Friday, October 26, 2007 at 8:00 am
The Morning After: Searching for Carrie Fisher
NBC Photo: Anne Joyce
The cavalcade of stars on 30 Rock rolled on last night, with Carrie Fisher guesting as Liz Lemon's comedy-pioneer idol/cautionary tale, and it was just another example of why I'm glad somebody gave Tina Fey her own sitcom. Though Fey didn't write last night's episode, who else could you imagine making an episode about first-meeting-second-wave feminism so funny, complete with an H. R. Haldeman talking-mailbox joke? (Update: Second wave meeting third wave? Or fourth? Version 2.1 meeting version 3.2? Neither math nor history is my strong suit, but, you know, something earlier meeting something later. Maybe Bianca Reagan can straighten this out.) Also, I never want to stop watching Alec Baldwin's Redd Foxx impression.
Your thoughts on this or any other Thursday TV welcomed. (The Office, I thought, was a little lighter on the belly laughs, but better on the character touches--Michael's commercial, it turns out was actually not bad, and it gave us a glimpse of the sentimental cornball under his idiotic exterior.) Who watched MTV's Making Menudo?
7 Comments to “The Morning After: Searching for Carrie Fisher”
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About Tuned In
James Poniewozik writes TIME magazine's Tuned In column, about pop culture and society. Tuned In, the blog version, is about the stuff we used to call "TV," whether it's in your living room, on your computer or -- once the networks figure out the technology and line up the advertisers -- in your dreams themselves. Read more
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Friday, October 26, 2007 at 8:59 am
30 Rock was terrific. I wish we could have actually seen what happens in a "Page off."
Re: The Office. What I liked about this one is that once every 10-12 episodes they do something that shows that Michael isn't a complete idiot, and is indeed somewhat talented, therefore deserving his title as boss. The commercial was great.
Friday, October 26, 2007 at 9:10 am
This isn't really my field, but I think feminist historians use "first wave" feminism to describe earlier efforts for civil rights like the women's suffrage movement, and "second wave" to describe the kind of feminism that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. I don't think there's any consensus about what might comprise "third wave" feminism, but the characters are certainly distinct in their worldviews. I'd read them both as liberal feminists, but Fisher's character is wrapped up in the antiestablisment politics of an imagined sixties. Anyway, I thought the use of those terms was imprecise.
Friday, October 26, 2007 at 10:08 am
I know she looks the part, but isn't Carrie Fisher, like, 10 years too young to play a pioneering Laugh-In writer? That makes me sad.
Friday, October 26, 2007 at 10:13 am
@Fleming: Sort of. It looked like they were placing her on a fictional NBC show that looked exactly like Laugh-In, but had a later run (eveidenced by the Ford-era "pardon" joke). Perhaps it was finally cancelled and replaced by Supercomputer.
Friday, October 26, 2007 at 10:30 am
Alec Baldwin = comic genius. that whole therapy scene was the funniest thing i've seen on TV in a long time.
Friday, October 26, 2007 at 4:07 pm
"I'll assume that's a Haldeman reference, and I thank you."
"Never follow a hippie to a second location."
Plus the whole therapy scene...Alec Baldwin is amazing.
"This is Phil Specter's entourage all over again."
"Who knew there were so many words, it's like a Mos Def album."
I can honestly say this was probably the best ep of 30 Rock I have seen.
Monday, October 29, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Ahhh! A reference to meee! I didn't even read the whole post, I just skimmed it and saw my name.
If I must be constricted by such titles, I would say First wave American feminist humor meeting Third wave, even though Carrie (born 1956) probably wasn't old to write for Laugh-In (aired 1968-1973). Left to my own devices, I'd totally nerd out with references to Joely Fisher and Carrie's cameo on Ellen, leading to Ellen's second sitcom with guest appearances by Cloris Leachman, Betty White and Mary Tyler Moore, before I could make a coherent historical paragraph.
Also, I did watch that Menudo show. The whole time I swore that JG was a less fortunate Rachel Dratch-type woman. Oh well. He's gone now.