Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: January 31, 2013
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: 30 Rock, “Hogcock” / “Last Lunch” (Season 7, Episode 12/13) [Stream on Netflix]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: The challenge of how to end a show like 30 Rock had to be daunting. Tina Fey’s backstage extravaganza of media satire and all-out lunacy had grown to be such a singularly strange creation, full of meta jokes and long-running character beats. The demands of any finale of a long-running, popular show are high enough. 30 Rock had to have a sense of occasion and give audiences some closure, all while maintaining the sense of highly arch, incisive, and bizarre humor that had become the show’s calling card.
Somehow, the two-part 30 Rock finale managed to succeed on all these fronts and more. Liz Lemon figuring out her work/life balance after a run-in with some mommy bloggers. Jack Donaghy goes through a crisis of purpose before ultimately landing on his next great idea (clear dishwashers!). Tracy attempts to obstruct the final TGS. Jenna discovers she has feelings. Pete attempts to fake his own death. Lutz gets his Blimpies. Every character gets some kind of resolution, but it’s the unexpected levels of heart and emotion that the episode provides that are the most disarming and welcome. Liz and Tracy’s big goodbye scene could have gotten away with something far more perfunctory than Liz (and Fey, one suspects) choking up while telling Tracy how much he frustrated her and how much she loves him.
Similarly, Jenna singing a ballad from the Rural Juror musical could have easily been purely a joke, but Jane Krakowski is obviously showing real sadness while she sings, and bringing out the real 30 Rock staffers for the big goodbye is such a good touch. And, of course, there’s Liz and Jack, whose relationship ends on the perfect note of appreciation.
And yet, all of that above-noted sentiment doesn’t feel mawkish. The episode manages to maintain the joke-dense nature of 30 Rock to the very end, with enough callbacks — Jenna’s Mickey Rourke mea culpa and the returns of Julianne Moore and Salma Hayek chief among them — to satisfy any fan. And the media satire is sharp to the very last, typified by the quick-glance shot at Kenneth’s list of no-nos for future NBC TV shows.
Ultimately, much like that rural juror, we won’t soon forget 30 Rock. And much like Immortal Kenneth Parcell, we loved every minute of it.
