"30 Rock" is the Funniest Television Show Ever

My wife and I like to watch TV before bed. A lot of people do this. We keep it on after we fall asleep. We put on a sleep timer, but very rarely do one of us stay up to hear the TV shut off. We alternate which shows we pick before bed. We usually pick comedies that we have seen a bunch. It is like comfort food.

The show we are watching now is "30 Rock". This has to be the 10th or 11th time we are going through this show. I did not watch when it was airing in real time, but I knew of it. I think my folks probably watched it. We all love Tina Fey, so when she left "SNL" to do "30 Rock", I'm sure my folks were pumped. And even though I did not watch it in real time, as mentioned before, I have seen it a ton. I have watched it from start to finish many, many times. And I am here today to tell you that I think "30 Rock" might be the funniest show that has ever been on TV.

"30 Rock" is not my favorite show, that is "The Simpsons". And there are other shows I like more, but there is something about the writing on this show that makes me laugh harder with each watch. This show is filled with jokes. My wife read something a while back saying that "30 Rock" has the most jokes per minute in television history, or something like that. And I fully believe it. We are in season four right now and I find myself constantly chuckling at random things on this show.

I do have to say, "30 Rock" is one show that I have made it to the TV shutting off before I go to sleep. That is because I am laughing all the time. For example, we were watching an episode last night where some of the writers take advantage of Kenneth by making up a religion. Kenneth is bringing them a pizza and says, "the pizza needs to be served by a blonde virgin", and smiles and points at himself. It was fantastic. I was howling. And that is how this entire show is made up. In season one, or maybe two, Tracy Jordan talks about a Halloween parody he made and the show cuts to him singing one line from "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah". Not only is that genius, but they ended up making an entire song due to the popularity of this five second clip. When Tracy proclaims, "it is a show within a show! My real name is Tracy Morgan", I cannot help but crack up. I also walk around quoting that all the time. When Tracy's wife gets her own reality show, "Queen of Jordan", and says "HAM", it is perfect. Tina Fey wrote some incredible stuff for Alec Baldwin. One line that has always stuck out for me is when Jack is explaining how he climbed his way to the top stating, "that is why I worked the day shift at that graveyard and the night shift at the Day's Inn". I mean come on, that is next level brilliant.

In the end it is Liz Lemon, the way Tina Fey wrote her, that is as iconic a comedy character as it gets. She has all the juicy lines. She crushes the comedy. The line reads are a stroke of genius. I love every single thing about Liz Lemon. When she gets her own talk show and sings, "you're a star/you're on top/somebody bring me some ham", that is one of the funniest songs ever. When she tells Jack about "lizzing", the way she explains it is amazing. The way she and Pete play off one another is some of the best chemistry I have ever seen between friends and coworkers on TV. The stuff with her boyfriends, namely Dennis Duffy and Jon Hamm is so incredible. I mean, Liz Lemon is a genius character for TV.

I didn't even mention Jenna or Grizz and Dot Com or Dr Spaceman or the multiple people Will Forte has played on the show. And then you get the cameos. Everyone from Al Gore to Pee Wee Herman have shown up here and there.

I have found with each watch I gain even more respect for "30 Rock". It is such a great television show. It will go down as a classic. It is comedy television at its absolute best.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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The Greatest Television Ever: NBC Thursday Night Comedy

In the coming weeks and months, we at SeedSing will be doing our favorite TV shows. It will be a lot like our greatest American band debate, each week picking a show or a season or just particular moments from TV shows that we enjoy.

I'm going to kick it off today by talking about one of my favorite two hour blocks of TV on NBC. There was a time that the Thursday night line up on NBC had four of the best sitcoms that I've ever seen. It was epic, must watch TV for me and any other fan of comedic television. The four shows they trotted out were "30 Rock", "The Office", "Community" and "Parks and Recreation". Talk about a murderers row of great, great TV. These four sitcoms are all in my personal top ten of TV shows. I love these shows and I love them all for different reasons.

First we'd get "30 Rock". This show is one of the all time greats. Tina Fey is a genius. Her writing and acting are beyond genius. She's on a whole different level from any other sitcom writer I've ever seen. She is a legend. But, it wasn't just Tina Fey that made that show great. We got Tracy Morgan, Jane Krawkowski, Jack McBrayer and, of course, Alec Baldwin. Tina Fey basically revived both Morgan's and Baldwin's career with their roles on this show. And they were both fantastic. Any episode that revolved around Morgan's character, Tracy Jordan, was so hilarious and so well written. Anytime he interacted with McBrayer, or Grizz and Dot Com or with Liz Lemon or Jack Donaghy was great. Morgan's first appearance on the show, naked, except for underwear, freaking out on the highway, waving around a fake light saber, was a perfect introduction to his character. And when he tries to get the EGOT, that was a great run of episodes. Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy was the perfect representation of the arrogant, yet idiotic studio head that has no clue how to run a network. He was so great on this show. Two of my favorite lines spoken on a sitcom were said by him. The first, Liz asks him why he's dressed so nicely and he says, "it's after six, what am I, a farmer?", loved it. The only line I like better is when Donaghy is talking about his hard working father and he says, "he worked the day shift at the graveyard and the graveyard shift at the Days Inn", that is exquisite writing. I love "30 Rock" and I could go on forever about it, but I need to talk about the other three shows.

After "30 Rock", we got "The Office". This is my second favorite show of all time, behind only "The Simpsons". When this show was great, it was the best thing on TV. Seasons 1-4 of "The Office" is some of the best TV that's ever been aired. We got three phenomenal episodes in those first four seasons. In season one they had the episode where the sales team challenged the warehouse workers to a game of basketball. It was so good. Michael Scott(Steve Carrell) warming up and then playing basketball is so god damn funny. I love that episode. Season two gave us "The Dundies". That was the award show that they had for the employees of Dunder Mifflin. It was cringe worthy comedy, with Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute(Rainn Wilson), emceeing this train wreck. It was so funny and it was the first time that Jim(John Krasinski) and Pam(Jenna Fischer) kissed. This episode is great. The best episode of "The Office" came in season four. The episode titled, "Dinner Party", is the most uncomfortable 44 minutes of brilliant comedy ever written. Michael and Jan(Melora Hardin) constantly fighting while they have four employees over to their condo is so good, yet so uncomfortable. I still love this episode to this day. It is excellent comedy. I adore "The Office" and it will always hold a special place in my heart. It is the second greatest show of all time, in my personal opinion.

Then, we got the weird, off the wall, bizarre comedy, "Community". At first glance, I didn't think Id really like this show, but the more I watched it, the more I grew to love it and look forward to it every week. Joel McHale finally got his chance to be the lead role on a show and he did it so well. He is criminally underrated for his work on that show. But the other actors were just as good. Danny Pudi. Gillian Jacobs, Donald Glover, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong were great. Alison Brie and Yvette Nicole Brown were also really good. The only person I didn't really care for was Chevy Chase, but he's an asshole. I loved the off beat humor that Dan Harmon brought to major network TV with "Community". The show was an almost perfect representation of community college life. I could relate to the people because I ran into the exact same people in my almost two years of community college. There were athletes, nerds, regular joes, old people and good looking ladies that never got into a four year school, so they had to go to community college. Sure, "Community" is a glorified version of community college, but they made it relatable, especially when Dan Harmon was the main writer and show runner. They had ups and downs, but there were way more ups than downs when it comes to "Community". And yes, the paintball episodes are as good as the fans say they are. Go back and watch those and be amazed at how well "Community" was done. It's an underrated cult classic show.

NBC would close the night with probably my third all time favorite show, "Parks and Recreation". This show is a classic that only got better and better the more seasons it got. I loved the first season, but each season that followed was better than the last. This show was the exact representation of what it's like to work for a parks and recreation department. My sister in law, that works for Columbia's parks and rec department, even confirmed this. Ron Swanson(Nick Offerman) and Tom Haverford(Aziz Ansari) are real representations of people that take government jobs in parks and rec and just sail from there. They don't take their jobs seriously at all because it's not a serious job. They plan parties and races and community gatherings, not that tough of a job. Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope was the perfect post "SNL" role for her. She was so, so good on that show. She excelled. When shows bring new people on, it's usually a bad sign, but the additions of Rob Lowe, whom I've written about before, and Adam Scott made this show that much better. Rob Lowe, as the always upbeat and exercising Chris Traeger, was the perfect foil for Ron Swanson. and Adam Scott as Ben Wyatt, failed mayor and Leslie's love interest, was perfect. When these two showed up, "Parks and Rec" went to a whole new level. Chris Pratt, Retta, Aubrey Plaza and later on, Jon Glaser and Billy Eichner were also excellent on the show. I love every episode of "Parks and Rec", there isn't a bad one. If you haven't seen it and you're looking for a starting point, start at the end of season two, when Rob Lowe and Adam Scott show up, that's when the show went from good to great.

So, there you have the first entry in our greatest TV choices on SeedSing. I figured I'd come out of the gates strong, and this Thursday night lineup is a slam dunk. Come back for more TV later. I already am writing "The Simpsons" blog in my head now.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He desperately wanted to add "Andy Barker P.I." to his list, but then realized the show was no "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Tracy Morgan brings some glory back to SNL

Tracy Morgan is bringing comedy sunshine the dark landscape that has been SNL.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming from me.

I know I've been blogging a lot about basketball and sports lately, and I'm still going to do that, but now I'm going to get back into the groove and give you pop culture from a lot of different angles. I'll get back to movies, TV shows, music and everything else starting today.

Today, I'm going to tell you about the sheer greatness that was last Saturday's SNL. Tracy Morgan, making his triumphant return to TV, crushed as the host of the 41st seasons third episode. The season premiere, featuring Miley Cyrus wasn't very good, and Amy Schumer did a better job on the second episode, but Tracy Morgan, hosting the third episode, hearkened SNL back to it's glory days. He seemed so comfortable and calm on that stage. This was the perfect place for him to make his official return to TV. As I written before, he's most comfortable at 30 Rockefeller Center and that's where his career took off, both on SNL and "30 Rock".

I did want to touch on the cold open before I get to the meat of the episode. My wife and I usually never watch cold opens because they're always political and we, quite frankly, don't care for humor involving politics. But, due to some social media searching, we both found out Larry David would be making an appearance. I'm a HUGE Larry David fan and this piqued my interest. So, we watched the cold open, hoping that it would be worth it, and boy was it totally worth it. David played Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. I can't think of a better character for him to play besides himself. This was a grand slam, getting David not only to appear, but also to play his doppleganger, Bernie Sanders. He was absolutely hilarious, and had you told me the lines David was reciting were actual Sanders quotes, I would've believed it. Bernie Sanders is a total nut job, and Larry David played that almost as perfect as comedian James Adomian does. Seriously people, if you liked David's impression, check out James Adomian's impression, it's better. Needless to say, the cold open set the tone for this being a really, really good episode. Oh, and I didn't even mention that Alec Baldwin showed up playing, a senator I think, named Jim Webb. But, David's appearance outshined everyone else on the stage.

Now, let's get to the return of Tracy Morgan. First of all, during the monologue, he started to talk as if he had a stroke. I was taken aback, but he immediately said he was joking and I was already laughing. The monologue was very good. None of the singing that usually goes on now, in fact, he talked about his old show "30 Rock" being prophetic about his accident. Which reminds me, he said that maybe the accident made him smarter because he now knew what prophetic meant and how to use it in a sentence. Back to the "30 Rock" episode. It was on the same stage, obviously it wasn't a real "30 Rock" episode, and cameos were made by Tina Fey, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer and Alec Baldwin once again. They all reprised their roles from the show and talked about Tracy Jordan being in an accident. Morgan appeared as Jordan and let everyone know he was okay. This bit was played to many laughs. And, it's always good to have old friends and cast members appear on SNL. Pretty much all of the sketches were hilarious, and they brought back two beloved characters that Morgan played while part of the cast.

The first character they brought back was Brian Fellows. They did the Brian Fellows Show and anyone who watched when Morgan regularly did the show, knows how insane and bizarre this sketch is. It was just as crazy, with Fellows at one part, accompanied by a dream bubble, thinking about a beaver smoking cigarettes. He also yelled his titular line, "I'M BRIAN FELLOWS!".

It was great. During Weekend Update, we got a cameo from Tina Fey, hilariously making fun of Playboy not being a nudie magazine anymore. She even showed off some of the poses she always wanted to do, if she ever got a chance to pose for Playboy. During Weekend Update, while Michael Che was talking to his always upbeat neighbor, Willie, Morgan showed up as the bum who thinks he's way more important than he really is, Woodrow. Woodrow was Willie's life coach and the two of them sang a sweet, but very sad song. This was a great use of this character.

Some of the other good sketches were, one where, it was set up like a musical and all the cast members were joyously singing what they were doing. Well, when Morgan showed up, he sang what was literally on his mind. For example, one of his lyrics were, "I just peed". It was so weird, but Morgan made it funny because that's what he does. There was another weird sketch that Morgan made work called "Where's Jackie Chan At?". Morgan and Keenan Thompson played two guys that simply asked the question, where's Jackie Chan at. They had callers and even a person to person chat with Chris Tucker, played excellently by Jay Pharoah, and no one knew where Jackie Chan currently was. I loved this sketch, because I'm still trying to figure out, where's Jackie Chan at. They did one of their premade videos and it was very funny. The "movie" featured Pharoah, Shasheer Zamata, Taran Killam and Morgan. Killam and Zamata are a couple at the bar and Killam's character is clearly upset. Apparently, Morgan's character said something to her in passing and Killam was waiting for the right time to broach the situation. He finally does, and it's revealed that Morgan's character wants to dance. They keep saying, "you want to dance", insinuating a fight, but Morgan literally means dancing. He even has ballet flats on to prove how serious he is. They get into a whole back story about how Morgan's dad never let him dance, and made him act tough, and finally Zamata says she will dance with him because his story is so sad, but Morgan says he needs to dance with Killam because, "I can't lead, I don't know how". It ended with the two of then getting ready to dance, it was pretty funny.

The best sketch of the entire show was the first sketch after the monologue. They did a "Family Feud" sketch and I was in stiches the whole time. First of all, if there's a better impersonation of Steve Harvey than what Keenan Thompson does, I haven't seen it. He does a spot on Harvey impression, going so far as to call everyone player. It's great. During this sketch, we find out that the two families involved in the game are Tracy Morgan's new family, he got divorced six months prior, and his ex wife and three kids. This was a very, very funny premise for a sketch. We first met Morgan's ex wife, played by Leslie Jones. She's a star and needs to be on this show much, much more often. The kids are played by Pharoah, Zamata and Che. Morgan's new wife and family were as lily white as they come. His new wife was played by Cecily Strong and his kids were the new cast member, his name escapes me at the moment, and Vanessa Bayer. The only question asked during the feud was, "name something someone forgets". Jones rings in first and exclaims, "COMMITMENT!", clearly still upset about the divorce. She gets the answer right and her family gets to play. Pharoah answers, "not coming to your son's clarinet recital because it's not manly" and Zamata says, "not being there as a male role model, so now I have to strip". They each get strikes, and when they get to Che, he's gone to the other family because, "they're happy and always smiling". The whole time, Morgan is yelling back at his ex wife and children and it's hilarious. This was a great sketch to open with.

Obviously, I loved this episode. Tracy Morgan was phenomenal and exceeded my expectations by a million miles. I'm so, so happy that he's healthy and back doing what he loves. The comedy world has missed you Tracy Morgan, but your future looks bright after your triumphant return to SNL.

Welcome back.

"The Jim Gaffigan Show" Season Finale and Looking Forward to Season 2

All set for the next great show

This past Wednesday the season finale of the first season of "The Jim Gaffigan Show" aired.

I wrote about the show after the premiere and, as I wrote back then, I really enjoyed the episode. The season only got stronger as the first season went on. The show consistently got better and funnier. Gaffigan is a hilarious comedian and he and his wife wrote a very, very good show. Michael Ian Black and Adam Goldberg were pretty fantastic in their roles. Michael Ian Black was Jim's wife's ex boyfriend. It's quickly revealed that he's gay now and he and Jeanie are best friends. He's a realtor, but that's not what made him so good in this role. He and Jim Gaffigan are not friendly towards each other. Their scenes together are great. Every time they were on screen together, it was hilarious. Adam Goldberg plays Jim's comic friend Dave that still lives with his mom in her nursing home. He's the complete opposite of Jim Gaffigan. He has no wife and kids, therefore, no responsibilities. I didn't know what to expect from Goldberg in this role, he seems like an intense dude, but he was really, very funny. I enjoyed him a lot. Ashley Williams plays Jeanie, Jim's wife. As I mentioned in my previous blog, she's really excellent on this show. I knew nothing of her before, but I really liked her on this show. Besides Jim Gaffigan, she was the best one on the show by far.

There's other primary characters, the Gaffigan's nanny, the people that work at the deli, the children, but the one non main cast member I want to point out was Macauly Caulkin. He played himself and he would show up in random spots throughout the season. He was an employee at a coffee shop, you saw him walk out of Scores Strip Club with a date, he showed up at a party full of comics, and he made an appearance in the finale hanging out with Alec Baldwin. It was so bizarre and excellent. I loved that he took this role, and the fact that he played it so well. Kudos to Macauly Caulkin.

But, I'm here to talk about the finale. It was really good. The show has already been renewed for a second season, so I think this kept the writers and actors at ease, and they all had a really good time doing this episode. The finale started with Jim Gaffigan and Dave going to lunch at the Katz Deli they frequent throughout the season. Dave is telling him that he's going to Melbourne, Australia for the Melbourne Comedy Festival. It's a one month commitment and Jim lets him know that he turned down his offer because of his wife and kids. He has five children after all. They both run into another comic, John Mulaney, and he and Dave are talking about the great time they're going to have in Melbourne. Gaffigan seems jealous of what the two of them are planning. He definitely wants to go, but he just can't. His house is also all getting over the stomach flu, adding more insult to the injury of him not being able to go to Melbourne. This does produce a hilarious line from Gaffigan talking to Dave. Dave is "scared" to visit his house because it's "crawling with disease" and Gaffigan counters this by saying, "you ever puked while having diarrhea? You go right through the five hole". Absolutely hilarious. Gaffigan returns home and all the kids may or may not have lice. There was an out break at the school and Jeanie, always one to over prepare, is making sure no one has lice. This annoys Gaffigan. He is tasked to watch one of the kids in the tub and he looks away for a split second and another one of his children throws his laptop in the full bathtub. This makes Gaffigan extremely angry. He's yelling at his wife and kids and he needs to leave the house to get some air. He feels like he's suffocating. While out, he runs into his preacher and tells him, in a fit of rage, that he wishes he never had a wife and kids. He then sees Steve Buscemi about to get hit by a bunch of bicyclists, steps in the way and he gets knocked out. Then, the "Scrooged" effect comes into play. Buscemi plays his guardian angel and takes him around town in a world where he never met Jeanie and they never had kids. In this world he's a filthy comic, we all know Gaffigan works clean, and his comic friends hate him. He has a full head of hair, but he looks like an a hole frat boy. He now lives with Dave. In this universe, Dave is the responsible one, threatening to kick Gaffigan out if he doesn't stop bringing home loose girls and not paying his part of the rent. His preacher thinks he's a crazy homeless person and doesn't try to help him. But, in Gaffigan's mind, the worst thing of all, Jeanie owns a bar and is married to Michael Ian Black's character, who's put on a lot of weight. Jeanie looks like a punk rocker and proclaims to Jim that she would never marry him and that she hates kids. Meanwhile, Michael Ian Black is a huge fan of Gaffigan's and tells him his standup is not only great, but it makes him love all food. Everything is different, for the worse. After the Jeanie from this universe claims she hates kids, she punches Jim in the face. This takes us back to present day in real time. Gaffigan wakes up, realizes everything is normal again and immediately runs home. We get to his house and his real wife Jeanie is cooking in the kitchen. His real children all come to hug him and Gaffigan is happy once again. When Jeanie asks him why he's acting so weird, he says he had a dream that a television network filmed a bunch of actors portraying their real lives. Then, the cast of "The Gaffigan Show" all appear and start singing "Auld Lyn Syng". They all proclaim they're excited for season two and the finale ends.

It was a great ending to a great first season of "The Jim Gaffigan Show". I'm excited for season two and I'm happy that Jim Gaffigan has a platform to put his family friendly standup and stories on the air. Thanks TV Land and Nickelodeon. You guys made a great choice. And thank you Jim and Jeanie Gaffigan for sharing these excellent stories with us.

Bring on season two.

Ty

Ty is the pop culture editor for SeedSing and the co host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Ty does not envy the choices one makes when they have diarreha and have to puke. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.