"30 Rock" Returns: Season 6 Preview!

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If you’re a fan of astute, hilarious and razor-sharp comedy/satire/social commentary, chances are you’re counting down to the return of television’s smartest situation comedy: 30 Rock.

Yes, the show was benched for half a season to help promote some new NBC sitcom (I don’t remember which one), and yes, Tina Fey happened to give birth to her second child in the interim. And even a diehard fan like yours truly must admit that last season had its fair share of bumps and ‘oh my god they’re gonna jump the shark’ moments. But it seems Tina and the good folk at NBC have come back to their creative and funny wits and decided to reinstall our weekly fix of bitingly hysterical absurdist comedy! I, for one, can’t wait. The pandemonium starts this Thursday, January 12, at 8/7 Central on NBC. (And no, I am not an employee of or at all affiliated with NBC Universal, Comcast, or Kabletown, lest you think I am a shameless corporate shill).

For those of you with similar TV watching tendencies, here is a preview of what is in store for the sixth season of 30 Rock.

- Materially, the biggest thing that happened to 30 Rock over the hiatus is the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. Why? Because last season ended with Jack Donaghy’s wife, Avery (played by Elizabeth Banks), being taken hostage by the North Korean leader and forced to read on air how 'awesome' things are in North Korea and how awful they are in the rest of the universe. Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) is thereby left to raise their daughter alone. And by alone, I mean with the help of a nanny.

- How is the show going to resolve the untimely demise of Kim Jong Il? According to producers, they’ve already shot 8 or 9 episodes where they reference North Korea instead of Kim Jong Il (played hilariously by actress and comedienne Margaret Cho) so they should be able to worm their way out of it by, say, bringing him back from the dead. Or saying that he faked his death to become the world’s biggest teen sensation. Those who are familiar with the late North Korean leader will know that those would hardly be the strangest things he’s ever tried to do. (And, of course, when I say his death was untimely, I am speaking strictly in the comic sense of utilizing his persona for laughs on an American sitcom . . . and not in relation to the decades of horror and neglect endured by the North Korean people).

Other things to look forward to: guest stars! Including . . .

- James Marsden will appear as Liz Lemon’s latest love interest. While I can’t exactly picture the two of them as an onscreen couple, it will be interesting to see how Lemon manages to fudge this one up.

- Emma Stone will appear in a fictionalized movie starring Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) alongside Andy Samberg and Nick Cannon.

- Celebrities will also show up playing caricatures of themselves (some not so far removed, I must admit): Kelsey Grammer plays an uptight, condescending blowhard and Denise Richards appears as the spokesperson for the Idiots of the World by playing . . . Denise Richards.

I wonder how her agent pitched her that one?

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