Tracy Jordan

I guess in a few words, how do you feel about 30 Rock turning 20?

God, knowing that Tracy Jordan is finally making it to Radio City Music Hall for this 20th anniversary spectacular warms my heart.

This is a show that I very distinctly remember getting season one on DVD as a holiday gift as a teen and it influencing me so, so much.

And Being able to go back and revisit this pilot and see how the structure of it has evolved over the course of its run, seeing how it holds up over 20 years.

Thanks for listening and back to the show.

Well, let's talk a little bit more about 30 Rock, and we're going to start off with, that's right, a quick synopsis.

Liz Lemon, head writer of sketch comedy show TGS with Tracy Jordan, must deal with an arrogant new boss and a new crazy star.

while trying to run a successful television show without losing her mind, which I think overall very, very accurate.

Yeah.

This is like half of, um, 30 Rock is people eating hot dogs on the street and it, like complaining about Tracy Jordan.

And you don't see-

Yeah.

Like it's so unlikely.

And I think that part of that is from is a symptom of the same problem that leads people to say stuff online like you should leave your husband which is that we've spent so many years now consuming each other like they're little avatars or little characters in a game that we actually think that's what people are like there is a joke in 30 rock where the tracy morgan character who's like a hilarious silly narcissist says something like, his character name is Tracy Jordan, and he goes, I'm Tracy Jordan.

When I go to sleep, nothing happens in the world.

And I think a lot of, I think social media has given us kind of that impression.

So it was just a solid gold shirt that weighed like, I don't know how many pounds.

Didn't Tracy Jordan do that in fucking 30 Rock? Probably, yeah.

Or was it gold shoes and he couldn't walk? Yeah.

Yeah, they're so rich over there that you don't flex by having a really nice car.

Right.

Like Tracy Jordan normally does some crazy shit every week.

Like he'll come in and be like, Liz, like I accidentally just set the officer back.

His character's called Tracy Jordan.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was worried you cannot put him at the center of a show.

And I don't know that he's that much more grounded than he was as Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock.

But they surround him immediately with Alexander and Radcliffe, who are just human enough to kind of make it work.

And

Okay, I was going down some very enjoyable YouTube rabbit holes in prepping for this conversation, and I found, I think, what is the perfect example, which I'm gonna play for you.

Tracy Jordan, played by Tracy Morgan, is talking to his doctor, Dr. Spaceman, AKA Dr. Spaceman.

Here we go.

[upbeat music] Tracy, [sighs] you are going to die- What? No ...