When I heard that 30 Rock was bringing Mad Men’s John Slattery on as a guest star, I had assumed that the character was going to be smart and slick, like Roger Sterling. Boy, was I wrong. It was a pleasant surprise to see that 30 Rock went in the completely opposite direction, having Slattery play a complete buffoon of a political candidate. Jack thought that Steve Austin was going to be the answer in getting Congresswoman Bookman off his back about the NBC/Kabletown merger. Unfortunately for Jack, he turned out to be such an enormous nut job that even Jack had to do the right thing and cut him loose.
I enjoyed Slattery in the episode. I thought he did a really great job as candidate Steve Austin. Sure, the character was completely over the top, but that’s nothing new for 30 Rock. The character also cemented my belief that just about every good Boston accent is done by people from Boston. I had no idea where Slattery was from, but as I was watching the episode I heard the good accent that he was doing and looked him up on IMDb. Lo and behold — he grew up in Boston.
Elsewhere, it was 30 Rock as usual: Jenna and Tracy were acting crazy, Liz struggled with a moral quandary, and Kenneth was happily catering to everyone else. I have been enjoying the season long story line featuring Hard to Watch, Tracy’s movie, which seems destined to land him an Oscar. It was so good, it even caused Jenna to change her selfish ways for a moment.
As always, there were some great quotes in the episode:
“Good God. Lemon, those jeans make you look like a Mexican sports reporter.” – Jack to Liz
“I live like a cowboy by buying quality, locally made jeans. Also, by eating beans out of a can due to impatience.” – Liz
“You were right about Brooklyn Without Limits. Crunchy on the outside, right wing nutjob on the inside.” – Liz
“Like Anne Coulter’s underwear.” – Jack
“You are going to win, and when you do I’ll be furious, like waking up next to Rob Schneider furious” – Jenna, on Tracy’s chances for a Golden Globe
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Nov 11, 2010 @ 21:35 EST5EDT
Is it just me or does ’30 Rock’ overtly enjoy driving the ad men of ‘Mad Men’ slowly insane? Either way, it was an enjoyable ep.
Slattery played the perfect Tea Party candidate. Nothing he said was any dumber or farther out than mice with implanted human brains, or dabbling in witchcraft, or being against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or fantasizing about all the beheadings going on in Arizona, or swinging a bat while campaigning and threatening to “take out” reporters, or telling a Hispanic students group that they looked more like Asians, or handcuffing reporters at a publicity event for attempting to ask questions, or not knowing that the first amendment said anything about church and state. And I’m leaving out the head stomping, since I can’t attribute that directly to the candidate the guy who did it worked for.
Finally I know how it must feel to watch Glenn Beck and agree with him. I stood behind everything Steve Austin said. Even without the nanananananana sound he used to make.