Winter Madness
"Winter Madness" | |
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30 Rock episode | |
Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 11 |
Directed by | Beth McCarthy-Miller |
Written by | Tom Ceraulo Vali Chandrasekaran |
Production code | 411 |
Original air date | January 21, 2010 |
Guest appearances | |
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"Winter Madness" is the eleventh episode of the fourth season of the American television comedy series 30 Rock, and the 69th overall episode of the series. The episode was written by Tom Ceraulo and Vali Chandrasekaran, and directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on January 21, 2010. Guest stars in this episode include Ray Bokhour, Cheyenne Jackson, Kevin Meaney, and Julianne Moore.
In the episode, when head writer Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) decides to take the fictitious show The Girlie Show with Tracy Jordan (TGS) on the road to cure the staff's case of the winter madness, the anticipated trip does not exactly go as planned. Her boss, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), chooses Boston as the destination and travels with the show in order to visit Nancy Donovan (Moore), and while away from New York, the TGS crew blames Liz for all of their misfortunes. This episode also continued a story arc involving Nancy as a love interest for Jack, which began in the episode "Secret Santa" that aired in December 2009.
"Winter Madness" received generally mixed reception from television critics. According to the Nielsen Media Research, it was watched by 5.585 million households during its original broadcast, and received a 2.8 rating/7 share among viewers in the 18–49 demographic.
Plot
TGS head writer
Meanwhile, the TGS staff—
At the same time, Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) goes on Boston's Freedom Trail. He tells the actor playing John Hancock (Kevin Meaney) that his character did not actually set all Americans free. When he tells him "Patriots suck!", he inadvertently says it near a group of New England Patriots fans. At the end of the episode, Hancock brings in the Crispus Attucks character and tells Tracy he does have black friends. When Hancock says he met Attucks in 1775, Tracy is able to one up him as he knows that Attucks was killed in the Boston Massacre in 1770.
Production
"Winter Madness" was written by script co-coordinator Tom Ceraulo and co-producer Vali Chandrasekaran, and directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller.[1] This episode was Ceraulo's second writing credit, having co-written season three episode "The Funcooker,[2] and the first written episode by Chandrasekaran. This was McCarthy-Miller's tenth directed episode. "Winter Madness" originally aired in the United States on January 21, 2010, on NBC as the eleventh episode of the show's fourth season and the 69th overall episode of the series.
In November 2009, it was announced that actress
Cultural references
In the beginning of the episode, Liz complains about the cold weather saying that she has been stuck inside her apartment playing online Boggle, a word game designed by using a plastic grid of lettered dice, in which players attempt to find words in sequences of adjacent letters.[13] Later, Jack tells Liz that she is the female version of former Boston Celtics basketball player Kevin McHale.[6] Jack's Boston office is a duplication of his New York one. When Liz enters, Jack asks her if she can tell which seven items are different, prompting the two to look into the camera and smile and thus breaking the fourth wall, a term used when a character in a television show, film or on stage directly addresses the audience.[14] In one scene, Jack says that many Boston residents have named their daughters "Belichick", after New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.[14]
During one scene of "Winter Madness", Toofer tells the writing staff that he went to college in Boston, "Well, not in Boston, but nearby", mocking a common stereotype of Harvard students that they will not mention that they attend the University, for fear of intimidating anyone, but will still strongly hint to it.
Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Winter Madness" was watched by 5.585 million households, according to the Nielsen Media Research. It received a 2.8 rating/7 share among viewers in the 18–49 demographic,[17] meaning that 2.8 percent of all people in that group, and 7 percent of all people from that group watching television at the time, watched the episode. This was an increase from the previous episode, "Black Light Attack!", which was watched by 5.014 million American viewers.[18] "Winter Madness" ranked third in the timeslot and was the only episode getting more viewers, going up 22 percent from the previous week's episode rating.[17]
The episode received generally mixed reviews from television critics. Robert Canning of
Entertainment Weekly’s Margaret Lyons reported that "Winter Madness" was "something of a letdown." She commented that Julianne Moore's Nancy was not "funny enough" as a "romantic foil for Jack", and that taking the show to Boston seemed off the mark.[21] Television columnist Alan Sepinwall for The Star-Ledger reported that "Winter Madness" fell into the category of an episode that featured "a lot of funny gags but aren't wholly satisfying" and added that it "just stopped, rather than building to a real conclusion".[22] Sean Gandert of Paste rated unfavorably the pairing of Alec Baldwin and Julianne Moore's characters, citing that they do not have "much rapport, so the scenes with the two of them together are a bit dead, as much as I usually enjoy seeing Julianne Moore in pretty much anything."[23] Amos Barshad for New York magazine criticized Moore's Boston accent, citing that it was "atrocious",[24] while TV Guide Magazine’s Bruce Fretts opined that the accent was "wicked bad". Regarding the episode itself, Fretts said that it was "weak".[6]
Despite the criticism towards Moore's Boston accent in the series, executive producer Robert Carlock, who is from Boston, defended Moore. In an interview with New York magazine, Carlock said, "I grew up with people like that. Not everyone talks like that in Boston, but I think she's enough of an actress to pull it off." When asked if her accent "sounded realistic", he noted, "I'm going to go with that. I know people who sound like that."[25] In response to the accent, Moore explained "I went to school in Boston and worked with a lot of guys from Dorchester, so that's where [the accent] came from. We made it thick ... for humor's sake, but then again, not really. There are folks with seriously heavy accents there, and they are proud of it."[26]
References
- ^ a b "30 Rock — Winter Madness". Yahoo! TV. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
- ^ "30 Rock — The Funcooker". Yahoo! TV. Retrieved 2010-04-15.
- Daily News (New York). Retrieved 2010-04-05.
- ^ Graham, Mark (2009-12-11). "30 Rock Recap: Who Are YouFacing?". New York. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
- NBC UniversalMedia Village. Retrieved 2010-04-06. Save Picture as → Right click file → Properties → Summary → Advanced → Date Picture Taken
- ^ a b c d Fretts, Bruce (2010-01-22). "30 Rock Hits a Rough Patch". TV Guide Magazine.
- ^ Sepinwall, Alan (2009-11-12). "30 Rock, "The Problem Solvers": She's the one". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
- ^ Fretts, Bruce (2009-12-11). "The Julianne Moore, the Merrier?". TV Guide Magazine.
- ^ Canning, Robert (2010-01-16). "30 Rock: "Black Light Attack!" Review". IGN TV. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- TV Squad. Retrieved 2010-05-03.
- ^ "30 Rock Episode: "The Moms"". TV Guide. Retrieved 2010-06-11.
- ^ Lady Lola (2010-01-21). "January Jones". Television without Pity. p. 3. Archived from the original on 2010-01-29. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ TV Squad. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
- ^ a b c Canning, Robert (2010-01-22). "30 Rock: "Winter Madness" Review". IGN TV. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
- ^ Lehr, Dick. "Split screen". The Boston Globe Magazine. Retrieved 2010-04-07.
- ^ Reckdahl, Katy (2008-08-23). "Brad Pitt's foundation races clock in New Orleans". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
- ^ a b Gorman, Bill (2010-01-22). "TV Ratings Thursday: Deep End Underwater; Bones High; CSI, Mentalist, Grey's Series Lows". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on 2011-02-01. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
- '^ Gorman, Bill (2010-01-15). "TV Ratings: Private Practice Crossover Boost; Bones High; Greys, CSI, 30 Rock, Leno Hit Lows". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on 2010-12-03. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
- ^ Blake, Meredith (2010-01-22). "'30 Rock': The Boston Tea Party". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
- ^ Price, Leonard (2010-01-22). "Winter Madness". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
- ^ Lyons, Margaret (2010-01-22). "'30 Rock': Boston backwards". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
- ^ Sepinwall, Alan (2010-01-22). "30 Rock, "Winter Madness": TGS goes to Boston". The Star-Ledger.
- ^ Gandert, Sean (2010-01-22). "30 Rock Review: "Winter Madness" (4.11)". Paste. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
- ^ Barshad, Amos (2010-01-22). "30 Rock Recap: Julianne Moore, Welcome to the Bad Boston Accent Hall of Fame!". New York. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
- ^ Yahalom, Tali (2010-01-30). "30 Rock Producer Stands by Julianne Moore's Boston Accent". New York. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
- ^ Ausiello, Michael (2010-06-23). "Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on 'House,' 'Vampire Diaries,' 'Weeds,' '30 Rock,' 'Bones,' and more!". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-09-28.
External links
- "Winter Madness" at IMDb