This month's celebrity Tour of Contrition: The Alec Baldwin Edition has officially kicked into gear.

The 30 Rock star appeared in a pretaped interview on The View Friday to discuss the expletive-laced voicemail he left for his 11-year-old daughter earlier this month, appearing in all his soft-spoken, remorseful glory to apologize for the outburst and acknowledge the error of his message-leaving ways.

"Obviously, calling your child a pig or anything else is improper and inappropriate, and I apologize to my daughter for that," he said. "There's nothing wrong with being frustrated or angry about the situation. It's the way you do it, and as people often do in this world, I took it out on the wrong person."

Baldwin also said that, while he was not defending his eruption, it was important to note that the unleashing of verbal abuse on his daughter was a one-time occurrence.

"In my own case, with this message, I had never done this before in my life."

A sincere Baldwin wisely opted not to justify his behavior, but did mention the support he's received from fellow fathers in the wake of the leak.

"I've had a lot of people say to me that if all of us were to lose our custody rights because you said something inappropriate, we would have a parentless society, basically."

While the 49-year-old actor also said he knows "the guy that's responsible" for leaking the audio online last week, he refused to name names—which is a new tact for the star. When the message was first released, Baldwin blamed his ex-wife Kim Basinger for being behind the tape's release, though Basinger has since denied the allegation.

Still, while Baldwin failed to invoke Basinger's name during his View chat, he nonetheless insinuated that her role in his parental alienation—a topic he is writing a book about, such is the extent of his experience—was what led him to the high-profile tongue-lashing, claiming Basinger manipulated their daughter into refusing to speak with him.

"What you learn in parental alienation is that affection for the alienated parent or loyalty to the alienated parent is portrayed as betrayal of the custodial parent," an emotional Baldwin explained to Barbara Walters and Rosie O'Donnell. "And that parent communicates in very subtle and not so subtle terms that this person is not a part of my life and I don't want anything to do with them and I don't want you to, either.

"And they violate court orders," he said. "They force you to keep this thing going, and this is why—and this is the last thing I'll say about this—this is why I'd sit in rooms years ago when this process began for me, and men would look at me and the tears would well up in their eyes and they were men who loved their children and, prior to their divorce, no one had doubted that they had loved their children."

Baldwin is doing his best to ensure no one doubts he loves his own child, despite the fact that he likely won't be making any Father of the Year shortlists.

Such is the actor's dedication to Ireland that he also told the audience he had been "begging" NBC to release him from his 30 Rock contract so as not to hurt the show and to be able to more fully devote himself to parenting.

"If I never acted again, I couldn't care less," said Baldwin, who has won a Screen Actors Guild award and a Golden Globe for the NBC sitcom. "My dream is to walk out of this studio and do something better with my life."

His trip to the unemployment line will have to wait—after his interview was taped Wednesday and his comments leaked, NBC released a statement saying Baldwin was "an important part" of the show and would be carrying out his contract.

Baldwin also took time this week to consult with Dr. Phil McGraw, after the TV psychologist appeared on Larry King Live this week and offered to help Baldwin and Basinger work through their issues.

McGraw told E! News anchor Ryan Seacrest on his Los Angeles radio show that Baldwin had phoned McGraw Thursday morning.

"He's fighting an uphill battle," McGraw told Seacrest. "He did tell me that his number one priority is sustaining his relationship with his daughter. This is an important point—he didn't say he wants to fix his relationship with her, because there's nothing to fix."

McGraw went on to describe the incident as being "out-of-character" for his new close friend and said that Ireland, and Baldwin's relationship with her, remained the actor's "number one priority."

McGraw also took time to echo Baldwin's View-voiced sentiments on jumping the 30 Rock ship, explaining that "being in New York, doing what he's doing, makes it difficult for him" to maintain a healthy relationship with his California-dwelling daughter.

Baldwin and Basinger have spent the past five years entrenched in one of Hollywood's most notoriously acrimonious custody battles over their only child.

Both are scheduled to appear in court May 4 to reassess Baldwin's visitation rights in the wake of the scandal.