I am a Jedi! I am a Jedi!

I just watched the pilot episode of 30 Rock. I thought it was funny. Every actor in it was great. And it managed to do more in 20 or so minutes than Studio 60 has done in three weeks.

Don't get me wrong: I want Studio 60 to work. I think Matthew Perry is a great comic actor and I liked many of the supporting cast in other projects. I want a smart show where the characters talk intelligently and deal with interesting problems. Alas, Studio 60 is not that show. It is quite taken with itself. We are told that the main characters are the best thing since sliced bread. But the characters have done nothing to earn these accolades. The conflict is weak, the foils are straw men set up to be knocked down easily by the main characters, and these charactrers breeze through them, often dismissively. I grow bored watching it. And to make matters worse, it is not funny. Let me correct that: there are scenes where Matthew Perry, Nate Corddry and D.L. Hughley are funny. The skit show they produce is not funny. The funny scenes are not enough to make up for the rest of it.

30 Rock, on the other hand, is funny. It is a show about making a comedy show and the actors in it are funny! They deal with what I understand to be problems with working in television (such as micromanaging marketers with no creative sense running things) with aplomb and humor. Alec Baldwin, as the aforementioned micromanager, is awesome. Tina Fey, the head writer for the show, has many of the same hangups as the main writers in Studio 60, but she is funny when she tries to deal with them. And Tracy Morgan, as the film actor sent in to punch up the show, is pee-in-your-pants funny.

It promises to be a great show. I give it a month.