Seinfeld stars in season opener of “30 Rock”
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – The freshly anointed best comedy on television (according to the Emmys) kicks off its second season with a rip-roaring opener featuring Jerry Seinfeld in an inspired guest turn.
The charmingly written and superbly acted episode intersperses a trio of plotlines that never trample one another. The A-story involves a boffo idea from network boss Jack (Alec Baldwin): Use all of that NBC-owned footage featuring Seinfeld to digitally insert him into every NBC primetime show imaginable (introducing “SeinfeldVision!”) and capitalize on the network’s intellectual property. It goes less than swell. Big shockeroo, that.
The show-within-the-show has been on summertime hiatus, and what a tumultuous hiatus it has been. Liz’s (Tina Fey) boyfriend Floyd has split up with her. Jenna (Jane Krakowski) has put on a zillion pounds while starring in “Mystic Pizza: The Musical” because of all the actual pizza she had to eat. And Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) becomes Tracy’s (Tracy Morgan) office wife after his actual wife boots him out of the house, forcing him to take up full-time residence in his office.
The stories are interwoven with seamless ease, all joined at the hip by the bouncy soundtrack. Fey is superb as a lovelorn control freak in transparent denial, and Baldwin . . . well, he’s a flat-out revelation, leaving us wondering how it was again that Ricky Gervais beat him out for the lead comedy actor award at the Emmys. The academy certainly has some explaining to do. Then again, so does the TV audience for failing to support such a grand comedic exercise.
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