30 Rock

Can women save NBC? The network is making a big bet that the route to its long-needed comeback will come through female-skewing scripted series, with a just-announced fall TV schedule that will include a new Wednesday comedy block as well as 10 p.m. dramas every weeknight. The biggest surprise from Bob Greenblatt, the former Showtime programming chief assembling his first lineup as NBC's entertainment president, is opening Wednesday nights with two new comedies, "Up All Night" with Christina Applegate and "Free Agents" with Hank Azaria and Kathryn Hahn in an adaptation of a British series.

"30 Rock" has finally come to an end. We'll no longer have a chance to check in on Liz, Jack, Tracy, Jenna and poor, hapless Lutz. But that doesn't mean we can't keep our amazing memories of the "TGS" gang going through endless requoting and YouTube clip-watching. There will be no shortage of debate as to the greatest moments of "30 Rock's" run, but here is our humble attempt to point out five moments that captured just what made "30 Rock" one of the funniest shows on TV. Tracy Jordan as unstoppable stabbing robot Times critic Robert Lloyd described Tracy Morgan's character, Tracy Jordan, as the show's id. And while there are examples of that uncontrolled impulse in nearly every episode of the series, nothing sums it up more succinctly than the first season episode "Tracy Does Conan.

As an East Coast "experimental" playwright, I'm often faced with disbelief when I tell my peers that I landed a staff job on NBC's new series "Smash. " Partially it's the strange-bedfellows notion of an allegedly avant-garde writer paired with a big, glitzy TV show about Broadway produced by Steven Spielberg. Even more prevalent, however, is the perception among theater folk that writing TV is slumming, or torturous, or at the very least a cynical sellout. It's a cliché, but it doesn't come from nowhere.

The sad news is that after seven seasons on the air, "30 Rock" is finally leaving us. The good news is that it will live on in our hearts, our minds ... and our guts? On Thursday, the one-hour series finale will bring to a close the story of Liz Lemon, Jack Donaghy and the cast and writers of "TGS. " At the series finale after-party to be held Thursday night in New York City, near the real Rockefeller Center, Ben & Jerry's co-founder Jerry Greenfield, is to introduce a new flavor of ice cream inspired by the NBC comedy.

I fell in love at first sight with Tina Fey's "30 Rock," the NBC sitcom that Thursday night will end our seven-season relationship with a double-length series finale. We have both grown in the interim - well, "30 Rock" has - and if it is not now the same series that first won my heart, by winning my head, it is an even better one, bold and confident and more completely itself. The show that premiered on Oct. 11, 2006, was in many respects a conventional backstage comedy. Fey's show runner Liz Lemon struggled with corporate interference in the form of Alec Baldwin's Jack Donaghy, "the new vice president of East Coast television and microwave programming" - GE owned NBC at the time - and an unruly new star, Tracy Morgan's Tracy Jordan , who introduced himself to her letting her know that, contrary to tabloid reports, "I'm not on crack, I'm straight-up mentally ill. " At the same time, it contained the seeds of all it would become - as a comedy series on NBC about a comedy series on NBC, it was self-referential and meta-fictional from the start, and an unpredictable line like "We're a team now, like Batman and Robin, like chicken and a chicken container" (Tracy to Liz)

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Wednesday. Alec Baldwin says "30 Rock" will end next year. Are you listening, "Office" producers? ( New York Magazine ) Ray Romano, James Spader and Catherine Tate are all reportedly going to be on "The Office" season finale. No, "Office" producers, guest stars won't save you now. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Dish Network is now the proud owner of Blockbuster. Congratulations? ( Los Angeles Times ) Meanwhile, Netflix has won the right to stream "Mad Men" reruns.

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Oct. 7 - Oct. 13 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     SERIES This Old House:   Homeowners embark in new project, hoping to turn a two-family Victorian-era house in Cambridge, Mass., into a one-family home (Noon KOCE). The Big Bang Theory: Sheldon (Jim Parsons) hires an attractive new assistant (Margo Harshman) who makes Amy (Mayim Bialik) very, very nervous in this new episode (8 p.m. CBS)

"Apollo, Apollo" (Season 3) Summary: In which the writing staff discovers old phone sex commercials Liz Lemon did to make money in her salad days. Fey's take: "It was one of the most fun sequences we've ever done - Jack Donaghy ends up laughing so hard he vomits. " Multiple episodes (Season 5 and 6) Summary: Margaret Cho stars as Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il/Kim Jong-Un. Fey's take: "To have witnessed that and helped to cause that to happen gives me great joy. " "The Succession" (Season 2)

Calista Flockhart, who had the title role in "Ally McBeal" for five years, is returning to series television this fall, and now so is Jane Krakowski, who co-starred in that Fox series. Krakowski, who played the legal assistant Elaine on "Ally McBeal," has joined the cast of "30 Rock," a comedy scheduled to premiere Oct. 11 on NBC. "30 Rock" stars Tina Fey as the head writer of a variety TV show produced in New York. Krakowski will play the star of that fictional show.

NEW YORK - When "30 Rock" premiered in the fall of 2006, it was expected to be crushed by NBC's other new series, also set behind the scenes of a late-night sketch comedy show, Aaron Sorkin's heavily hyped "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. " "The first year, our biggest concern was that we thought that NBC had this very clear imperative to choose between us and 'Studio 60,'" recalls Alec Baldwin, who plays slick corporate executive Jack Donaghy on the sitcom, which launches its final, 13-episode season Thursday night.

Tracy Morgan may be be saying farewell to "30 Rock," but the actor is saying hello to baby No. 4. Morgan and fiancée Megan Wollover are expecting their first child together, People reports . "I am over the moon excited and just want a happy and healthy baby and a safe delivery for Megan," Morgan, 44, told the magazine. PHOTOS: Memorable TV finales The actor-comedian plays Tracy Jordan on the NBC comedy, which is airing its final episode Thursday. We just hope that the comedian doesn't plan to consult "Tracy Jordan's Guide to Irresponsible Parenting.

I fell in love at first sight with Tina Fey's "30 Rock," the NBC sitcom that Thursday night will end our seven-season relationship with a double-length series finale. We have both grown in the interim - well, "30 Rock" has - and if it is not now the same series that first won my heart, by winning my head, it is an even better one, bold and confident and more completely itself. The show that premiered on Oct. 11, 2006, was in many respects a conventional backstage comedy. Fey's show runner Liz Lemon struggled with corporate interference in the form of Alec Baldwin's Jack Donaghy, "the new vice president of East Coast television and microwave programming" - GE owned NBC at the time - and an unruly new star, Tracy Morgan's Tracy Jordan , who introduced himself to her letting her know that, contrary to tabloid reports, "I'm not on crack, I'm straight-up mentally ill. " At the same time, it contained the seeds of all it would become - as a comedy series on NBC about a comedy series on NBC, it was self-referential and meta-fictional from the start, and an unpredictable line like "We're a team now, like Batman and Robin, like chicken and a chicken container" (Tracy to Liz)

If it came as something of a surprise to audiences that PBS period drama "Downton Abbey" won the Screen Actors Guild Award for ensemble in a drama series, it was positively a shock to the cast of the British period piece. Only Michelle Dockery and a handful of the show's other stars were in attendance at the Shrine Exposition Center on Sunday night to accept SAG's prize, and they seemed startled to be onstage. Phyllis Logan, who plays housekeeper Mrs. Hughes on the series, registered her disbelief with a polite "Shut the French windows!"

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Jan. 27 - Feb. 2, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies       SUNDAY You go, "Good Wife": The lovely and talented Julianna Margulies will have the chance to add to her record number of SAG trophies - she's got eight already, mostly from her stint on "ER" - at the "19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. " (TNT, 5 p.m.) Last time we saw a giant squid, it was engaged in a life-or-death struggle with Capt.

The “30 Rock” series finale doesn't air until Jan. 31, but for the cast of the acclaimed sitcom, the fun ended last month when they wrapped production on the series after seven seasons on NBC. Cast members Tracy Morgan, Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Jack McBrayer and Jane Krakowski came together Thursday night  for what is hoped will be the first of many reunions. The entire ensemble sat down with Jimmy Fallon for a lengthy look back at the series. It was an unusual format for a late-night talk show - more “Oprah” than “Late Night” - but for “30 Rock” fans it was a treat.

Where there's a "Rock," there's likely to be a hard place nearby. NBC has moved its struggling news program "Rock Center with Brian Williams" to make way for new midseason drama "Do No Harm" -- and has given "30 Rock" an end date too. "Do No Harm," about a neurosurgeon with a dangerous alter ego (think Jekyll and Hyde), will take up the 10 p.m. Thursday slot -- a tough time period for the network--beginning Jan. 31.  Its premiere will follow the hourlong series finale of "30 Rock.

At this year's Emmys, Tina Fey went out of her way to thank not only "30 Rock" executive producer Lorne Michaels but also NBC for keeping her show on the air even though "we are so much more expensive than a talk show." In case you missed it, that was a dig at the network's decision to forgo scripted drama and comedy in its 10 p.m. slot and run "The Jay Leno Show" five nights a week. Both the gratitude and the Leno-baiting continues as "30 Rock" begins its fourth season. When a show has swept the Emmys two years in a row as "30 Rock" has, there is the danger that the people involved will start to think they can somehow do something more, which so often winds up being less.

Thursday was once the most profitable night of the week for NBC. But the network's prime-time ratings and fortunes have eroded dramatically in recent years, forcing network executives to rethink their strategy. Last fall, NBC's schedule contained a curious recruit for the marquee time slot of 10 p.m. Thursday: "Rock Center With Brian Williams. " The news magazine show occupied the spot once reserved for the hallmark NBC dramas "ER," "LA Law" and "Hill Street Blues. " Ratings for Williams' show were weak, attracting fewer than 4 million viewers an episode.

Liz Lemon's love life has been one of the great ongoing jokes of "30 Rock's" seven seasons, but her creator, Tina Fey, isn't letting her ride off into the sunset alone. On Thursday, NBC announced that on the Nov. 29 episode of "30 Rock," Lemon would finally be getting married to her boyfriend of the last two seasons, Criss (James Marsden). The wedding announcement, sent to fans via the show's official Twitter account features a photo of a Lemon with a wedding ring and the text, "What the What?

With “30 Rock” winding down its seven-season run in just a few months, Tina Fey has a lot on her mind: namely, what will happen to Tracy Morgan once the show is over. On Wednesday night Fey paid a visit to “Late Night,” where her former “Weekend Update” co-anchor Jimmy Fallon asked about what it's like working now on “30 Rock,” knowing the end is in sight. “I'm sad every day,” she said. “Half the day I'm crying, then I'm like, 'I'm sick of you people!