Rosemary's Baby (25 Oct. 2007)

Liz befriends a female comedy writer from the 1960s who was one of her idols, until she realizes how pathetic the woman's life is now. Meanwhile, Jack has to find a way to talk Tracy out of taking up dog fighting.

Director:

Michael Engler

Writers:

Tina Fey (creator), Jack Burditt

Stars:

Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Tina Fey	...	Liz Lemon
Tracy Morgan	...	Tracy Jordan
Jane Krakowski	...	Jenna Maroney
Jack McBrayer	...	Kenneth Parcell
Scott Adsit	...	Pete Hornberger
Judah Friedlander	...	Frank Rossitano
Alec Baldwin	...	Jack Donaghy
Katrina Bowden	...	Cerie
Keith Powell	...	Toofer
Lonny Ross	...	Josh Girard (credit only)
Carrie Fisher	...	Rosemary Howard
Paul Scheer	...	Donny Lawson
Jean Villepique	...	Suzanne Hocker
Maulik Pancholy	...	Jonathan
Kevin Brown	...	Dot Com

Storyline

Liz befriends a female comedy writer from the 1960s who was one of her idols, until she realizes how pathetic the woman's life is now. Meanwhile, Jack has to find a way to talk Tracy out of taking up dog fighting.

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Plot Keywords:

comedy writer | celebrity | workplace | sitcom | sketch | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Release Date:

25 October 2007 (USA)

Company Credits

Did You Know?

Trivia

Frank's trucker hat reads "Field Hockey Coach" and "Balls".

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Goofs

Toward the beginning of the episode, when Liz has having a flashback to a Laugh-In episode that featured Richard Nixon, the actor portraying the former president walks onstage saying "pardon me" several times to which one of the cast responds "You were already pardoned". This is an anachronism because Laugh-In went off the air May 14, 1973, President Ford's pardon of Nixon did not come until Sept 8, 1974 16 months that show's finale.

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Quotes

Tracy Jordan: Who's crazier? Me or Ann Curry?

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Connections

References Sanford and Son (1972)

User Reviews

"Dyn-o-mite!"

After seeing SeinfeldVision, I was fairly convinced no episode of 30 Rock's second season could improve on that kind of self-referential madness. How wrong I was: Rosemary's Baby is the standout of the show's second year, not to mention Alec Baldwin's golden ticket to receiving the Emmy Award he lost in 2007.

The episode kicks off with Liz attending a book-signing by Rosemary Howard (Carrie Fisher), a has-been comedy writer who greets Liz's offer to do some stuff for TGS with wild enthusiasm, although her racy ideas quickly clash with NBC standards and Jack's policy (even if he agreed to air a sketch about dog penises), leading to Liz's decision to quit and create a new show with Rosemary (a decision she regrets fast enough). Another problem tormenting Jack is Tracy's tendency to do the exact opposite of what people tell him (in this case: don't dogfight), an inconvenience he believes can be solved with therapy. Also, Jenna causes a mess with Kenneth, which almost degenerates into a trivia contest with the page's most bitter rival.

The appeal of the episode lies in how the actors are willing to make fun of themselves with all the ease in the world: Fey, of course, does that all the time, since the whole idea of the series derives from her experience at Saturday Night Live, but the major contributions come from Fisher and Baldwin: the former, a has-been in real-life as well, was Emmy-nominated for her loving deconstruction of her persona, on screen and off, culminating in the ultimate Princess Leia spoof ("Help me Liz Lemon, you're my only hope!"), beating the hell out of her equally smart cameo in Scream 3 (remember? She played an actress who didn't get the Leia part because she refused to sleep with George Lucas); the latter, almost always the funniest thing in the show, mocks his SNL impressions with a borderline mental therapy session scene where he ends up impersonating the most unexpected people (must be seen to be believed). Forget Glengarry Glen Ross or The Cooler: this is the definitive showcase of the full extent of his versatility. The well-deserved Emmy win confirms that beyond any doubt.