special. Liz, Jack, and the others share this world with a bunch of strange and outlandish people that makes everything that much more interesting.
There is Dr. Leo Spaceman, an incompetent and oblivious doctor to most of the main characters. There is Colleen, Jack’s overbearing and fiery mother. And, of course, there’s Liz’s on-again-off-again disaster of a boyfriend, Dennis Duffy.
