Seinfeld returns to bury NBC, not to praise it
Good thing "30 Rock" just won the Emmy as outstanding comedy, because its scabrous satire touches a little too close to home where NBC executives are concerned when it begins its second season tonight.
Jerry Seinfeld returns as a guest star in the season premiere at 7:30 on WMAQ Channel 5 in a plot about how execs are so desperately clueless to return to the glory days of the network they'll do anything to get Jerry Seinfeld to make a guest appearance.
See what I mean? This show might be in danger if those same execs didn't need it so much to succeed.
As a guest stunt, it's funny, but also a little too close to the truth. Tonight's episode finds Alec Baldwin's network honcho Jack Donaghy suffering the consequences from digitally slipping old "Seinfeld" footage into other shows over the summer in an attempt to boost ratings. Seinfeld arrives to tell him to cease and desist -- while also dealing with Jack McBrayer's fawning network intern Kenneth (a symbol incarnate of TV smarm).
Sound desperate? Not as desperate as NBC really seemed last spring, when then-Entertainment President Kevin Reilly announced that Seinfeld would be making little appearances on the network during station breaks to plug his new film, "Bee Movie," and, of course, to generate interest, any sort of interest, in his old network. The bits seemed forced, stupid and embarrassed everyone involved.
Reilly has since been removed, and the "Bee Movie" bits seem to have been scaled back (although they could pop up closer to the movie's November opening). Still, NBC remains as desperate as ever. So when Seinfeld says tonight, "What is wrong with you people? What happened to this network?" his incredulity is more than merely comical.
Using the network's reigning old star to attack the network itself is also probably something of a defense mechanism for "30 Rock" and its creator and star, Tina Fey. The show did, in fact, just win the Emmy as top comedy, and while it could use a ratings boost it wouldn't seem to need to resort to a guest-stunt from Seinfeld to build interest. It's funny on its own.
That's amply evident tonight when Seinfeld isn't on the screen, and instead Fey's writer-producer Liz Lemon at the "Saturday Night Live"-style show she works at has to deal with a suddenly overweight Jane Krakowski as Jenna Maroney. Having starred on Broadway over the summer in "Mystic Pizza: The Musical" (a lovely bit of show-biz satire in itself), she's in no shape to do comedy -- or anything else on TV, for that matter. They say the camera adds 10 pounds, but that's nothing like the pounds you add on Broadway eating a pizza every night and two on matinee days.
"She needs to lose 30 pounds or gain 60," Jack says. "In between, there's no place in television."
So look for "30 Rock" to draw in the curious tonight and, one hopes, keep them watching when it returns to its usual top form in the weeks ahead. It's testimony to the show's high quality that it doesn't need cheap ratings stunts -- not even ones involving Jerry Seinfeld.
Just how far has NBC fallen since the glory days of "Must-See TV" on Thursdays? Where once it was protective of its most precious night of programming, now it doesn't mind letting its cable sibling station USA chip off a piece of the audience -- with one of its own old shows.
"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" moves from NBC to USA with its season debut at 9 p.m. today, yes, opposite "ER" (and "Without a Trace" and "Big Shots"). The weakest of the "Law & Order" series from a ratings standpoint, it is nevertheless perhaps the best of the bunch with its fine acting ensemble, led by Vincent D'Onofrio and Chris Noth.
"L&O: CI" has no doubt had its budget cut in the move to cable, but tonight finds it still in good form, with D'Onofrio as tense, fidgety and explosive as ever as Detective Goren, and with Kathryn Erbe as his partner, Detective Eames. She has to deal with personal anguish and professional difficulties when the partner of her late-husband cop is killed as well, forcing her to relive the experience with the widow as they try to solve the crime.
In fact, it's likely a better program than "ER," which will show you just how far NBC has fallen.
In the air
Remotely interesting: CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" led all shows among last Thursday's premieres with 25.2 million viewers nationally, ahead of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" with 20.9 million. "Survivor XV: China" won at 7 with 14.2 million viewers, ahead of "Ugly Betty" with 11.2 million and "My Name Is Earl" with 8.7 million. "The Office" did only moderately better at 9.7 million. CBS' "Without a Trace" also won at 9, beating "ER" and "Big Shots."
The new weekly video podcast of "Sesame Street" is the top video downloaded on Apple's iTunes. Find it at itunes.com or at sesameworkshop.org/podcasts.
End of the dial: WGN 720-AM was named Major Market Station of the Year in the National Association of Broadcasters' Marconi Radio Awards.
Rafael Pulido of WOJO 105.1-FM won the Marconi for Spanish Format Personality.
-- Ted Cox