Read Tom Ceraulo’s interesting and touching article about the final days on the set of 30 Rock as the show filmed its final installments.
30 Rock is one of those shows that has a special place in my heart (which evidently has many nooks and crannies to hold special things). It was so good when it premiered in 2006 that I wanted to be somehow involved. Involved with the show? Involved with a show? I didn’t know. It was so dense with jokes and appealing characters that play off old tropes and play of their own self- awareness. At the time I was beginning my senior year of college, studying English with a focus in creative writing. I didn’t know what I’d do with a creative writing degree, but I had just taken a class about screenwriting and loved the medium. Writing remained a cursory hobby until 2008, when I decided to take a step in a vaguely solid direction by enrolling in a film MFA program.
Later, in an attempt to get into an apprenticeship program with NBC, I started to work on a 30 Rock spec script. I knew my unfinished draft wasn’t good enough when the deadline rolled around, so I didn’t bother completing my work until the deadline rolled around again the following year. It’s still mediocre, but I had fun with it.
My episode deals with Jack Donaghy finding out that he might not be an American citizen, Tracy becoming an animal rights activist and releasing a cobra from the Bronx Zoo (timely!), and Liz becoming a video game addict. You can read it here. I think it could all work pretty well if I kept revising it, but I’d junk Liz’s nonstory and come up with a thread that jives better with the others.
Now I’m no closer to my goal of writing for television and film, really, but I still have 30 Rock to thank/blame.
cocopunk 