30 Rock Mocks NBC's Lack of Diversity
Tonight's 30 Rock? AMAZING. The episode was tight, chock-full of big name guest stars (Rob Reiner and Queen Latifah), funny as ever and deliciously meta—as in, "Let's mock NBC's huge lack of black people!" meta. Video highlights inside.
Here's the setup: Jack had to go to Congress to push NBC's deal with Kabletown, and—while he thought it'd be a piece of cake—he ran into a problem with Rep. Regina Bookman (played by Latifah), who lambasted the fact that NBC didn't have enough black people in its lineup. Watch what happened when Bookman confronted Jack about the issue (and look for the best Law & Order joke in a while):
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Jack's solution? Have Tracy, Grizz, Dot Com and everyone else create some new programming for the network—and also promote James to co-head writer with Liz (who agreed with the plan). Here's the brainstorming session, as well as a flashback to the Congressional hearing that featured yet another amazing bit from Latifah:
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How did things turn out? Well, not so great. First, James and Liz went on an African American-themed talk show to discuss his ascension to co-head writer, but Liz kept trying to take credit for everything (and ended up being escorted out by security).
After that, Rep. Bookman decided to visit 30 Rock and check on the progress of NBC's diversity project, and complications—several of them, all hilarious—arose:
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All's well that ends well, right? Except for the fact that the episode actually ended with Rep. Bookman telling Jack that he had three months to turn things around at the network before she killed the NBC/Kabletown deal.
Stay tuned!