30 Rock returns to roll the dicey
04/10/08 02:08 PM
By ED BARK
Google "MILF" and you'll quickly understand why NBC is playing with fire on Thursday's post-strike return of its Peabody-winning 30 Rock.
The first of five new episodes, airing in the network's ostensibly "family friendly" 7:30 p.m. (central) slot, bears the grin-and-bare-it subtitle of "MILF Island." It's one of fictional NBC programming head Jack Donaghy's (Alec Baldwin) proudest achievements. So he's understandably riveted by a season finale pitting busty, bikini-clad Debra against busty, bikini-clad DeBORah.
The shorthand description of the show -- "20 MILFs, 50 eighth grade boys, no rules" -- begs the question of its overall premise: "But who will be the final mommy you'd like to -- oh, you know."
Sounds perfect for the real-life NBC's reality-infested summer schedule. For now, though, it's just a fantasy isle, and certainly beneath rarefied Liz Lemon (Tina Fey, above), maestro of The Girlie Show. Donaghy wants her to write for a spinoff starring DeBORah, but Lemon views MILF Island as "kind of lowest common denominator," given that one of the competitions has the women eating bugs to win tampons.
Evictees are required to shed their bikini tops and toss them into a campfire on "Erection Cove." Only one competitor was killed in the line of duty, but "she had too much champagne and a monkey knocked her into the quicksand," a male TGF staffer says dismissively. "It could happen anywhere."
A subplot finds Donaghy on the receiving end of an unattributed New York Post gossip item in which he's branded a "Class A moron" by one of his employees. Furthermore, "That guy can eat my poo."
Might this jeopardize his planned rise to the top as chairman of NBC? No, that's probably an attribute, given the current ratings-impaired state of real-life NBC. Har dee hoo hah.
This isn't one of 30 Rock's funnier episodes, but it's hard to envision being much more daring on an advertiser-supported broadcast network during prime-time's earliest hour. Be sure to keep an eye out at the end for the surprise co-producer of MILF Island. And let's also applaud the show's eventual winner, of whom its Jeff Probst-like host says, "She manipulated, she lied, she got a pretty bad staph infection."
Man, they're pushin' it.
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