Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: 30 Rock - season 4 (2009) - Fey, Baldwin & Co. return for long but often hilarious fourth season

9/18/2017

30 Rock - season 4 (2009) - Fey, Baldwin & Co. return for long but often hilarious fourth season

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Sitcom of the Year

Our five entertaining New-Yorker media personality friends are back for the 4th season of Tina Fey's 30 Rock

The following season run-through contains SPOILERS:

Life and work remains full of hurdles for sketch show producer Liz Lemon (Tina Fey (The Invention of Lying (2009))) at NBC in New York: Actress Jenna (Jane Krakowski (Open Season (2006))) remains a whole lot of fun; as the season opens she is busy making a country-eschewed tennis promo, which is supposed to promote the sport in the South. And Alec Baldwin (Saturday Night Live (2007-17)) is still phenomenally funny in the show's best scenes as station chief Jack Donaghy.
Liz herself suffers stage fright ahead of beginning her Dealbreakers Talkshow, and her main show's diva man-child Tracy (Tracy Morgan (Top Five (2014))) decides to aim to join the exclusive EGOT club in the slightly disappointing episode 7. In really strange but also funny episode 9, Liz enjoys a visit from her gay cousin Randy, while Jenna dates James Franco (Spider-Man (2002)), who turns out to be in love with a Japanese pillow.
An ongoing plot strand concerns the network's getting bought following its owner Don Geiss' death.
Jack invents women's porn (handsome men who listen), and Liz keeps meeting Michael Sheen (Home Again (2017)), an annoying Brit she met at her dentist. Jack dates both his old Irish Bostonian Nancy(Julianne Moore (Still Alice (2014))) and new, snappy Avery (Elizabeth Banks (Power Rangers (2017))), and suffers under the pressure of his deceit. Meanwhile Jenna may have found happiness in a man who is also a drag performer who imitates her (Will Forte (Nebraska (2013))).
Liz undergoes some realizations and proposes to Sheen, while voice-performing in Garfield 3 makes Tracy remember his traumatic childhood.
In the season's cooky final episode, Liz falls for a pilot (Matt Damon (The Martian (2015))) and dumps Sheen, while Forte changes his drag act into half-Jenna/half-Cher. Jack decides to go with old flame Nancy, but then changes his mind for Avery, who is pregnant! Kenneth (Jack McBrayer (Conan (2013-16))) gets fired and gives a 'hard' slamming-the-door-on-his-way-out speech.

Season 4 of the beloved backstage satirical sitcom from creator-star Fey is fun and wacky but has too many episodes that only sometimes - though more often than not - do the trick of raising risible laughter.

Best episodes:

Episode 3: Stone Mountain - written by Fey, John Riggi (The Comeback (2005-14)), directed by Don Scardino (Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt (2017, TV-series)
Jack and Liz travel to Georgia to find a new cast member who represents 'middle America.' With Jimmy Fallon (Jem and the Holograms (2015)) and Betty White (Boston Legal (2005-08)).

Episode 10: Black Light Attack! - written by Fey, Steve Hely (Veep (2017, TV-series), directed by Scardino
A darkly funny highlight: Jenna faces her advancing age, while Jack and Liz vie for the same cast member's favor, and Tracy settles a clash in his entourage.

Episode 13: Anna Howard Shaw Day - written by Fey, Matt Hubbard (Joey (2005-06)), directed by Ken Whittingham (Black-ish (2014-17))
The funny Valentine's Day episode in which Liz has root canal surgery at very funny dentist James Rebhorn's (Homeland (2011-13)), and Jack meets business talk show host Avery.

Episode 20: The Moms - written by Fey, Kay Cannon (Girlboss (2017, TV-series), Robert Carlock (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016)), directed by Riggi
Crazy-funny Mother's Day episode: Jack gets advice from his mother; Liz realizes that she has to settle, and Tracy casts a mother. With Buzz Aldrin (The Simpsons (1994, TV-series)) and Will Ferrell (Daddy's Home (2015)).

Related posts:

Tina Fey: Date Night (2010) - Carell and Fey bring out the big laugh guns
Megamind (2010) - Ferrell leads McGrath's hilarious animation superbly

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
30 Rock - season 1 (2006) - NY showbiz satire on speed
Mean Girls (2004) - Lohan, Waters and Fey's high school satire triumph (writer)

Cost: Unknown
Box office: None - TV-series
= Hit - ratings high enough for another season
[30 Rock season 4 had its original release at NBC from 15 October 2009 - 20 May 2010, spanning 22 episodes of an average 22 minutes, totaling approximately 484 minutes. The season's ratings fell from the show's peak with season 3's 7.5 mil. average to a 5.9 mil. average. Baldwin won a Golden Globe for his work in the season, and the show was nominated for 15 Emmys but didn't win any. The show went on for another 3 seasons. 30 Rock S4 is the lowest rated on Rotten Tomatoes: It is nevertheless still fresh at 67 % with a 7.57/10 critical average.]

What do you think of 30 Rock season 4?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)

9/18/2017

30 Rock - season 4 (2009) - Fey, Baldwin & Co. return for long but often hilarious fourth season

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