Cast and crew of 30 Rock brace for the end
Show’s finale a mystery, but don’t expect Liz and Jack to get together
As cast and crew work their way through the final season of 30 Rock, executive producer Robert Carlock says the impact of ending the comedy that has wowed the critics but struggled for ratings has yet to hit.
“I think in those last couple of episodes, maybe, people will maybe start to act out and pick fights to make breaking up easier,” Carlock joked in a telephone interview.
The series, which parodies the behind-the-scenes world of a live sketch comedy show à la Saturday Night Live, will have a shortened seventh season of 13 episodes rather than the average 22.
Episode 1 premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. on Citytv and NBC.
“In terms of the day-to-day, we’re used to always feeling like tomorrow is going to be the last day, so it hasn’t felt too different,” Carlock added, alluding to 30 Rock’s perennially tenuous place in the lineup.
“It kind of feels like your senior year of high school where you’re having fun . . . but you know on graduation day you’re going to be choking back tears and hugging people that you never even spoke to,” said Jack McBrayer, who plays Kenneth, the folksy page at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
With work on episodes 4 and 5 underway, the series’ hour-long finale remains a mystery, Carlock said.
“We don’t quite know what the ending is. We have a shorter runway than usual to do a lot of stuff and we want to give everyone closure, even if it’s in our own weird way,” he said, though he torpedoed the possibility that head writer Liz Lemon (played by Fey) and network exec Jack Donaghy (played by Alec Baldwin) would eventually find love with each other. “The idea of the two of them get- ting together always felt a little like an uncle and a niece to me,” said Carlock. “But we’re certainly gratified that there are people who are so invested in that chemistry and that rela- tionship that they would want to see that go farther.”
Carlock said he’s frequently asked why the show hasn’t drawn a wider audience despite critical praise and a raft of Emmys.
“Honestly, it’s something every year, including this year, we ask ourselves: how can we make it the show we wanted it to be back in 2006 in terms of just being a giant hit? We may be whistling in the wind at this point,” Carlock said.
“The only thing that Tina and I always said from the beginning is this: just let us end this on our own terms and the fact that we’re doing that at the end of seven years — a slightly truncated seven years — is all that we could ask for,” he added.
McBrayer said being part of the show has been “a real treat.”
“Considering that I have been expecting this show to end immediately since it began, it’s a miracle that it has lasted as long as it has.”