30 Rock at 20: Which Cast Member Had the Best Second Act?
Twenty years ago last Sunday, on October 11, 2006, NBC aired the pilot of 30 Rock, a sitcom about a sketch show that was really about the people who keep one alive. It also landed on Jane Krakowski's birthday, which feels very Jenna Maroney. Seven seasons, three straight Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series and one remote reunion special later, the TGS crew scattered across Netflix, a Tom Cruise franchise and at least one animated robot. Here is where each of them went, and the one thing from each worth your evening.
Tina Fey kept building ensembles
Tina Fey went straight back to the writers' room. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, co-created with 30 Rock's Robert Carlock in 2015, is the obvious sequel in spirit. The pick, though, is The Four Seasons, the Netflix comedy she co-created with Tracey Wigfield and Lang Fisher and stars in alongside Steve Carell, Will Forte and Colman Domingo. It is a comedy-drama inspired by Alan Alda's 1981 film, and it is warmer than anything that happened at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Its second season arrived this May, with Fey directing for the first time on the episode "Funky Motel", and a third is coming. Her producing shelf, from Great News to Mr. Mayor and Girls5eva, is in the rail below.
Alec Baldwin joined the spies
Alec Baldwin entered the Mission: Impossible series with Rogue Nation in 2015 and came back for Mission: Impossible Fallout in 2018. For a bigger TV role, the miniseries Dr. Death (2021) puts him opposite Jamie Dornan and Christian Slater.
Tracy Morgan got his own show
In 2018 Tracy Morgan began starring as Tray Barker in TBS's The Last O.G., which ran four seasons through 2021. Then catch the reunion: this January brought The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, an NBC sports mockumentary from Carlock and Sam Means, produced by Fey, with Morgan opposite Daniel Radcliffe.
Jane Krakowski found Jenna's richer cousins
Krakowski followed Fey to Kimmy Schmidt as the socialite Jacqueline White, which earned her a fifth Emmy nomination. The pick is Schmigadoon! (2021 to 2023), where the Tony winner plays The Countess in a musical comedy that finally uses everything she has.
Jack McBrayer took Kenneth's sweetness into animation
Jack McBrayer voiced the title character across 79 episodes of Craig McCracken's Wander Over Yonder (2013 to 2016), a lead built on the same bottomless good cheer as Kenneth. He also returned as Fix-It Felix in Ralph Breaks the Internet and turned up as a voice in Murderbot last year.
Judah Friedlander stayed a stand-up
Judah Friedlander has called stand-up his first true love, and his 2017 Netflix special America is the Greatest Country in the United States, which he also directed and edited, is not in our catalog yet. On screen, find him as Ron von Kleinenstein in Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (2015), a return to the camp comedy he appeared in back in 2001.
Scott Adsit became Baymax
Scott Adsit played Pete Hornberger, the quietly drowning producer of TGS. In 2014 he voiced the huggable robot in Big Hero 6, then carried Baymax into Big Hero 6 The Series and the Disney+ miniseries Baymax!.
The verdict
Fey had the busiest twenty years and Krakowski the most fun, but the most interesting second act belongs to Adsit. Big Hero 6 producer Roy Conli named the problem: “The fact that his character is a robot limits how you can emote, but Scott was hilarious.” Adsit turned that limit into the whole performance. Pete's comedy of restraint, seven seasons of a man swallowing panic, finally got pointed at something tender.
As for the rewatch, start with season three. It is the show at full speed: 22 episodes, a then-record 22 Emmy nominations, wins for Outstanding Comedy Series, for Baldwin and for the writing of "Reunion", and Oprah Winfrey playing herself. One caution: four episodes from seasons three, five and six were pulled from streaming in 2020 at Fey and Carlock's request, so expect a gap. Finish with 30 Rock: A One-Time Special from 2020, then pick one name below and keep going.
