Fall TV: Season Premiere of the 2nd Season of 30 Rock

I never took the time to watch this show in its first season, which is kind of a shame. All these years, I bemoan the fact that not enough people watched another NBC TV show, "Homicide - Life On The Street." So now, I am compelled to support other low-rated shows that deserve bigger audiences. I feel it would be somewhat hypocritical to not watch these shows... Actually that reminds me, I need to watch the season premiere of "Friday Night Lights" this Friday. Somebody has stick up for these shows!

Anyway, "30 Rock" premiered tonight for its second season, a couple of weeks after it picked up the Emmy for Best Comedy Series. After watching tonight's episode, it feels like it was well deserved. This season starts off with everybody coming back from a more or less relaxing summer vacation. Liz Lemon (series creator Tina Fey) keeps telling everyone that she broke up with Floyd and that it was not a big deal (but we know what that means). Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan, any different from the character he plays?) is thrown out of his house because he picked up a transvestite hooker which his wife did not exactly approve of. And Jack Donaghy (the priceless Alec Baldwin) has the idea of digitally inserting Jerry Seinfeld in all of the shows on NBC. This season is off to a rather busy start!

"30 Rock" is clearly the flip side of last season's "Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip" which pretty much crashed and burned on takeoff. Both dealt with the backstage dramas of a late night comedy sketch show. But while "Studio 60..." tried to treat it in a dramatic way, "30 Rock" is all about the laughs, and it is nowhere as self-absorbed. There is no laugh track on this show, but it doesn't really need one, because you know where to laugh. The show is insidiously clever as it cheerfully lampoons both NBC and "Saturday Night Live" among other things.