Can't get enough Alec Baldwin?

The "30 Rock" star has signed on to serve as co-host alongside Robert Osborne of TCM's Saturday night showcase slot "The Essentials." Baldwin's a movie buff who will undoubtedly have a lot to say -- in typically animated fashion -- about the featured pics. Upcoming titles getting the "Essentials" treatment include "Rocky" (March 14); "Cat Ballou" (March 21); "Ben Hur" (March 28); and "Take the Money and Run" (April 4). Also, John Lithgow has been tapped to host TCM's "The Essentials Jr." family film showcase, to run June-August.

God, this is good stuff. Scribe Ian Parker has penned a heck of a profile of "30 Rock" star Alec Baldwin for this week's New Yorker. There's a bit of requisite NBC bashing in there, of course some discussion of the fateful voice mail message he left for his daughter last year, but the best stuff is really the stream-of-Baldwin-consciousness that he lets flow, and flow, and flow (see below). I'm rooting for Baldwin in the Emmy lead comedy actor competish this year, for obvious reasons.

“I always think, What if you just took your hand off the wheel, and slowly, over time, it all went away, and your life became about, you know, ‘Is the mail here yet?’ I always think about that.” But this dream of disengagement quickly gave way: in the space of a few minutes, sitting in weak sun on a New Jersey driveway, smoking a cigarette, Baldwin imagined himself as the restaurant critic of the Times; the proprietor of an inn near Syracuse; and the presenter of a classical-music show on public radio. “I could do that,” he said, and he wasn’t exactly joking. He cares about classical music; he began to take an interest in his twenties. (Perhaps not surprisingly, he adores Mahler and can’t quite see the point of Mozart.) “To sit there in the studio and just say”—a rich radio voice—“ ‘And now Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, with Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.’ Click. Hit a button, and then you sit back and listen, and they pay you for that. And I can’t imagine they pay you as much as the movies, but to me it’s getting to that point where there’s just something else I want to do. I don’t know what it is. I’m tired of being somebody else. I spend the waking hours of my life saying things that other people think and say and do. And behaving as someone else. I’m tired of it. I want to be me! I want to be myself!”

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

David Chase answered one of life's most enduring questions Tuesday night. One that has baffled the greatest minds of the last decade.

No, not what came first, the chicken or the egg? Or if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? The real question everyone has been asking, of course, is the one that has eluded the most elite television scholars since May 6, 2001: What happened to the Russian in the woods?

Chase, the creator and voice of "The Sopranos," spoke to a crowd of a few hundred gathered at the Writers' Guild to discuss all things "Sopranos." The event was an homage to Chase, this year's recipient of the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

After thoroughly enjoying the Turner Classic Movies special last night, "Role Model: Gene Wilder," I have to say it was as good as advertised.

Those firmly camped in middle age like me will remember Wilder as the comic foil in two of the funniest films of the 1970s, if not ever, with "Young Frankenstein" and "Blazing Saddles," both from the bizarro mind of Mel Brooks. Both pics remain indelibly etched in my brain, with scenes from each making me laugh louder than the next.

From the opening shot with Wilder, as the good doctor, sticking a scalpel in his leg, to trying to delicately discuss Marty Feldman's humps, to asking Teri Garr to "put the candle back!," Wilder was wildly underrated in "Frankenstein" and other comedic gems. He played the straight man with Zero Mostel in "The Producers," moved on to "Frankenstein" and "Saddles," where he developed a huge following, and then, only a few years later, co-starred with Richard Pryor in "Silver Streak" and "Stir Crazy." It was quite a run, indeed.

Alec Baldwin did a nice job of setting a pleasant tone and getting Wilder to recall how he felt working on those films, his initial meeting with Brooks, his on-set relationship with Pryor (and how drugs affected Pryor's performances) and his comfort zone in front of the camera compared to being on stage.

When Wilder chatted about his relationship with comedy icon Gilda Radner, it was hard to believe that it's been 19 years since she passed away and that he's been married to his second wife for 16 years now.

Anyway, there's certainly no shortage of celebrity interviews on the air these days -- "Inside the Actors Studio" is still probably the best at it -- but it felt good to see Wilder, who's pretty much retired from showbiz and lives in Connecticut, far away from the hubbub of L.A., to get his due in an interview that felt not too fawning or personal.

In an era where some actors don't know when to step away, Wilder's virtual disappearance from film and TV (he last appeared in "Will and Grace" about five years ago) has worked to his benefit.

I made a point of taking home the "30 Rock" season preem screener when it arrived earlier in the week.

I wanted the seg to live up to the show's Emmy win for best comedy. It even boasts Jerry Seinfeld...but the upshot was, I liked it, didn't love it. That's kinda how I felt about the show last season, even after friends kept opining how much funnier it became in the second half of its frosh year.

In the sophomore season opener, "SeinfeldVision," which airs next week, there seems to be a concerted effort to put a wee bit of heart in the show, and to Tina Fey's Liz Lemon TV producer character in particular.

"I think it's going to be my year," Lemon declares at the top of the episode -- signaling of course that things are about to go awry.

For me, "30 Rock" is still a little bit too clever for its own good, what with its endless inside-the-Peacock references. Alec Baldwin, however, makes takes the edge off every time he's on screen. I've watched the show more than once wondering if I wouldn't like it more if Baldwin's nutty TV exec character Jack Donaghy was the main focus.

The "30 Rock" definitely has its moments. As the network prepares to launch a new season, Donaghy gets the bright idea to use old NBC footage of Seinfeld to digitally insert him into new episodes of shows ("Heroes" and "Deal or No Deal" among them). When the real Seinfeld returns from vacationing in an exclusive European enclave that only super-rich people know about, he takes exception with the "SeinfeldVision" campaign, forcing some fancy footwork by Jack.

NBC Universal's pre-Emmy party at Spago on Saturday night was as relaxed as a shoulder-to-shoulder schmoozefest can be. Place was hopping with NBC U execs, agents, scribes and helmers and stars of NBC U productions -- it seemed everywhere you looked there was a staffer from "The Office" or a savior from "Heroes" holding court.

"Heroes" trouper Hayden Panettiere looked particularly fetching in a white minidress that flattered her cheerleader-worthy figure. Alec Baldwin of "30 Rock" was surrounded by a hub of well-wishers and back-slappers. Kathy Griffin picked up compliments while in line in the ladies room for her win  (unveiled at the Creative Arts ceremony) for Bravo's "My Life on the D-List"; there was some discussion of whether her show's title needed to be adjusted in light of her victory. And there was much chatter throughout the night at Spago of the goings-on the previous night at the private affair thrown by new NBC U co-chairman Ben Silverman and impresario Brent Bolthouse. (Among the more talked-about elements of the affair at a rented 10,000-square-foot mansion in the Hollywood Hills: the caged tiger that greeted guests, the number of bikinis running around, and of course, Paris Hilton).

NBC U graciously pushed back the start time of its Spago party to 8:30 p.m. to accommodate the dance cards of those who also attended Saturday's "Evening Before" benefit in Century City for the Motion Picture Television Fund home, co-sponsored by Variety. Among those who took in both parties on Saturday were "Top Chef" star Tom Colicchio, whose new Century City restaurant Craft pitched in with "Evening Before."

(Sorry, no pics posted yet of the NBC U party. Above shot of Kathy Griffin at the Sept. 8 Creative Arts ceremony by Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage.com.)