Why 30 Rock is the Best New Show on TV

There are very few sitcoms nowadays that can make me literally laugh out loud. After the departure of Will & Grace, I thought I was doomed to sit stone faced as my parents watched Everybody Loves Raymond. I just didn't get it. Where were all the funny sitcoms? Then 30 Rock came along. Starring Saturday Night Live alumni Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Chris Parnell, Jason Sudeikis, and the hilarious Tracy Morgan (as Tracy Jordan), 30 Rock has the laugh-out-loud comedy of shows like The Simpsons and yes, Saturday Night Live.

The show is centered around a fake live sketch show, very similar to SNL, and stars Alec Baldwin, who is surprisingly very funny. The writers are really superb, and it makes me wonder why no one thought of this idea sooner. Tina Fey is super funny as Liz Lemon, and Alec Baldwin is great as Jack. That is simply what makes the show so great: instead of having one funny character, on 30 Rock, every character is funny.

One of the best episodes was when Tracy Jordan (played of course by Tracy Morgan) discovered that he was somehow a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson, so he decided to take it upon himself to make a movie about our country's third president in which Tracy played all the parts himself - think Big Mamma's House meets Primary Colors. Tracy then pitches the idea to the network, and they of course say no, so he makes a movie trailer to show the head of the network, and in the movie trailer he describes Thomas Jefferson as - among other things - a "Jungle-Fever Haverer". In another episode Jack asks Tracy if he knows "Arsenio", to which Tracy replies, "Hall or Billingham?" to which Jack asks, "You know someone named Arsenio Billingham?" to which Tracy replies, stone faced, "No."

To be honest, I don't think die-hard conservative right-wingers will like this show, because it's very openly a leftist kind of show. In another episode, Jack (Alec Baldwin) says something about Condoleeza Rice accidentally hanging up on him, to which Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) replies, "It must be hard to get cell phone reception when she's so far up the president's butt!" I'd better stop because I'm not doing the show justice.

Recently, one of my favorite actors of all time, Sean Hayes (Jack, Will & Grace), played a guest role on 30 Rock. He played Kenneth-the-page's bumpkin cousin who holds Tracy hostage after Tracy leaves town thinking that the "Black Crusaders" are after him. That episode was particularly funny when Tracy tells the everyone that the "Black Crusaders" are after him: "You know," he says, "The Black Crusaders...Oprah, Bill Cosby, and Gordon from Sesame Street."

The season finale aired a few weeks ago but you can watch every episode in its entirety at NBC.com (although you may need to update your Shockwave program or their player won't work on your computer...I learned that the hard way). There were some unfortunate rumors about Alec Baldwin wanting to opt out of his contract with NBC to pursue other endeavors but I sincerely hope that doesn't happen. Because, as Kenneth-the-page tells Pete on 30 Rock's pilot episode, "I just love television so much."