Working on my Night Cheese

I think that maybe one of my granddaughters one day when helping write my obituary will say, "Don't forget to say that in 2012 she discovered that if you google 'Mike Cosper's wife' Tina Fey's picture picture popped up. She was really proud of that".

We love Tina Fey and 30 Rock.

When I was a new mom and staying up late with a crying baby, I watched the 1st and then the 2nd season of 30 rock on repeat. Over the last couple months, we have been watching the series over to prepare for tonight's series finale.

There are no spoilers for the last episode, but there ARE spoilers from last weeks episode so beware.

Tina Fey is the writer, producer and star of the show 30 Rock. She wrote a Liz Lemon character that many ladies in America in their late 20s- mid 50s are partly proud and partly sad to want to mimic. So many of us want to be Liz Lemon. We cheer when she does something we have done that we are proud of. We cringe when she does something that hits too close to home...something we wouldn't want to admit like the amount of cheese we can eat while catching up on our DVR, a bathroom door blowing open while Don Draper is in the next room, or eating an ice cream sundae on your treadmill.

My husband wrote a post after we read Tina Fey's book "Bossypants" The Bossypants Guide to Getting Ready For Sunday at the Gospel Coalition (and this is why her picture pops up when you google as above!).

As my husband writes about the book, Bossypants...

"is somewhat like an episode of her TV show, 30 Rock. The show defies genres, sometimes driven by romantic comedy, sometimes by classic sitcom ensemble dynamics, and sometimes by seventh-grade bathroom humor. Her book, in similar form, ranges from a poignant memoir to absurd comedy. It’s foul-mouthed, honest, and a touch insecure, which is probably also true of Fey."

In Tina's tribute to one of her comedy hero's David Letterman at the Kennedy Center Honors in December 2012 Tina Fey said "Dave is someone you watch not just because you like him, but because you fantasize that he would like you."

I agree. And I will say the same about her. Tina Fey, you are someone we watch, not just because we like you, but because we fantasize that you would like us.

You could spend hours today looking up and laughing at Tina Fey and 30 rock videos. 

"I want to go to there."

"Is that a thing?"

"I think that is a thing."

“I wolfed my Teamster sub for you!"

"...three weddings in one day, I’m going to be in Spanx for 12 hours. My elastic line is gonna get infected again.”

"Blerg."

Perhaps one of my favorite moments of the series, Kenneth's Muppet Vision.

How could I not list Tracy's "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah,"  the Mexican Cheetos "Sabor de Soledad" that made Tina have a false positive pregnancy test, or Liz Lemon in Jury duty , Cheesey blasters, or working on her night cheese. 

It has been said that the part of Jack Donaghy was originally just in the pilot, but Alec Baldwin loved it so much he wanted in on the whole series. In Rolling Stone he said, he felt a lull in season 5 and thought about leaving, but season 6 was so good, and by the end of last season he was so sad to see it end he offered to take a pay cut to keep the show going. In reflecting on his character I was surprised how surprised I was with Jack finally getting a promotion he always worked for. I think that took some great writing that for 7 seasons you knew what his end goal was and he agonized to get it and then he does.  You weren't often frustrated that this seemed to be what his story was leading up to.

If you are a fan of Alec Baldwin and a fan of great radio shows like "This American Life", PLEASE look up, Here's the Thing.  It is so great the way he can talk to actors and performers in a way that just a hosting personality can't.

Elaine Stritch played Jack's mother and was in the original cast of Company in 1970. Do you not see early Collen Donaghy there?

The guest stars on this show are mind boggling and so well crafted. To get Carrie Fisher to say to you on national television, "Help me Liz Lemon, you're my only hope" must have been a dream come true.

The abundance of great characters and guest stars reminds me of Seinfeild. I could go on and about some of Liz Lemon's love interests, Steve Martin, Wesley Snipes, Carol Burnette, Chris Chros... Hilarious.

The LA Times says of the cast,  "If each character had her or his own sort of intelligence, or survival instinct, each also had a special sort of stupidity." Go read that article, 30 Rock Just Got Better. It is one of my favorite pieces written this week and sums up the show better than I could.
 
(A spoiler to LAST weeks episode is here)
Last week's episode almost could have been the finale, but that would have been too neat and clean for the writers of 30 Rock. When we watched the 2nd to last episode, Mike and I looked at each with the Willy Wonka stuff going on and said, "It's Kenneth. IT'S HIM." Then when Liz and Chris go to meet their kids and Janet said, "Cam-a-Raw" and Terry said, "Liz Lemon, I will not be able to go to school on account of my sick lizard"... it was so unexpected yet the puzzle piece fit nicely.


Lastly. If Liz Lemon, the women who said, "I am going to go talk to some food about this", is going out on a high note, what would be the best thing to do that? How about Ben and Jerry's giving your show it's own flavor? I am not sure if the new flavor is gluten free yet, if it is not, I am gonna buy some anyway and make ask Mike to eat it like Jack made Liz eat that steak after his heart attack. If it IS gluten free I am gonna eat that ice cream like it is sandwich day. 

Thanks for the laughs Tina Fey. 


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What are you going to miss? What are your favorite moments?