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All the audio commentary rated out of five!
Disclaimer: This is all just my own personal opinion.
For the DVD release of each season of 30 Rock, a handful of episodes would have an optional audio commentary track. One or more people involved with that episode would talk about what was going on onscreen, mention some behind-the-scenes trivia, and sometimes just joke around. I did not like them as much as I have liked commentary for other shows that I have seen, so I decided to rate each one, from 1-5, based on the following qualities:
Categories
- Insightful
- How insightful the comments would be, i.e. not just sharing opinions or jokes
- Mentioning how much they enjoyed working with a particular actor or making a joke about a prop may be factual/topical/humorous, but I am not really learning anything from those comments
- This is probably my favorite aspect of audio commentary, and the lack of insughtful commentary is likely why I was generally not very fond of 30 Rock's commentary
- Factual
- Whether the comments were actually truthful or not
- This quality is not about fact vs. opinion; it's about true vs. false information
- Too often, the commentator would make a joke and I genuinely could not tell whether it was just a joke or some serious behind-the-scenes trivia
- Examples of nonfactual comments: "That actor had to wear a wig at all times", "They didn't know the cameras were rolling. That's actually just the actor going on a rant about what was bothering them in real life"
- Humorous
- If the commentator(s) made jokes throughout
- The episodes with multiple commentators tended to have more humor
- This score is not necessarily representative of whether or not I personally found the jokes funny. The score is all about humorous intent. If a joke fell flat, it would still work towards increasing this score.
- Topical
- Whether the comments actually pertained to the episode
- Commentator would occasionally go on irrelevant tangents, and I found those entirely uninteresting
- Active
- How much talking the commentator(s) did compared to just silently watching the episode
The far right column of this chart is the over all rating for the episode, averaging the ratings from all five categories. The very bottom row is the averages for all episodes in each of the categories.
Chart
|Season|Episode|Chronological|Name|Commentator(s)|Insightful|Factual|Humorous|Topical|Active|Final| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |1|7|7|Tracy Does Conan|Tracy Morgan|4|5|2|5|4|4| |1|12|12|Black Tie|Tina Fey|5|4|4|5|5|4.6| |1|15|15|Hard Ball|Lorne Michaels, Henry Michaels|1|5|1|3|1|2.2| |1|18|18|Fireworks|Jack McBrayer|3|2|4|3|4|3.2| |1|21|21|Hiatus|Alec Baldwin|4|5|2|3|4|3.6| |2|2|23|Jack Gets in the Game|Will Arnett|3|2|3|5|3|3.2| |2|3|24|The Collection|Jack McBrayer, Jane Krakowski|4|3|5|4|5|4.2| |2|6|27|Somebody to Love|Fred Armisen|3|3|3|3|4|3.2| |2|7|28|Cougars|Judah Freidlander|5|4|4|5|5|4.6| |2|10|31|Episode 210|Tina Fey, Jeff Richmond|5|4|4|5|5|4.6| |2|11|32|MILF Island|Scott Adsit|5|4|2|5|4|4| |2|12|33|Subway Hero|Tim Conway, Jack McBrayer|2|2|5|3|5|3.4| |2|13|34|Succession|Robert Carlock, John Riggi|5|3|4|5|5|4.4| |2|14|35|Sandwich Day|Tina Fey|5|5|3|5|5|4.6| |2|15|36|Cooter|Jack McBrayer, Jane Krakowski|2|2|5|5|5|3.8| |3|8|44|Flu Shot|Tina Fey, Jeff Richmond|5|5|4|4|5|4.6| |3|13|49|Goodbye, My Friend|Judah Freidlander, John Lutz|5|4|4|4|5|4.4| |3|15|51|The Bubble|Jack McBrayer, John Hamm|3|3|5|4|5|4| |3|16|52|Apollo, Apollo|Robert Carlock, Jack Burditt|1|5|2|1|5|2.8| |3|19|55|The Ones|Jack McBrayer, Jane Krakowski|2|2|5|5|5|3.8| |3|21|57|Mamma Mia|Alan Alda|2|5|1|3|1|2.4| |3|22|58|Kidney Now!|Tina Fey, Jeff Richmond|5|5|4|4|5|4.6| |4|3|61|Stone Mountain|Donald Glover, Gillian Jacobs|2|4|3|5|5|3.8| |4|4|62|Audition Day|Lorne Michaels, Alec Baldwin|3|5|2|3|5|3.6| |4|5|63|The Problem Solvers|Jack McBrayer, Jane Krakowski|2|2|5|5|5|3.8| |4|7|65|Dealbreakers Talk Show #0001|Scott Adsit, Don Scardino|4|4|3|5|5|4.2| |4|10|68|Black Light Attack!|John Lutz, Sue Galloway|3|3|4|5|5|4| |4|12|70|Verna|Tina Fey|5|5|3|5|5|4.6| |4|13|71|Anna Howard Shaw Day|Jack McBrayer, Jane Krakowski|2|3|5|4|5|3.8| |4|15|73|Don Geiss, America, and Hope|Tracey Wigfield, Tom Ceraulo|5|4|3|5|5|4.4| |4|19|77|Argus|Tina Fey, Jeff Richmond|5|4|4|5|5|4.6| |4|21|79|Emmanuelle Goes to Dinosaur Land|Jack McBrayer, John Hamm|3|3|5|4|5|4| |5|7|87|Brooklyn Without Limits|Tracy Morgan, Jerry Kupfer|1|5|1|5|3|3| |5|9|89|Chain Reaction of Mental Anguish|Jack McBrayer, Betty McBrayer, Jim McBrayer|3|3|3|4|4|3.4| |5|10|90|Christmas Attack Zone|Will Forte, Val Kilmer|3|4|3|4|5|3.8| |5|12|92|Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning|John Lutz, Sue Galloway|3|3|4|3|5|3.6| |5|15|95|It’s Never Too Late for Now|Judah Freidlander|5|4|4|5|5|4.6| |5|17|97|Queen of Jordan|Tracey Wigfield, Tom Ceraulo|5|4|3|5|5|4.4| |5|18|98|Plan B|Tina Fey, Jeff Richmond|5|4|4|5|5|4.6| |5|20/21|100/101|100|Don Scardino, Aaron Sorkin|5|4|2|4|5|4| |5|23|103|Respawn|Jack McBrayer, John Hamm|3|3|5|4|5|4| |6|1|104|Dance Like Nobody’s Watching|Tracey Wigfield, Tom Ceraulo|5|5|3|5|5|4.6| |6|10|113|Alexis Goodlooking and the Case of the Missing Whisky|Judah Freidlander|5|4|4|5|5|4.6| |6|11|114|Standards and Practices|Jack McBrayer, Billy Gonzalez|2|2|4|4|5|3.4| |6|19|122|Live from Studio 6H|Jane Krakowski, Jeff Richmond|4|4|4|4|5|4.2| |7|7|132|Mazel Tov, Dummies!|Tracey Wigfield, Tom Ceraulo|5|4|4|5|5|4.6| |7|8|133|My Whole Life is Thunder|Damian Holbrook, Colleen McGuinness|4|4|3|4|5|4| |7|11|136|A Goon’s Deed in a Weary World|Jane Krakowski, Jeff Richmond|4|4|4|4|5|4.2| |7|12/13|137/138|Hogcock!/Last Lunch|Tina Fey, Robert Carlock|5|4|4|5|5|4.6| ||||||3.67|3.76|3.51|4.29|4.63|3.97|
As I already mentioned, I was rather disappointed with the commentary over all. The commentaries by Tina Fey or Judah Friedlander were my favorites, and the others by various writers were good as well, because they provided a lot of insightful behind-the-scenes trivia. On the other hand, if you enjoy listening to people goof around with 30 Rock playing in the background, you'll look forward to the Jack McBrayer commentaries. All things considered: definitely not a reason to rush to grab the DVD/Blu-ray set. With that said, the other bonus features are great, and owning the entire series offline in a medium that no one can take away is invaluable.
Have you listened to the audio commentary? What are your thoughts?
The differences between versions of the episode "100"
Season 5 Episodes 20-21 is a two-part episode titled "100". When it was originally broadcast, both parts were shown on the same night. I presume this is the cut that is included on the Blu-ray that I have: both parts combined into one long (42:18) continuous episode. But on other home media (including streaming services such as Peacock), and presumably in syndication, each of the two parts is instead recut into an individual episode with a running time of about 21:25 each. It seems that part one was originally a minute or so longer than part two, so part one had some jokes cut out and part two had some added in.
So, I nerded out a bit and played both versions side-by-side, taking note of the differences. Here are my findings:
Part one differences
|timestamp|original|timestamp|recut| |-|-|-|-| |3:50|Pam, onscreen, shouts "I can't sit in a booth!"|3:50|still photo of Pam onscreen| |4:54|"It would be horrible! The only thing I want attached to my funbags are celebrity DJs"|4:51|"It would be horrible!"| |6:05|the flashback of Lutz falling while carrying pudding also includes Liz's/Jack's reactions||| |11:27|"The media won't let you embarrass yourself? Be like Michael McDonald and take it to the streets"|11:19|"The media won't let you embarrass yourself?"| |12:33|recurring hobo pitches sketch to the writers waiting outside "What about a sketch about how the Empire State Building is controlling us with electricity?" "Come on, get out of here!"||| |15:23|Sideways Jack shouts "The real Jack Donaghy could handle a little gas leak!" followed by a deep sniff||| |15:54|News interview with drowning biker that Tracy had saved "He just pulled me out of the water and said 'Don't tell anyone I did this.' I didn't even get a chance to congratulate him on his Oscar" "'Modesty' and 'heroism'; two words forever synonymous with Tracy Jordan"||| |19:41|Paul's coworker cuts into his conversation with Jenna "Break's over, Paul. Crew meeting in Lady Chanterelle's office. He's pissed."||| |20:39|"Okay, I did call you, but I was not in my right mind. I mean, how could I have been, to call you after everything you've done?" Flashback to a few Dennis moments including a new scene in a restaurant, romantically shaking waitress's hand "It's Tonya, right? Wonderful service" waitress leaves "Could you maybe not hit on the waitress right in fro--" "CHEW AND SCREW! Run, dummy!" Dennis runs away from table, Liz follows "Ugh, dammit! Dennis! I checked a coat!"|19:54|"Okay, but I was not in my right mind."| |21:19|"No, you know what I feel? You were a mistake"|20:09|"No, you were a mistake"| |||20:38|"To be continued, dummies" followed by the credits over top of a series of musical flashbacks|
Part two differences
|timestamp|original|timestamp|recut| |-|-|-|-| |||0:00|"Previously, on 30 Rock" followed by recap of part one| |||0:41|Elevator ding "This is us, Ms. Lemon. Let's walk together like Laverne and Shirley" Kenneth tries to link arms, Liz fights him off "Oh, I'm sorry. I'll keep talking about the bird!" followed by opening credits| |||3:26|while throwing cash at crying strippers "How about a little less self-respect and a little more squatting?"| |26:29|"OJ Simpson - who texted me earlier today."|5:31|"OJ Simpson - who texted me earlier today. What should I write back?"| |30:21|"Hey, Greta Johannsen, your animal wrangler" "My god, you're beautiful"|9:24|"Hey, Greta Johannsen, your animal wrangler. I don't want to alarm my other wildlife, but all the canaries for the coal mining sketch seem to have slipped off to meet Garuda in the sky" "My god, you're beautiful"|
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I see that S6E6-7 "Hey, Baby, What's Wrong" is also a two-part episode that is combined in some places and split in others, so you may be able to expect another post like this for that episode!
Average rating for each episode
I couldn't think of a single bad episode, so I was curious what other people thought was the worst. Both the pilot and the second Queen of Jordan were rated the worst, at 7.2. Still a pretty good rating!
- Note that the Y axis on each chart does not go from 0-10. They are all 7-9.5.
- Data source: IMDb
- Tools used: LibreOffice Calc, GIMP
Raw data
|Season|Episode|Chronological|Name|Rating| |-|-|-|-|-| |1|1|1|Pilot|7.2| |1|2|2|The Aftermath|7.5| |1|3|3|Blind Date|7.8| |1|4|4|Jack the Writer|7.4| |1|5|5|Jack-Tor|8.0| |1|6|6|Jack Meets Dennis|7.6| |1|7|7|Tracy Does Conan|8.2| |1|8|8|The Break-Up|7.7| |1|9|9|The Baby Show|7.9| |1|10|10|The Rural Juror|7.9| |1|11|11|The Head and the Hair|8.1| |1|12|12|Black Tie|8.4| |1|13|13|Up All Night|7.9| |1|14|14|The C Word|7.8| |1|15|15|Hard Ball|8.3| |1|16|16|The Source Awards|7.7| |1|17|17|The Fighting Irish|7.8| |1|18|18|Fireworks|8.1| |1|19|19|Corporate Crush|7.7| |1|20|20|Cleveland|8.0| |1|21|21|Hiatus|8.1| |2|1|22|Seinfeldvision|8.2| |2|2|23|Jack Gets in the Game|7.9| |2|3|24|The Collection|7.7| |2|4|25|Rosemary’s Baby|8.1| |2|5|26|Greenzo|8.2| |2|6|27|Somebody to Love|8.1| |2|7|28|Cougars|8.0| |2|8|29|Secrets and Lies|7.7| |2|9|30|Ludachristmas|8.1| |2|10|31|Episode 210|7.9| |2|11|32|MILF Island|8.3| |2|12|33|Subway Hero|7.6| |2|13|34|Succession|8.3| |2|14|35|Sandwich Day|8.0| |2|15|36|Cooter|8.3| |3|1|37|Do-Over|8.1| |3|2|38|Believe in the Stars|8.4| |3|3|39|The One with the Cast of ‘Night Court’|7.9| |3|4|40|Gavin Volure|8.1| |3|5|41|Reunion|8.5| |3|6|42|Christmas Special|7.7| |3|7|43|Señor Macho Solo|8.0| |3|8|44|Flu Shot|7.7| |3|9|45|Retreat to Move Forward|7.9| |3|10|46|Generalissimo|8.5| |3|11|47|St. Valentine’s Day|8.2| |3|12|48|Larry King|8.0| |3|13|49|Goodbye, My Friend|8.0| |3|14|50|The Funcooker|8.2| |3|15|51|The Bubble|8.1| |3|16|52|Apollo, Apollo|8.4| |3|17|53|Cutbacks|7.6| |3|18|54|Jackie Jormp-Jomp|7.9| |3|19|55|The Ones|7.9| |3|20|56|The Natural Order|7.8| |3|21|57|Mamma Mia|8.0| |3|22|58|Kidney Now!|8.6| |4|1|59|Season 4|7.7| |4|2|60|Into the Crevasse|7.7| |4|3|61|Stone Mountain|7.7| |4|4|62|Audition Day|7.9| |4|5|63|The Problem Solvers|7.9| |4|6|64|Sun Tea|7.7| |4|7|65|Dealbreakers Talk Show #0001|8.1| |4|8|66|Secret Santa|8.0| |4|9|67|Klaus and Greta|8.3| |4|10|68|Black Light Attack!|7.9| |4|11|69|Winter Madness|7.4| |4|12|70|Verna|7.6| |4|13|71|Anna Howard Shaw Day|8.5| |4|14|72|Future Husband|7.7| |4|15|73|Don Geiss, America, and Hope|7.9| |4|16|74|Floyd|7.8| |4|17|75|Lee Marvin vs. Derek Jeter|7.8| |4|18|76|Khonani|7.4| |4|19|77|Argus|7.6| |4|20|78|The Moms|7.7| |4|21|79|Emmanuelle Goes to Dinosaur Land|8.1| |4|22|80|I Do Do|8.5| |5|1|81|The Fabian Strategy|7.9| |5|2|82|When It Rains, It Pours|8.2| |5|3|83|Let’s Stay Together|7.7| |5|4|84|Live Show|8.5| |5|5|85|Reaganing|8.0| |5|6|86|Gentleman’s Intermission|7.8| |5|7|87|Brooklyn Without Limits|7.9| |5|8|88|College|7.8| |5|9|89|Chain Reaction of Mental Anguish|7.6| |5|10|90|Christmas Attack Zone|7.9| |5|11|91|Mrs. Donaghy|8.2| |5|12|92|Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning|8.3| |5|13|93|¡Qué Sorpresa!|7.9| |5|14|94|Double-Edged Sword|8.3| |5|15|95|It’s Never Too Late for Now|8.2| |5|16|96|TGS Hates Women|8.2| |5|17|97|Queen of Jordan|7.5| |5|18|98|Plan B|7.8| |5|19|99|I Heart Connecticut|7.6| |5|20|100|100: Part 1|8.0| |5|21|101|100: Part 2|8.4| |5|22|102|Everything Sunny All the Time Always|7.9| |5|23|103|Respawn|7.6| |6|1|104|Dance Like Nobody’s Watching|7.9| |6|2|105|Idiots Are People Two!|7.8| |6|3|106|Idiots Are People Three!|7.9| |6|4|107|The Ballad of Kenneth Parcell|7.7| |6|5|108|Today You Are a Man|7.8| |6|6|109|Hey, Baby, What’s Wrong?: Part 1|7.7| |6|7|110|Hey, Baby, What’s Wrong?: Part 2|7.9| |6|8|111|The Tuxedo Begins|8.4| |6|9|112|Leap Day|8.1| |6|10|113|Alexis Goodlooking and the Case of the Missing Whisky|7.6| |6|11|114|Standards and Practices|7.9| |6|12|115|St. Patrick’s Day|7.6| |6|13|116|Grandmentor|7.4| |6|14|117|Kidnapped by Danger|8.2| |6|15|118|The Shower Principle|7.4| |6|16|119|Nothing Left to Lose|7.5| |6|17|120|Meet the Woggels!|7.5| |6|18|121|Murphy Brown Lied to Us|7.7| |6|19|122|Live from Studio 6H|8.5| |6|20|123|Queen of Jordan 2: The Mystery of the Phantom Pooper|7.2| |6|21|124|The Return of Avery Jessup|7.6| |6|22|125|What Will Happen to the Gang Next Year?|7.8| |7|1|126|The Beginning of the End|7.6| |7|2|127|Governor Dunston|7.6| |7|3|128|Stride of Pride|7.7| |7|4|129|Unwindulax|7.8| |7|5|130|There’s No I in America|7.5| |7|6|131|Aunt Phatso vs. Jack Donaghy|7.5| |7|7|132|Mazel Tov, Dummies!|8.2| |7|8|133|My Whole Life is Thunder|7.9| |7|9|134|Game Over|8.3| |7|10|135|Florida|7.9| |7|11|136|A Goon’s Deed in a Weary World|8.3| |7|12|137|Hogcock!|8.9| |7|13|138|Last Lunch|9.2|
Separated by season, with seasonal averages
|Ep. #|Season 1|Season 2|Season 3|Season 4|Season 5|Season 6|Season 7| |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| |1|7.2|8.2|8.1|7.7|7.9|7.9|7.6| |2|7.5|7.9|8.4|7.7|8.2|7.8|7.6| |3|7.8|7.7|7.9|7.7|7.7|7.9|7.7| |4|7.4|8.1|8.1|7.9|8.5|7.7|7.8| |5|8.0|8.2|8.5|7.9|8.0|7.8|7.5| |6|7.6|8.1|7.7|7.7|7.8|7.7|7.5| |7|8.2|8.0|8.0|8.1|7.9|7.9|8.2| |8|7.7|7.7|7.7|8.0|7.8|8.4|7.9| |9|7.9|8.1|7.9|8.3|7.6|8.1|8.3| |10|7.9|7.9|8.5|7.9|7.9|7.6|7.9| |11|8.1|8.3|8.2|7.4|8.2|7.9|8.3| |12|8.4|7.6|8.0|7.6|8.3|7.6|8.9| |13|7.9|8.3|8.0|8.5|7.9|7.4|9.2| |14|7.8|8.0|8.2|7.7|8.3|8.2|| |15|8.3|8.3|8.1|7.9|8.2|7.4|| |16|7.7||8.4|7.8|8.2|7.5|| |17|7.8||7.6|7.8|7.5|7.5|| |18|8.1||7.9|7.4|7.8|7.7|| |19|7.7||7.9|7.6|7.6|8.5|| |20|8.0||7.8|7.7|8.0|7.2|| |21|8.1||8.0|8.1|8.4|7.6|| |22|||8.6|8.5|7.9|7.8|| |23|||||7.6|| |Avg.|7.9|8.0|8.1|7.9|8.0|7.8|8.0|
How many episodes are rated the same?
|Rating|Frequency| |-|-| |7.2|2| |7.4|5| |7.5|6| |7.6|13| |7.7|18| |7.8|13| |7.9|24| |8.0|11| |8.1|12| |8.2|11| |8.3|9| |8.4|5| |8.5|6| |8.6|1| |8.9|1| |9.2|1|