So the big, rumored NBC sale has finally gone through. GE is handing over the controlling share of their NBC-Universal empire to the Philadelphia-based Comcast, a cable provider. This is a big deal! A big, mostly-boring, businessy deal! Honestly, we don't really care about the corporate ramifications of this enormous sale. What we are concerned about? How the heck is this going to affect 30 Rock??
You know, because a huge part of Alec Baldwin's character, Jack Donaghy, is that he's an ambitious high-level executive at GE who's forced to slum it and oversee Tina Fey's little skit show. Now that GE has ostensibly sold the network and relinquished management duties (and will be getting out of the TV game completely in the coming years),—and given 30 Rock's penchant for poking fun at the real-life business of NBC—they've got to address the sale somehow, at some point, right? Will GE's fictional parent company, the Sheinhardt Wig Corporation still exist? Will Jack somehow switch over to Comcast? That'd be kind of boring and awkward. So much of the joke of the business stuff is that Jack runs a television show but also invents strange new microwaves and ovens. GE has its hands in everything, basically. It's an absurd running joke on the show—a brilliant platform for skewering corporate America—that we fear may now be lost.
What do you think they should do? Just ignore the whole damn thing and pretend like nothing's changed? While that would certainly keep up the consistency of the show, it'd also make it lose some of its wicked topicality. But there's just nothing as Evil Empire-funny about Comcast as there is about GE. A big part of Jack's Joke is lost with the mega-company's exit from the scene. We trust the 30 Rock writers to come up with something wondeful—maybe a commentary on mergers and acquisitions, about invasion and occupation—but we are still a little worried. Maybe that's just the peril of being a hyper self-acknowledging show. As the real world changes, so too must the fictional one.
Or, you know, it could be a blessing, a way to give themselves an out. Maybe once GE gets out of the game completely, so too will 30 Rock. It'd be strangely poetic, no?
Comments (13)
Maybe Comcast will let GE control TGS, because they want nothing to do with that terrible show.
30 Rock is outsourced to an Indian company and Jack now works for Mohinder from Heroes.
if alec bladwin leaves 30 rock, there goes the humor and entertainment of the show, and maybe thats how the world will end in 2012, alec baldwin will leave 30 rock and we will all die cuz there is no more humor:O
The writers will definitely write an episode addressing the takeover. That's what they do. It's what they've always done. That's part of what makes the show so funny. That and Jack McBrayer.
Well Alec Baldwin has already stated that he is leaving the show when his contract ends in 2012 (I think). That's two more seasons, and with the deal not really producing any results for another year, "30 Rock" could easily make the last season about Jack leaving NBC and Liz learning to manage her life on her own. It would be bittersweet.
While I LOVE 30 Rock and hope it gets a bunch of more seasons, it would be pretty hilarious if this season/series ends with the acquisition of NBC by Comcast, Jack leaving and Comcast cancelling TGS, leaving all the characters (except Jack, who'd still work for GE) jobless.
this has to be the shortest artice you have written. and the least passive aggressive... and not as funny... coinscidence? :P
...wasn't FOX about to buy TGS anyway?
Gee NBC could save a lot of money if they cancel Leno
It would be a great way to let Baldwin exit the show, which he says he plans on doing eventually. I know that's not for a few years but they can keep it in their back pocket until then.
This will definitely be interesting to say the least
Looking into my mostly-accurate TV forecasting crystal ball, I see Jack Donaghy getting a boss or co-president of NBC which will make his climb to the top of the GE ladder even tougher. Makes sense since if you actually read the press release, "Comcast and GE to Create Leading Entertainment Company" put out by Comcast Investor Relations. Ge will own 49% and Comcast will take over management of the joint venture.Meaning Comcast will most likely put an upper-management type to assess what needs to stay or go from NBC/30 Rock. Works in the real world and the 30 Rock world.
GE will still own 49%, so it would not be completely unrealistic to just leave it as is.