The Quad

Issue date: 10/8/07 Section: Entertainment

On Monday, Oct. 1, 2007, The Quad had the opportunity to participate in a conference call with the creator and star of the hit Emmy-award winning television series "30 Rock," Tina Fey. Fey, who became famous as the co-anchor on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segment, spoke to The Quad about her career, both past and present, as well as details behind the premise of her show.

Fey told The Quad, "...My life was always based around work more than [...] dating and single lady stuff. That's not really my milieu as it were."

"So I wanted to write a workplace comedy. And then once I sort of figured out that I would like to try to write a thing that was sort of me and Tracy and Alec, even though I never really thought we'd get Alec, once that sort of triangle came about, [...] then this idea came about."

Fey also shared the way certain characters from "30 Rock" came into existence. When asked if her character "Liz" was based on herself, Fey replied, "…my first name is Elizabeth, but I've always gone by Tina even in, you know, from elementary school on. But yeah, [...] Liz is absolutely a version of me. She's this - some things where she's different than me, but she's mostly just pretty close to me."

Fey also responded to questions regarding the other performers involved on the show. SNL alum Tracy Morgan, who plays a caricature of himself on the show named "Tracy Jordan," co-stars with Fey.

"I feel like I know Tracy's strengths as a performer when we write for him. And he knows the kind of thing that we're looking for from him. So it's nice. It makes things easier."

Regarding her producer Lorne Michaels, who has been a producer at Saturday Night Live since 1976, Fey had the following to say: "…Lorne and I have a great relationship and he's just a great producer and person to be able to go to. He's just been doing this for so long and really knows how TV works and he's great."

Another fine facet to "30 Rock" is the presence of veteran actor Alec Baldwin, who plays Liz's boss "Jack Donaghy." Fey explained, "He is sort of a hybrid of a lot of people. There are definitely times where we take elements of Lorne Michaels personality and put in there and he knows that it's - but it's probably a small portion of what the Jack Donagee character is."

Fey elaborated, "...The whole corporate world and conservatism is nothing like Lorne and that sort of comes mostly from wanting to see Alec play so much the opposite of what he is because he's so liberal that it's just we try to go to the opposite of him."

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools