In their series Subway Heroes, Hayley and Victoria discuss anything and everything in the 30 Rock universe.
Hayley: 30 Rock is known for many great things, but the one that I think about all the time is the quality and variety of guest stars who have appeared on the show. Whether it’s a multi-episode arc or just a single, brilliant performance —sometimes it’s just a single scene or sentence — the guest stars really add a lot to how much fun this show is to watch.
I can’t go much further in a conversation about guest stars on 30 Rock without mentioning Carrie Fisher, my absolute favorite guest in one of my absolute favorite episodes. Carrie Fisher plays Rosemary Howard, a former TV writer and Liz Lemon’s idol. Rosemary has been out of the business for a while, for reasons that become apparent the longer the episode goes on. Rosemary inspires the brilliant, top-tier Jack Donaghy quote: “Never go with a hippie to a second location.”
The choice to use Carrie Fisher to play Rosemary has many layers of meta-contextualism, and that’s part of what makes the episode so good — that signature 30 Rock layer cake of jokes and references. Like the fact that the episode that Jennifer Aniston is on uses the Friends’ episode naming convention (“The One with The Cast of Night Court’) and the whole B-story is about a beloved, long-running NBC sitcom that didn’t get a satisfying ending.
30 Rock has always found incredibly satisfying ways to use its treasure trove of guest appearances. Victoria, what are some of your favorites?
Victoria: Since you mentioned Night Court, I just want to point out for our readers that NBC just announced they’re rebooting Night Court, something that actually happened on 30 Rock, further proving my point from our last 30 Rock issue about how everything is 30 Rock now.
Carrie is also in my top tier of one episode guest stars. A very small cameo that makes me laugh always is Jon Bon Jovi in “Anna Howard Shaw Day,” when Jack revealed Bon Jovi is NBC’s “artist in residence” and he has to appear on all the shows. We get a quick cutaway to Jon playing guitar on Nightly News. I also love Matthew Broderick as a late George W. Bush-era government employee who is at the end of his rope.
Rachel Dratch of course needs a mention, though she appears in many episodes as different guest characters (Rachel was apparently supposed to play Jenna, and this was some sort of compromise). My favorite of Rachel’s weird roles is as Barbra Walters in “The Rural Juror,” pronouncing those three words as ridiculously as you are imagining.
But the real highlights of the 30 Rock are the guests who come back again and again. Our favorite, Dennis Duffy, fits this bill. Every Dennis appearance is a gift. All of Liz’s boyfriends are wonderfully cast — Jason Sudeikis as “good guy” Floyd, Jon Hamm as a not-so-smart doctor, Michael Sheen as terrible Wesley, Matt Damon as Carol the uptight pilot and, of course, James Marsden as Criss.
But the best guest is Elaine Stritch as Jack’s mom, Colleen. She was nominated for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy at the Emmys five times, but sadly only won once. Colleen is acidic and mean, which only makes it more beautiful when she cracks and we see softness from her. In an early episode, they gave Jack siblings (Nathan Lane and Molly Shannon), but then later decided that he was better off as an only child, which was the correct call. The love-hate dynamic of the Colleen-Jack relationship is one of the best on the show!!
OK more guest stars go!!! Do any not work for you??
Hayley: I really love the quick appearances and cameos that happen on this show, like when Tracy is a guest on Conan O’Brien. Liz and Conan interact briefly and it’s implied that they used to date, and the way that Conan says “Let’s not do this, Elizabeth” kills me every time. I think that Conan does a good job of both being in our world and the world of the show. To me, the best 30 Rock cameos are the ones where the actors are playing themselves. Like the brief Ina Garten cameo when Liz is daydreaming about her ideal summer vacation.
I think I’m biased more towards the guest stars that come on during the first three seasons than those who come on later. It kind of started to feel like getting a guest spot on 30 Rock was this status thing for celebs to do to prove how funny or cool they were. The guest star arc that I am totally not interested in is when Julianne Moore shows up to play Nancy Donovan, Jack’s teenage crush from Boston. Although I really like the episode where they go to Boston for a week, I just don’t care about the Nancy-Avery-Jack love triangle.
Liz, as a whole, has a lot of wonderful actors playing her boyfriends, as you’ve mentioned. In the second “Queen of Jordan” episode, Tracy points out that he’s been married for 22 years and then says Liz is the village bicycle, before listing “Doctor guy, pilot guy, Cleveland dude, British guy, rich dude, James Franco…No judgments? But to me, Liz Lemon is a sex maniac.” I think overall Liz’s romantic interests are better cast than Jack’s, which isn’t to say that I don’t love or appreciate some of the actors who play Jack’s love interests! I think that by casting Isabella Rossellini as his ex-wife Bianca was incredible, but wow did it set a high bar for anyone who followed. Edie Falco as Democratic Congresswoman C.C. Cunnigham is probably my favorite of Jack’s romantic partners. I love that we have Condoleezza Rice yelling “Mars Attacks is awesome!” into Jack’s face.
Jan Hooks as Jenna’s mom, Verna, is also one of my all-time favorite appearances. I just don’t see this character being as effective if it is anyone but Jan Hooks, who manages to make this Florida panhandle showbiz mom and scammer ridiculously funny but always a little bit sad and human. And it lets you see why Jenna is the way she is, because wow is Verna someone to behold. Jan Hooks’ line deliveries are unparallelled, and two that always make me laugh are “I’ve been many things: a liar, a dental hygienist…” and when she tells Jack that her tattoo is “A mermaid, doin’ it with Captain Morgan.”
Other appearances that I love are: Eoin Bailey (who plays Maureen’s boyfriend in Center Stage!) as the Swiss escort Jack hires to get Liz back in the game after a breakup. Patti LuPone as Frank’s mom. Kelsey Grammar as bizarro Kelsey Grammar. Peter Dinklage as a guy who works at the UN and briefly dates Liz. LL Cool J as rapper and producer Ridikolus. And of course, Buzz Aldrin!
Victoria: Buzz Aldrin is the height of a celeb playing themself!! Thank you also for mentioning Jan, who doesn’t show up as often as Elaine but left a big mark.
The one guest star that I think doesn’t work is David Scwimmer as Greenzo. He’s supposed to be a failed actor who NBC hired as their Earth Day mascot. My personal, no evidence, theory about this episode is that they originally wrote it for David Schwimmer to play himself, and then he wasn’t game for actually making fun of himself, so they rewrote it. If he’d been brave enough to lampoon his post-Friends career, it could have been classic.
The “Queen of Jordan” episode is the ultimate pay-off for how good they are at guest stars, since they turn the whole show over to Sherri Shepherd, who was cast as Tracy’s wife Angie during her second appearance (Sorry, let’s take a moment to laugh about Tracy’s T’Angiers tattoo). Angie is joined by her own supporting cast, which included, most memorable, Tituss Burgess as D’Fwan. I feel like if you asked Tina Fey about it, she would deny watching The Real Housewives, but this episode is such a great tribute to the Bravo artform, and Sherri and Tituss shine!
The one time over-casting celebrity cameos really worked was the season three finale, when Jack’s biological dad he just discovered (Alan Alda!!) needs a kidney, so Jack organizes a “We Are The World”-style singalong to get one man a kidney. The song is great and features Adam Levine, Sara Bareilles, the Beastie Boys, Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Michael McDonald, Mary J. Blige, Clay Aiken, Steve Earle, Wyclef Jean, Norah Jones, Talib Kweli, Cyndi Lauper, Moby and more! Clay Aiken putting his arm around Elvis Costello to sing into one microphone together?? That’s comedy!!
The only one of Jack’s girlfriends/exes I actively don’t like is Elizabeth Banks as Avery. I got what they were going for, but it just never clicked for me, and I was glad when they finally wrote her out. Whereas I have never regretted someone Liz dated, including Wayne Brady, who she did not vibe with at all.
What is sort of miraculous about 30 Rock‘s guest star roster is that they use so many but it’s still the main characters’ show. They use them to enhance the bizarro world of the show and NBC, not to take away from it. They’re not covering over what’s weak about the show, but bringing in more funny people for their cast to play off of.
What Hayley Recs:
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Love in Color: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold was SUCH a delight to read. Bolu Babalola has perfectly reworked classic tales of love in this delightful book of feel-good short stories. She is also a mandatory Twitter follow.
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I enjoyed this Sarah Jaffe piece, Who Cares? about the status of childcare, teaching, and working before and during the pandemic.
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In her newsletter, Anne Helen Petersen has a really fascinating interview with Rebecca Lea Potts about the colonialism, “settler” aesthetics a\nd complicated intersections of Fixer Upper, Christianity, and of course, shiplap.
What Victoria Loves:
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Last month I got this cold cup from Target. It holds a whopping 25 oz, doesn’t spill when you knock it over, keeps your drink super cold, and is only $9. You need it.
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I’ve been listening to the audiobook of The Future Of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz, which is a feminist time travel story, and I recommend picking it up!
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I got this daisy top coat from Jinsoon and put it on bare nails with just a clear top coat last week. Every photo or video I have shared this week that has included even a glimpse of my nails has gotten me beaucoup compliments! Big recommend.
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