Alec Baldwin Leaving "30 Rock" After Contract Expires in 2012
Posted by Joyce Lee
NEW YORK (CBS) Alec Baldwin received his fourth Emmy nomination for his role as Jack Donaghy on "30 Rock" on Thursday, but he won't be playing the award-winning role for much longer -- the actor says he will leave the show once his contract ends in 2012.
Baldwin, whose portrayal of the egocentric and politically incorrect network executive on the popular NBC sitcom earned him two Emmy wins, said he yearns for a life away from the Hollywood spotlight.
"As much as I like acting," the 52-year-old actor told CNN, "I know that I would love to have a different life. A private life. I think that doing this now for a living has become really, really hard. I would rather go do other things, and with whatever amount of time I have left in my life, have a normal life."
But Baldwin isn't the only actor planning to leave the peacock network. Steve Carell confirmed last week that he will leave "The Office" at the end of the 2010-2011 season.
Both Baldwin and Carrell are nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series category for this year's Emmy Awards, along with Larry David ("Curb Your Enthusiasm"), Matthew Morrison ("Glee"), Tony Shalhoub ("Monk") and Jim Parsons ("The Big Bang Theory").
30 Rock & The Office
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Sonic Youth
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I just rewatched the St. Valentine's Day episode of 30 Rock. I remain completely astonished by how nimble this show is on its toes. In this case, the show balances Liz, Jack, and (especially) Kenneth's pursuits of love as deftly as anything I've seen this year. Don Scardino deserves an Emmy for clarity amidst the whiplash pacing of the show's script. Maria Thayer (Jack McBrayer's wife from Forgetting Sarah Marshall) is the best guest star of the show's current season as very amusing caricature on the pure-hearted blind girl and deserves an Emmy nomination if only for this line-reading: "No, I'm pretty sure I'm hot."
"How's the despair?"
This season is a world where Janitor and Ted have girlfriends and JD hasn't screwed up anything with Elliot yet. It's weird. Even Dr. Cox and Jordan decided to wear their wedding rings on last week's episode.
It's craziness I tell you. But even with all of that happening, it's not as much of a cartoon as its later years on NBC.
It's craziness I tell you. But even with all of that happening, it's not as much of a cartoon as its later years on NBC.
"It's the least most of us can do, but less of us will do more."
The third season is fairly irresistible. J.D.'s season-long renewed obsession with Elliot only to immediately truncate when she shows him the slightest bit of affection is hysterical. I love that stuff.
But I still think that John C. McGinley should go back to his short hair from seaosn one. He's become a fairly drippy character in the past few years, and his spongey hair looks clown-ish.
Edited By Sabin on 1237756292
But I still think that John C. McGinley should go back to his short hair from seaosn one. He's become a fairly drippy character in the past few years, and his spongey hair looks clown-ish.
Edited By Sabin on 1237756292
"How's the despair?"
Scrubs had a couple of good seasons. Really good seasons at that. The first season of Scrubs is amazing. I vaguely remember really liking the second and fourth as well. I haven't watched it in ages because it essentially became Friends. After a certain point (for me, more quickly than most), it felt like it was being run by the McCain team: week by week grabs for attention. Scrubs became a vulgar, edgeless show. It used to be very sharp.
I've actually never seen Crumbs or Weeds.
The American Office has grown so much in the past few years. Season Three is fantastic as is this one.
I've seen The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother a couple times. They're fine. I'm just not incredibly down with them. Three camera shows kill me. I can't deal. I watched a show called Lucky Louie which was not funny but had strong foundation for growth.
I've actually never seen Crumbs or Weeds.
The American Office has grown so much in the past few years. Season Three is fantastic as is this one.
I've seen The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother a couple times. They're fine. I'm just not incredibly down with them. Three camera shows kill me. I can't deal. I watched a show called Lucky Louie which was not funny but had strong foundation for growth.
"How's the despair?"
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OscarGuy
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I'm assuming you guys like the hour-long comedies better, such as Weeds (damned funny show I just caught on DVD recently).
But, I have to agree on How I Met Your Mother. It's not nearly as painful as many past 3-cam shows. And Big Bang Theory isn't bad either, but I'm afraid most of the 3-cams are built on the Home Improvement/Everybody Loves Raymond format, which all developed from the quality successes of All in the Family and Mary Tyler Moore, except without the era relevance or consistent wit and seem to be more interested in appealing to broad swaths of Christian demos.
But, I have to agree on How I Met Your Mother. It's not nearly as painful as many past 3-cam shows. And Big Bang Theory isn't bad either, but I'm afraid most of the 3-cams are built on the Home Improvement/Everybody Loves Raymond format, which all developed from the quality successes of All in the Family and Mary Tyler Moore, except without the era relevance or consistent wit and seem to be more interested in appealing to broad swaths of Christian demos.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
anonymous wrote:Sabin wrote:With a few notable exceptions (Newsradio, Seinfeld, All in the Family, Taxi), it is incredibly difficult for me to laugh at three-camera sitcoms in today's day and age. It's not simply that a laugh track is essentially the most pandering crutch in the history of television, but that most shows are so painfully dumbed down.
I've found this to be true to a point. Every once in awhile a really funny one will pop up and then get unceremoniously axed. Crumbs, for example.
I think British comedy (Absolutely Fabulous, French & Saunders, Little Britain, etc.) is so much funnier on the whole, although the bits I've seen of 30 Rock look pretty hilarious. The Office is too overdone and over-hyped for me. And I don’t find Steve Carrel that funny.
Edited By flipp525 on 1237557320
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
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anonymous1980
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Have you tried checking out The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother?Sabin wrote:With a few notable exceptions (Newsradio, Seinfeld, All in the Family, Taxi), it is incredibly difficult for me to laugh at three-camera sitcoms in today's day and age. It's not simply that a laugh track is essentially the most pandering crutch in the history of television, but that most shows are so painfully dumbed down.
With the advent of the single-cam sitcom, traditionally filmed sitcoms are revealed as product of an art form designed to only resemble something funny. With a few notable exceptions (Newsradio, Seinfeld, All in the Family, Taxi), it is incredibly difficult for me to laugh at three-camera sitcoms in today's day and age. It's not simply that a laugh track is essentially the most pandering crutch in the history of television, but that most shows are so painfully dumbed down. Even shows like Frasier, Friends, and several more that I watched out of habit are fairly anonymous to me.
Although my favorite shows remain the triumvirate of Freaks & Geeks, Arrested Development, and the BBC Office, I don't think there have ever been American programs that thrived with so little compromise as 30 Rock and The Office.
30 Rock in its third season is the bubbliest show on television. It moves like Hannah and Her Sister, carried on the sweetest New York soundtrack on television. They do A, B, and C stories where every line is a laugh. 30 Rock was one of the only sitcoms to survive the '07-'08 season without a hint of laziness. With but one or two bumps on the road, 30 Rock has taken this season to mine Liz Lemon's thirst for a baby in many palatable directions. My favorite has been her relationship with Jon Hamm in this week's very funny treatise on the "bubble" of the pretty and how inexorably-bound the pretty are to privilege. My favorite episode this year has been a Valentine's Day episode which may very well be the most plot-line-heavy episode of sitcom television that I've ever seen. And the beauty of 30 Rock is that it takes not taking itself too seriously very seriously.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is The Office which in my mind was almost derailed by its previous season. Between too many hour-long episodes and the numbskull idea to speed through the relationship between Jim and Pam to when they were all-too comfortable together (instead of the bumpiness of transitioning from friends to more than friends? wtf?), it was a painful year. This year is incredibly confident and although its Office-verse is still very gracious to Michael's inanity, the show reveals itself as a fairly astonishing character study of a man who nobody really got around to firing. He's a very small man who cannot transition his relatively grandiose and all-too ineffable self-image to how very minor his day-to-day life is. Carrel has toned down his act and reveals the compensatory nature of Michael Scott and this season has been a boon. Just how long The Office can run, I don't know but Carrel is doing the best work of his career on television this year and I have a feeling it's going out with a bang this May.
I love both these shows very much.
Although my favorite shows remain the triumvirate of Freaks & Geeks, Arrested Development, and the BBC Office, I don't think there have ever been American programs that thrived with so little compromise as 30 Rock and The Office.
30 Rock in its third season is the bubbliest show on television. It moves like Hannah and Her Sister, carried on the sweetest New York soundtrack on television. They do A, B, and C stories where every line is a laugh. 30 Rock was one of the only sitcoms to survive the '07-'08 season without a hint of laziness. With but one or two bumps on the road, 30 Rock has taken this season to mine Liz Lemon's thirst for a baby in many palatable directions. My favorite has been her relationship with Jon Hamm in this week's very funny treatise on the "bubble" of the pretty and how inexorably-bound the pretty are to privilege. My favorite episode this year has been a Valentine's Day episode which may very well be the most plot-line-heavy episode of sitcom television that I've ever seen. And the beauty of 30 Rock is that it takes not taking itself too seriously very seriously.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is The Office which in my mind was almost derailed by its previous season. Between too many hour-long episodes and the numbskull idea to speed through the relationship between Jim and Pam to when they were all-too comfortable together (instead of the bumpiness of transitioning from friends to more than friends? wtf?), it was a painful year. This year is incredibly confident and although its Office-verse is still very gracious to Michael's inanity, the show reveals itself as a fairly astonishing character study of a man who nobody really got around to firing. He's a very small man who cannot transition his relatively grandiose and all-too ineffable self-image to how very minor his day-to-day life is. Carrel has toned down his act and reveals the compensatory nature of Michael Scott and this season has been a boon. Just how long The Office can run, I don't know but Carrel is doing the best work of his career on television this year and I have a feeling it's going out with a bang this May.
I love both these shows very much.
"How's the despair?"