Last Thursday night's episode of "30 Rock" became the first scripted skein to feature a writers' strike gag -- something that was clearly snuck in prior to the show's work stoppage.
In the episode, network president Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) falls in love with brassy C.C. (guest star Edie Falco). But while watching MSNBC, he discovers that C.C. is a powerful Democrat congresswoman -- a fact that could derail the very conservative Donaghy's plans to take over the top gig at GE.
But check out the newscrawl at the bottom of the fake MSNBC newscast: In a "TiVo-it-or-you'll-miss-it" moment, it reads, "NEWS CRAWL AFFECTED BY WRITERS STRIKE -- USING REPEAT TEXT FROM PREVIOUS SEASON."
(By the way, how meta are these photos: They're shots I took off my TV screen, of Alec Baldwin watching another TV screen! So no, that Sharp HDTV isn't mine, it's the one Baldwin is watching. Yes, trippy.)
-- Michael Schneider
Michael, Edie Falco's character is a powerful DemocratIC congresswoman. Conservative radio hosts have been trying to turn "democrat" into an adjective (with a perjorative slant) for years. Please don't help them.
Posted by: Spike | November 21, 2007 at 03:43 PM
Michael -- great catch on the "30 Rock" crawl.
Wrote about you and your find and photo on my tvworthwatching.com website today, along with the pro-strike sentiment Chuck Lorre slipped into last week's "Two and a Half Men." You guys at Variety keep up the great work!
Posted by: David Bianculli | November 24, 2007 at 06:49 AM