Entertainment 30 Rock Weekly: We get it, already!

I could go off on a rant about how Entertainment Weekly is becoming shallower and more like sister mag “People” each week, but I think I did that in Shark Bites. So what I’m here to rip today is EW’s latest obsession, one that started out as an apparent schoolboy crush but has since ballooned into an Alex Forrest-style mania, one that threatens to eclipse even the publication’s longstanding Buffy worship. What concerns me is the over-the-top attention focused on NBC’s Thursday night sitcom “30 Rock.”

“30 Rock” is one of those shows that is hyped in the entertainment media to a disproportionate level. It’s not a ratings smash by any means, but it has “buzz” because—well, because a lot of people in the biz think they’re smart because they “get it” and because the people that cover THOSE people want to feel the same level of hip insider status. And while “30 Rock” thinks it is ironic enough to lampoon that kind of thinking, it’s humor as forced as any episode of “Two and a Half Men.”

But even if I liked this show, I’d be embarrassed about the frequent references and plugs EW includes in a given issue. I was going to say “countless,” but I decided I’d count these references in a recent issue—the Nov. 30 Entertainers of the Year edition. You tell me if I’m overreacting:

*p.14/15: Coverage of a live stage performance of the show to benefit laid-off production crew during the writers strike. This probing piece features such incisive commentary as: “And if the pacing seemed a bit off, it was only because Fey and company had to pause so that the audience could howl with glee.”

*p.55: Rockefeller Center listed as one of the most entertaining places of the year, accompanied by a picture of Tina Fey and a reminder that “30 Rock” won an Emmy.

*p.56/57: Fey gets a full page photo and a place as an Entertainer of the Year. Have I mentioned that this magazine really loves to run pictures of Tina Fey?

*p.66: A small picture of co-star Jack McBrayer in “Livin’ Neath the Law,” singled out as one of the “great moments” of 2007 in a slurp piece of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s comedy website.

*p.87: “Building a Bionic Entertainer” gives the funny bone to Tina Fey. Accompanied by a headshot, natch.

*p.108 Photo credits for the Entertainers of the Year section in the bottom half of the page. Top half is a picture of “Emmy winner Tina Fey.”

*p. 124: The “Sound Bites” section includes a quote from “30 Rock,” as it often does.

*p.127: Alynda Wheat highlights a new “30 Rock” episode in her “What to Watch” column.

*p.127: But that’s not the worst of it. Above THAT mention, Dan Snierson closes a preview of the Christmas in Rockefeller Center with: “We’re kinda hoping that Tracy Jordan busts through the doors of 30 Rock and livens up the party. Kenneth, too. Dude really knows how to throw a bash.”

*p.138: If you’re missing your favorite TV shows during the strike, here are some book suggestions to tide you over. “30 Rock” is pictured (Fey, to be specific) with a recommendation to read “Live from New York.”

*p.142 Dalton Ross closes the issue by mentioning the show twice in a column claiming TV is better than movies. “I’ll put 30 Rock up against all feature-film comedies, especially any that include the word Balls or Fury in the title.” Well, yeah, but how does “Balls of Fury” stack up against “Cavemen”?

EW is clearly out of control, with its “30 Rock” fetish finally overtaking its predilection for all things Judd Apatow. Hey, guys (and gals, though presumably less of them have crushes on Tina Fey), we get it: You enjoy the show, you want to see more episodes of it, and you wish more of us watched it. But can you ease up on the plugs every now and then?

In the following week’s issue, I half-expected the cover of Will Smith as one of the smartest people in entertainment to be accompanied by a caption saying, “Because he never misses an episode of “30 Rock.” I guess I should just be thankful Fey’s mug wasn’t plastered there.

This Week in DVD

Ford at Fox: The only DVD set out this week that has its own zip code, this massive tribute to one of cinema's top directors is sure to have many harried postal workers reaching for an extra Advil or two after they lug it to film buffs' doorsteps.

Simply put, it's an amazing achievement, and it's kind of amazing that Fox even released this 21-disc box (with much of the content also available in individual discs or in smaller subsets). Bravo to the company for getting a lot of previously unreleased material out there. I'm particularly interested in the double-feature disc of Up the River, an early Bogart/Tracy pairing; and When Willie Comes Marching Home, which sounds like a reworking of Hail the Conquering Hero.

But there's all sorts of great stuff here, even if some guy at Entertainment Weekly docked it a notch apparently for not including ALL of Ford's movies. As if a set called "Ford at Fox" is gonna include Warner Brothers' The Searchers. it;s not like Fox is letting that one gather dust. Hello! They don't own it! If, unlike that reviewer, 21 discs of Ford is enough for you, then here you go.

Pirates of the Carribbean: At World's End: It may seem to many that the last few Pirates movies take longer to get through on DVD than those 21 discs of Ford at Fox. This series never quite recaptured the magic of the first installment, but it entertained and mostly made me feel I got my money's worth. Don't need to see this one again for a while, though.

The Nanny Diaries: What, this actually came out in theaters already?

Superbad: OK, I'm gonna rent this soon, and I'd better not be as disappointed as I was when I saw the overrated, overlong Knocked Up. I'm already wary of overpraised Judd Apatow comedies, not to mention comedies we're told are special because they "have a heart."

Saturday Night Live Season 2: The original cast and production team reached its prime with this season. The set looks like a winner just for including those uncut episodes, but the real gem is one of the extras--the fabled Mardi Gras special, never rerun and singled out as an unmitigated disaster in any serious history of SNL. I can't wait to see it.

The Wire Season 4: All I'll say is, this isn't like spinach. It's good for you, but it's one of the most entertaining shows ever made. Season 4 equals the series' finest work. Maybe One Toe In will do us a favor and write about this DVD set soon.

Cultureshark Guest Programs TCM--The Lineup

Click here for an explanation of what this is all about.

6:00-8:00 AM Bringing Up Baby
--Howard Hawks' classic screwball comedy, perhaps THE classic screwball comedy, is a good way to start the day and ease into 24 hours of classics. Maybe this is because I first saw it long ago one weekend morning on American Movie Classics. And I'll try not to sully the name of Turner Classic Movies by mentioning that once-great network again.

8:00-10:00 AM The Wizard of Oz
--It's not just a kids' movie, of course, but isn't this one ideal for whole families as well as kids of all ages? Notwithstanding its darker aspects, this bright mix of music and adventure is ideal for this slot.

10:00am-Noon Top Hat
--I wanted to get a great musical into my lineup (For some reason, it's tough for me to count The Wizard of Oz as a "musical"), and while I considered some of the usual suspects, I had a hole to fill in the late morning, and the elegance and wit of this--my favorite of the Astaire-Rogers teamings--fits the bill. A great Sunday morning film, in my opinion, and I could easily see myself enjoying a big ol' tasty brunch while screening it.

Noon-2:00 PM The Searchers
--One of my favorite movies of all time kicks off an afternoon of adventure and excitement. In this case, the mythic West looms large as the backdrop for a story that works on many different levels. Sure, it's a bit heavy compared to what we've seen already this morning, but I think we can handle it. Maybe if we don't grab that brunch for "Top Hat," we can get a nice manly lunch of steak in honor of The Duke.

2:30-4:30 PM The Adventures of Robin Hood
--Speaking of adventure, what better way to while away an afternoon than by watching Errol Flynn and his merry men romp through an hour of 45 minutes of glorious technicolor? I want my day of TCM to be filled with great movies and personal favorites, but I also want it to be flat-out fun. Classic Hollywood doesn't get much more fun than this one.

4:30-7:30 PM The Great Escape
--I went back and forth on this one. After all, it eats up 3 hours of my schedule, and it may not be as "good" as some others I could have selected. But, boy, is this one a great watch. Thinking of this one takes me back to adventure movies on weekend afternoons. Stretch out and enjoy the based-on-reality story of this amazing--well, actually, Great--escape from a Nazi POW camp. Marvel at how cool the darned thing is, with of course The Cooler King himself, Steve McQueen. And even if you're not of the generation that idolized Steve-O, you've got James Garner and Charles Bronson and some stoically cool Brits.

7:30-10 PM North by Northwest
--There are many things that make movies fun, but few movies that actually include so many of them. My Dad introduced this one to me years ago, and it's always been a fun one. Cary Grant makes his second appearance in my Guest Lineup, but playing an entirely different--yet still Cary Grantish--character, and this performance alone would make him worthy of icon status. And oh, yeah, a word for the director, Al Hitchcock. I got you covered with this one, Al. Sorry about leaving off "Rear Window."

10PM-Midnight Out of the Past
--Arguably the best of all films noir, this one haunts you, burrowing under your skin and lingering like a good noir should. Its dreamlike atmosphere makes nighttime viewing ideal, but its complicated plot demands some attention. So I put it on fairly late, but not TOO late.

Midnight-2:00 AM Casablanca
--The best movie ever made, period. More importantly to me, it's the movie that got me "into" the classics. It was on late one Saturday, right around midnight in fact, and I figured, what the hey, I'll check this out. I was mesmerized, and that viewing (the first of many over the years) started me on the road to old school, a road which stretched miles longer, but became even more pleasurable to ride, when I got Turner Classic Movies. It may seem that I'm slighting this movie by putting it on at midnight, but let me say, uh-uh: This is the pinnacle of the medium, as far as I'm concerned, and to be able to introduce this on TCM and talk about it would be the ultimate.

2:00 AM-4:00 AM Duck Soup
--You can't match the collective filmmaking genius that somehow resulted in Casablanca; nor can you match the emotional kick it gives you each and every time you see it. So why try? I follow it with my favorite comedy of all time, the Marx Brothers' absolute best. It has their funniest gags, their funniest lines, and their funniest bits, and I feel good each time I see it. The only downside is it often makes me regret they couldn't have made more balls-to-the wall farces like this before Irving Thalberg legendarily "rescued them" from stagnant box office and put them into pictures with, you know, stories. The saga of Freedonia is story enough for me, and while I love many of the Marxes' movies, I love this one just a little bit more. It's more than enough to keep me awake at 3 in the morn.

4:00 AM-6:00 AM King Kong
--By today's standards, the effects that create this wonderful giant ape fantasy may seem a little quaint. But I think they work just fine, and they will be especially welcome at the end of a long day. I close my festival with the oldest of my picks (30 years), and "Kong" proves several things: That a classic movie can still captivate even if it's over 70 years old, and also the power of movie reality to linger in the consciousness. 1930s New York never seems so vivid as it does when the Konger is swatting at those planes in glorious black and white. The fake reality of Hollywood is irresistible even when combined with an incredible product of imagination like King Kong. This kind of combination helps give the classics their charm. If that sounds a little too pretentious for 4:00 in the morning, well, all right, then. Let's just relax and be entertained.

Cultureshark Guest Programs TCM--The Prelude

Well, in my dreams, that is. But Guest Programming month in November on TCM got me thinking about how I would do it. It's fun to ponder this if you're a TCM lover and a classic movie fan like myself. So I ran with the idea. But instead of the 4 films or so the celebrities have picked this November, greedy ol' me decided to program a whole day--24 hours. And instead of just doing THAT, I crafted 3 schedules: First up, coming later this week, is the standard "here's what I would do" version, which really answers the question of how I would program the channel for a full day given no restrictions.

Many might simply select their top 10 or so favorite movies of all time. But I know I'm more excited by guest programmers that choose something seldom shown on the channel. And what about programming flow? Do you just run a bunch of great movies out there, or do you try to organize them so that there is some kind of theme or series of transitions?

I decided I would try to introduce a mix of some of my favorites, but not necessarily THE favorites, into a schedule with a variety of genres, and that I would program it with a certain flow in mind. I would imagine myself yakking it up with Robert Osbourne and explaining why I love the movies so much, what makes them so great. And that would be my dream TCM schedule.

BUT I had so much fun doing that--OK, that and it's so hard for me to narrow it down to even a dozen or so movies--that I created another lineup, one spotlighting lesser-seen movies that I might enjoy talking about.

AND while I was at it, I started thinking again about movies that would excite me if I saw them on a Guest Programmer's schedule. So I came up with a whole day's worth of movies I've never seen but would like to.

So that's 3 schedules coming up this week. And none of them include The Godfather or Rear Window or The Maltese Falcon or scores of other classics I love. You know, I'd better hurry up and post them before I change my mind again.

This Week in DVD

Hot Rod: How bad can Andy Samberg as a stunt-ridin' daredevil be? You say. It has Ian McShane, you say, and it's a known fact that he kicks ass, ergo, again you ask, how bad can Hot Rod be? Well, pretty darned bad, from what I hear. At least poor Evel Kneivel passed away before he might have accidentally seen this one on cable.


Mr. Bean's Holiday: Every day is a holiday...when you're watching Mr. Bean! Too much? Eh, you're right. But I'll bet this is a helluva lot funnier than "Hot Rod." So there.


Bratz: The Movie: If you're not on board the Bratz: The Doll phenomenon by now, I'm guessing this won't be at the top of your Netflix queue this week.


Waitress: Sure, this may look like an annoyingly quirky chick flick, but I have it on good authority this one falls on the "charming" side of quirky. Since that authority is a man, I won't embarrass him by naming him, but his recommendation makes me want to give this one a chance. Besides, "Pushing Daisies," which also prominently features pies, is so annoyingly quirky it surely makes "Waitress" look like a Bill Parcells press conference.


Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy (all season 3): Paramount screwed up the Season 2 sets of these so badly (especially Happy Days), that the best I can say is, "Hey, apparently this time, they don't suck." And I guess fans of these shows are supposed to be happy that the music edits are only mildly irritating and that the shows don't look like third-gen VHS dubs.

Brooks on Books: Presidential Courage by Michael Beschloss

Presidential Courage. What a title. One might reasonably expect to read accounts of...Presidential courage.

Indeed, that's what Beschloss promises, and he even seems to think he is delivering that in this episodic account of a group of former chief execs and how they acted in key situations. But really, I saw a bunch of politicians acting political. JFK finally gets involved in the civil rights movement, but only after dragging his feet and kissing butt of segregationist Southerners who could aid his election. Truman's actions on behalf of Israel aren't exactly delivered with rapid efficiency. But it's not just the 20th century--even the Founding Fathers in this book are shown being as expedient as they are courageous.

Furthermore, the writing is a bit choppy, with short chapters, frequent one-sentence paragraphs, and a plethora of trivia footnotes marked with asterisks in the text and explained at the bottom of the page. Those tidbits are interesting, but they might have worked better in some other format.

So Presidential Courage is not a great book. But you know what? It is easily digestible and entertaining. I am no historian, but I would have liked to have seen some more less-familiar examples than, say, George Washington. But maybe the courageous stand of James K. Polk on the Mexican-American War wouldn't sell as many books. But though there is plenty of info out there on the subjects of this book, it's still absorbing for anyone who's into Presidential trivia and whatnot. I just recommend this as a checkout from the library (Yes, Virginia, one probably still exists in your vicinity) or waiting for the paperback and a coupon.