\n\tNote: This is an \u201cI want to go to there\u201d-free zone<\/p>\n
Over the course of its silly-glorious seven-year run, 30 Rock<\/a> in-jokingly skewered every cultural and media taboo with what might be called an air of welcoming insiderism.<\/p>\n Over the course of 100 minutes at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday night, the 30 Rock 20th Anniversary Reunion did pretty much the same thing, all while mildly flexing that more than 13 years after the show went off the air, yes, they did kind of predict everything.<\/p>\n \u201cSo much of what we wrote actually came true,\u201d said a (fittingly unidentified) member of the writing staff from the stage.<\/p>\n Tina Fey<\/a> got the gang back together Sunday night down the block from the real 30 Rock with exactly zero cast members from Milf Island (but plenty of other surprise guests) \u2014 and on the exact 20th anniversary of the show\u2019s debut besides. She actually wasn\u2019t planning on doing anything to mark the moment until Jack McBrayer, at a lunch she had with him on a trip to Los Angeles last year, suggested maybe they do some kind of reunion. \u201cI think he meant, like, a cast dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n But here they were instead inside Radio City Music Hall in front of 6,000 screaming fans finishing every line and going crazy for every what-am-I-a-farmer, what-is-this-horseville, how-do-you-do-fellow-kids, Bijou-adult-hotline and water-bug-on-a-channel-changer reference, and ten more that cut even deeper. If you\u2019ve ever looked upon Comic-con and said \u201cI don\u2019t know that I could ever get so crazy about Marvel but I\u2019d go nuts if a Peak TV-era singlecam got everyone together to throw down some Easter Eggs,\u201d this was your event.<\/p>\n Quick disclaimer, on that score, before the details. If you are a 30 Rock superfan, as I am, you get it. You\u2019ve seen the whole series 3, 4, 5 who-knows-how-many times through. Everyday situations and lines remind you of bits that you feel compelled to quote, and you jump out of your seat when an obvious opportunity is missed. You spend half your socializing time trying to convince people who never watched the show to do so and the other half quietly judging them because they never will. And you hold the belief, at bottom, that there are two kinds of people in the world: 30 Rock stans and people whose life has gone terribly off track. Or as someone I know once said, with apologies to John Waters, \u201cif you go home with somebody and they say they don\u2019t \u2018get\u2019 30 Rock, kill them.\u201d<\/p>\n Quick additional disclaimer. This reunion was weirdly stealth. OK, Fey, Robert Carlock & Co. didn\u2019t want to stream or record the proceedings. Makes sense. Gotta buy a ticket and be there. But the organizers also didn\u2019t even seem to want press coverage; a LiveNation rep told me after I made a press-pass inquiry that \u201cthis event is not for coverage for review.\u201d Fortunately, Vivid Seats still exists. (Fey did ask the audience not to shoot video, because \u201cwe\u2019re not shooting it either\u201d and it would \u201cglitch like a Hall of Presidents video.\u201d The request was delivered lightly and respectfully, and everyone in the room that this reporter could see, including this reporter, obliged, at least for most of the night.)<\/p>\n Fey promised an \u201coverly ambitious grab-bag of nonsense,\u201d and the audience got nothing less (or more). The evening brought a whole series of 30 Rock-themed sketches, like Jenna singing a medley of her fictional songs (despite the lack of a cam-a-ra), Jackie Jormp-Jomp and the Rural Juror and all the others, while McBrayer presided over a game show in which Fey and Tracy Morgan<\/a> had to finish their lines from the clips lest Lutz, standing next to them, get tazed. Morgan didn\u2019t do so well, prompting Fey to jibe \u201cdid you even watch the program?\u201d The least he could have done was Google himself.<\/p>\n In the hallways of the stately venue, meanwhile, fans had no trouble recalling all the zingers, or debating their favorite episode. (The correct answer, obviously, is \u201cBrooklyn Without Limits.\u201d<\/a>) Merch stands were populated with shirts like \u201cThe Problem\u201d and \u201cSolvers,\u201d and their proceeds, like the whole shebang, benefited the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, which Fey joked was a make-good of sorts after Tracy Jordan messed up that commercial<\/a> so many times. Tracy didn\u2019t exactly prepare for that spot, and the reunion cast, Fey said, followed in that spirit. \u201cNo one has seen this show before \u2014 including us, because we haven\u2019t rehearsed it,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n In addition to most series regulars, plenty of 30 Rock\u2018s many guest stars appeared \u2014 Conan O\u2019Brien kicking off the night with a characteristic self-deprecating bit about how he lost out to less worthy men like Jon Hamm and Jason Sudeikis to play Liz\u2019s love interest; Tom Hanks giving an award for fan-chosen best guest star (Elaine Stritch, obvi); Brian Williams setting up a standout sketch involving Jack making jokes about the modern Trumpian climate (more on that in a second); John McEnroe getting somehow in the mix for reasons that are unclear (though he did not praise any kidz got singing); and Hamm, as Dr. Drew Baird replete with hooks, part of a Scott Adsit-hosted sketch involving \u201cLiz Lemon\u2019s Boyfriends\u201d in a throwback Bachelor No. 1 type show with a fan as the contestant. (Dr. Drew lost to Dennis Duffy. Conan was on that too, though Adsit kept wondering why he wasn\u2019t Matt Damon.)<\/p>\n Then there was the prediction stuff. You have to admit, the prescience is a little creepy The reunion ran through a diverse set of examples, including Jerry Seinfeld digitally replicated in dozens of NBC shows from S1, which it paired with headlines about Tilly Norwood, and Dr. Spaceman\u2019s Surgeon General-finale triumph, intimated as foreshadowing the Robert Kennedy Jr. madness. Among many others. (Chris Parnell gave a pretty solid in-character monologue, btw.) <\/p>\n You could feel the cast enthusiasm \u2014 Kevin Brown, who played Dot-Com, even came early to a pre-show fan event, hanging with his daughter and warmly answering questions just because. The sight of him without Grizz reminded of all that was lost and, indeed, a tribute to the late members of the crew and the real-life Grizz Chapman, who died earlier this year <\/a>of kidney disease, offered a poignant palate-cleanse from the hijinks.<\/p>\n Even some who weren\u2019t on the stage turned up to the theater, including Lonny Ross, the \u201cJosh\u201d actor who was on the first three seasons but was not invited to nor \u2014 at least as he told some fans in the Radio City hallway \u2014 even comped a ticket for Sunday night\u2019s reunion. (I mean, you can\u2019t hook a dude up?) He paid $2,000 to get in on his own.<\/p>\n The best sketch of the night had Maulik Pancholy as Jonathan telling Alec Baldwin<\/a> as Jack the major news event of every year as the calendar flipped and Baldwin responding from his desk as Donaghy would have.<\/p>\n To answer the big question: the famous Romney-Reagan Republican does NOT turn out to be a Trumper, but not for the reasons you\u2019d expect. No, he opposes the president for a different reason: Trump is bad at business.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, he lost money operating a casino.\u201d Baldwin said as Jack. \u201cThat\u2019s like not getting a handjob in theater camp.\u201d<\/p>\n Donaghy also took aim at Jan 6 insurrectionists, sort of. \u201cAnimals,\u201d he said of those who attacked the Capitol. \u201cWhen I defecate on Nancy Pelosi\u2019s desk I look her in the eye.\u201d And he roasted a mogul in a manner that may be\u2026a little too doc-timely<\/a>. Asked if he wants to know the 2024 election tally as that November night unfolds, Jack says, \u201cNo. Elon showed me the final results weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Donaghy also sat in front of a number of other in-character cast members and recalled how they ended up in the Epstein Files. (Jenna pretended to be a \u201cBelarusian teen runaway\u201d to get the attention of Ghislaine Maxwell.)<\/p>\n