30 NT NEWS. Monday, November 15, 2010. www.ntnews.com.au

PU

B:

NT

NE

WS

DA

TE

:1

5-N

OV

-20

10

PA

GE

:3

0C

OL

OR

:C

MY

K

30Rockcastliven up

Alec Baldwin

LIVE TV

By GEOFF SHEARER

YOU would expect a 30Rock live-to-air episode tocontain nothing less than agaggle of gags about live-to-air TV.

Right off the bat, the firstset-up in Jack Donaghy’s(Alec Baldwin) office startswith him asking: ‘‘Does itseem weird in here toyou?’’ in reference to thelighting which is less slickfor live TV.

‘‘Everything looks like aMexican soap opera.’’

Not that we saw this epi-sode live last week, ofcourse. It went out live inthe US on October 14. Actu-ally, it went out twice. Oneversion for the east coastand one performed liveagain three-hours later forthe west coast.

It was clever in beingsomewhat of a pastiche ofother ‘‘live’’ comedies.

And this, don’t forget, isa sitcom about behind thescenes on a show like Sat-urday Night Live. Startingto get a bit trippy in an In-ception kind of way.

Not only is there directreference to shows filmedin almost vaudeville stylein front of a live audience— The Carol Burnett Showand Happy Days — but thesubplots are the hack-neyed stuff of ‘‘golden mo-ments’’ comedy.

Apart from a boom-microphone shadow in anelevator scene, this epi-sode pretty much went offwithout a hitch.

30 Rock, SCTV, Thursday,

10.30pm