TV Review: “30 Rock”‘s Live Episode East Coast Version Vs. West Coast Version

So hopefully people watched 30 Rock’s live episode last Thursday night, but they may not have known that there was an East Coast version and a West Coast version, both of them done live and slightly different from each other. After watching the East Coast version live and the West Coast version On Demand, I feel I can compare…

The Plot

East Coast vs. West Coast: The exact plot—-they want to start doing TGS, 30 Rock’s show within a show, taped instead of live and Kenneth locks everyone in Tracy’s dressing room to convince them to do the show live by taking a historical tour of live television—-is identical in both versions. It’s just the jokes/cameos that are slightly different and even then it’s only about a quarter of them.

Advantage: Tie. It’s exactly the same, although I did think it was clever (and in keeping with 30 Rock’s meta-traditions) to do parodies of live TV throughout the decades. [Who didn’t love Jon Hamm wearing blackface in some God awful sitcom that would have been on the air in the 60’s? Lord knows that the actress who plays the German writer sure liked it as she was visibly cracking up during the East Coast version.]

Jokes

East Coast vs. West Coast: Once again, the large majority of one-liners and jokes are exactly the same but there are many subtle differences. Best East Coast line NOT in the West Coast version: Super-shady Doctor Leo Spaceman’s grandfather saying “I’m nazi Dr.–I mean, just Dr. Spaceman,” in a 1950’s commercial for the medical benefits of cigarettes. Best West Coast line NOT in the East Coast version: A variety show host from the 70’s (played by Alec Baldwin) saying “We’ve got a great show tonight, and even if we don’t, there are only two other channels so who cares?”

Advantage: It’s very close, but I think the material in the East Coast version was slightly better. Still, probably worth watching both of them though.

The Performances

East Coast Vs. West Coast: Although again they’re reciting basically the same material (and so many of 30 Rock’s cast are former SNL performers/regular hosts that there’s little doubt they can do live TV), to me there was a pretty noticeable difference in quality between the performances.

Advantage: West Coast. The East Coast performances were just a little bit more nervous and the timing was slightly off on several jokes, but by the West Coast version everyone was more smooth and assured in their delivery.

Celebrity Cameos

East Coast Vs. West Coast: Okay, so even the cameos were largely the same as Jimmy Fallon (as a young Alec Baldwin), Amy Poehler (as a young Tiny Fey), Community’s Donald Glover (as a young Tracy Morgan), Fred Armisten (who kept popping up in the background of several scenes and was even dressed as Frank in one but never actually had a line), and the always great Jon Hamm (as a black faced white actor in the 50’s sitcom, and a news reporter in ONLY the East Coast version) were all in both. The lone exceptions were when Brian Williams stepped in for Hamm as a reporter in the West Coast version and most notably when Sir Paul McCartney played himself in the East Coast version but Kim Kardashian played the alternate cameo in the West Coast version.

Advantage: East Coast. If your only real difference is between Paul McCartney and Kim Kardashian, then which one do you think I’m gonna pick? Although neither cameo really contributed much (I think they had one line at the beginning and end), I don’t even want to think of a Kardashian walking on the set of 30 Rock.

The Audience

East Coast vs. West Coast: You’d be surprised at how much difference something totally uncontrollable like an audience can make. They can either laugh too little (West Coast) or too much (East Coast) and impact the jokes by throwing off a performer’s rhythm or covering up dialogue by making too much noise (East Coast).

Advantage: West Coast. If this were a talk show, I’d say East Coast, but this is 30 Rock, a show that we’re not really used to hearing a studio audience for so it doesn’t matter if some of their best jokes are met by total silence, and in fact it’s preferable to me personally so I can catch everything the performers are saying. Although the West Coast audience is technically “shittier” because they didn’t seem to catch most of the jokes, I think the East Coast audience (and both are made up of New Yorkers, just at different times) was too rambunctious and that could have accounted for some of the nervousness in the East Coast version.

Overall Advantage: Tie. I know that kind-of defeats the purpose of all this, but it’s really too close to call and both are worth watching for the hardcore fans who will definitely enjoy trying to spot all the minor differences.