Last Laughs

What seven years of 30 Rock taught us about TV and ourselves

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But TV wasn't just a target for 30 Rock; it was the air its characters breathed, a source of memories, a language. It grounded the show's damaged characters. When Tracy needed therapy in Season 2 to work through childhood abandonment issues, NBC executive Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin)--in one of the funniest, least p.c. race-bending scenes of all time--role-played Tracy's entire family using the voices of characters from Good Times and Sanford and Son. (Tracy: "I'm mad at you, Dad!" Jack, as Redd Foxx: "Hey, dummy, I'm mad at you too!")

This fall, NBC has managed to crawl from the bottom of the broadcast ratings, which makes this a fitting time for the show's exit; it's hard to imagine a 30 Rock in the era of a successful NBC. The network, meanwhile, now says it wants "broader" sitcoms--ones with less-rarefied jokes and thus more viewers.

Those future shows may be more popular than 30 Rock. But it's hard to imagine any sitcom being broader in another sense. Fey showed us how TV is our home--a dysfunctional one but one that takes us with all our flaws. For all 30 Rock's snark, in the end it was weird, sweet Kenneth who captured the show's oddball generosity and heart. "There are only two things I love in this world," he said. "Everybody and television."

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