The reason why Jack Donaghy thought everything looked "like a Mexican soap opera" tonight?
30 Rock had gone live, of course!
The dual broadcasts—one East Coast, one West—actually resembled Saturday Night Live, complete with surprise cameos, silly commercials and the closing thank-yous, more than they did a telenovela, however.
But commercials for an album of love songs to combat erectile dysfunction, as sung by Dr. Spaceman, and criminal-hand-transplant awareness, featuring Jon Hamm, were far funnier than what SNL's been dishing out these days.
We swear on our mother's grape!
The episode, cleverly titled "Live Show," had a certain awkwardness to it—other than what normally radiates from Tina Fey's Liz Lemon—that won't be missed next week.
But the gags, both sight (Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Liz's better-looking memory self) and verbal (Kenneth telling Jenna "a Mr. Brett Fah-vray stopped by to drop off a picture of a hot dog") were spot-on as usual.
The Emmy-gobbling cast even offered up a few variations for the two time zones: Liz's "Seinfeld money"-buying doppelgänger angered Jack's assistant Jonathan with a Slumdog Millionaire joke on the East Coast and got him with an Aladdin reference on the West; Jack has a "drinking problem" on ET and is a "problem drinker" on PT; Hamm is attacked by a killer Frankenstein hand, then an amorous one three hours later, etc.
With Thursday's episode, 30 Rock joins the ranks of ER, Will & Grace, The West Wing, The Drew Carey Show, Roc and—going back to 1985—Gimme a Break!, all of which dared to go live in their heydays.