The Funcooker

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"The Funcooker"
30 Rock episode
Episode no.Season 3
Episode 14
Directed byKen Whittingham
Written byTom Ceraulo
Donald Glover
Production code314
Original air dateMarch 12, 2009 (2009-03-12)
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
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"The Funcooker" is the fourteenth episode of the third season of the American television comedy series 30 Rock. It was written by Tom Ceraulo and Donald Glover, and directed by Ken Whittingham. The episode originally aired on NBC on March 12, 2009. Guest stars in this episode include Jackie Hoffman, Nancy O'Dell, and Chris Parnell.

In the episode,

Dr. Leo Spaceman
's (Parnell) help so she can work on TGS and her movie.

"The Funcooker" received generally positive reviews from television critics. According to the

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Ken Whittingham won the NAACP Image Award
for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for "The Funcooker".

Plot

TGS head writer Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) is assigned to solve a public relations problem caused by the show's stars, Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski), during their hosting duties of the St. Patrick's Day parade, in which Jenna passed out and Tracy cursed during the live television broadcast. To make things worse, Liz is summoned to jury duty and cannot avoid it despite claiming to be Princess Leia. When she leaves for jury duty, she does not leave anyone in charge and allows the staff to go without direction—until later when she puts NBC page Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) in charge after learning that the staff have gotten out of hand. Liz is on a court case about a woman, named Rochelle Gaulke (Jackie Hoffman), whose work life and frustrations parallel her own; the two both have employees named Tracy and Jenna, both believe their employees waste their time, and make their lives difficult.

Meanwhile, Jenna, worn out from working on TGS during the day and on her unlicensed

Sue LaRoche-Van der Hout (Sue Galloway
), to this task. After their unsuccessful attempts, Kenneth suggests "The Funcooker" which Jack decides is the perfect name.

Back at the studios, the taping of TGS is interrupted by Dr. Spaceman who desperately forces Jenna to sleep because she might die like one of his test rats. Tracy creates a diversion by dropping his trousers and exposing his buttocks, which he refers to as the "Funcooker". Everyone realizes that this is where Kenneth heard the name. Fed up with the chaos, Liz sends the entire show's staff—including Kenneth and Dr. Spaceman—to her office. Liz ponders over a box of matches and thinks of the woman in court, in which she admitted to committing arson as a way of getting back at her out-of-control employees. She accidentally does start a small fire which is quickly put out but scares everyone out of their bad behavior.

Production

Donald Glover (pictured) wrote "The Funcooker" along with co-writer Tom Ceraulo

"The Funcooker" was written by script co-coordinator Tom Ceraulo and that season's executive story editor Donald Glover, and was directed by Ken Whittingham.[1] This episode was Ceraulo's first writing credit, and second written episode by Glover. This was Whittingham's first 30 Rock directed episode, and would later return to helm the fourth season episode "Anna Howard Shaw Day".[2] "The Funcooker" originally aired on NBC in the United States on March 12, 2009.

Actor

Dr. Leo Spaceman in this episode, has appeared in the main cast of Saturday Night Live (SNL),[3] a weekly sketch comedy series which airs on NBC in the United States. Series' creator, executive producer and lead actress Tina Fey was the head writer on SNL from 1999 until 2006.[4] Fey and Tracy Morgan have both been part of the main cast of SNL.[5] This was Parnell's tenth appearance as Dr. Spaceman. Actress and stand-up comedian Jackie Hoffman also guest starred, as Rochelle Gaulke, on this episode.[6] Nancy O'Dell, then-anchor of the entertainment news program, Access Hollywood, played herself in "The Funcooker" in which she reads an apology written by NBC on Tracy Jordan's behalf.[7] O'Dell had previously appeared in the 30 Rock episode "Señor Macho Solo".[8]

Pete Hornberger (Scott Adsit),[10] and dressed up as the Star Wars character Princess Leia during four recent Halloweens,[11] and while trying to get out of jury duty in Chicago.[12] Star Wars is also referenced when Tracy takes on the identity of the character Chewbacca.[13] Fey, a fan of Star Wars herself, said that the weekly Star Wars joke or reference "started happening organically" when the crew realized that they had a Star Wars reference "in almost every show". Fey said that from then on "it became a thing where [they] tried to keep it going", and that even though they could not include one in every episode, they still had a "pretty high batting average". Fey attributed most of the references to executive producer and writer Robert Carlock, whom she described as "the resident expert".[14]

Reception

Tracy Morgan submitted this episode due to his nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

According to the Nielsen ratings system, "The Funcooker" was watched by 6.4 million households in its original American broadcast.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards for his work in this episode,[18] but lost it to actor Jon Cryer.[19] Ken Whittingham, director of this episode, won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series at the 41st NAACP Image Awards ceremony.[20]

The episode received generally positive reviews.

TV Squad was grateful that the episode focused on NBC, TGS, and the work of the staff. Sassone wrote that despite "The Funcooker" not being "the most laugh-out-loud episode" he believed it was still funny.[23] The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin praised Jackie Hoffman's performance, noting that her monologue in court was brilliant. He enjoyed all of the episode's storylines, except for Tracy's, which he opined fell flat. In conclusion, Rabin gave this episode a B+ rating.[24] Television columnist Alan Sepinwall wrote that an episode like "The Funcooker" is "really instructive about why a lot of other shows ... haven't quite worked. Even when they have lots of funny things in them, they never really build to a climax in the way that this one did, as everything went wrong at once." Sepinwall enjoyed Tina Fey's Liz in the episode, noting that her craziness worked well, but his concern was that when Liz loses it "there's nobody sane for her to push against."[25]

References

  1. ^ "30 Rock: Episodes". London: Screenrush (AlloCiné). Retrieved 2010-05-26.
  2. ^ "Ken Whittingham". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2010-07-21.
  3. ^ Barrett, Annie (2006-12-07). "What SNL alums besides Chris Parnell should guest on 30 Rock?". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-03-19.
  4. ^ Goodwin, Christopher (2008-05-11). "And funny with it". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
  5. ^ Fickett, Travis (2006-10-17). "IGN Interview: 30 Rock's Tracy Morgan". IGN. Archived from the original on 2012-02-09. Retrieved 2023-03-31.
  6. ^ "30 Rock — The Funcooker". Yahoo! TV. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  7. NBC Universal. NBC
    .
  8. ^ "30 Rock — Señor Macho Solo". Yahoo! TV. Archived from the original on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
  9. NBC Universal. NBC
    .
  10. NBC Universal. NBC
    .
  11. NBC Universal. NBC
    .
  12. ^ Sepinwall, Alan (2008-11-06). "30 Rock, "Believe in the Stars": Help me, Oprah Winfrey. You're my only hope". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  13. NBC Universal. NBC
    .
  14. CraveOnline. Archived from the original
    on 2009-08-21. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  15. ^ Levine, Stuart (2009-03-13). "Clooney helps 'ER' win the hour". Variety. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
  16. ^ a b Seidman, Robert (2009-03-17). "Top NBC Primetime Shows, March 9-15, 2009". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on 2009-04-06. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
  17. ^ Levine, Stuart (2009-03-06). "Fox coasts to Thursday victory". Variety. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
  18. ^ O'Neil, Tom (2009-08-10). "Best supporting comedy actor: Neil Patrick Harris, Rainn Wilson or Jon Cryer?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
  19. ^ "Mad Men wins best drama Emmy". Toronto Sun. Associated Press. 2009-09-20. Archived from the original on 2009-09-24. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  20. ^ "2010 NAACP Image Awards winners: Darryl 'Chill' Mitchell, Precious, Chris Rock and more". Zap2it. 2010-02-26. Archived from the original on 2010-04-03. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  21. ^ Canning, Robert (2009-03-13). "30 Rock: "The Funcooker" Review". IGN TV. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  22. ^ Lyons, Margaret (2009-03-13). "'30 Rock': Time for the Funcooker!". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  23. TV Squad
    . Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  24. ^ Rabin, Nathan (2009-03-11). "Funcooker". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  25. ^ Sepinwall, Alan (2009-03-13). "30 Rock, "The Funcooker": Leadership vacuum". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 2010-03-25.

External links

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