Brian Lynch for the prosecution.
Tina Fey’s 30 ROCK is currently the most acclaimed comedy series on television. It’s won numerous Emmys and Golden Globes and I think Pulitzers. Critics and audiences alike love the show and its lovable zany characters, and consider it one of the most original comedies in years.
And I guess it is original…if you’ve never seen THE MUPPET SHOW. Because, my “friends” (in quotes because I don’t know or trust you, please don’t be offended), Tina Fey’s 30 ROCK is quite obviously ripping off Jim Henson’s beloved TV show.
Read the whole thing here.
The Office is by far much much better than 30 Rock, The Office has Jim Halpert and who doesn’t want a little Halpert for dinner?
The author does present an intriguing argument.
Fey referenced the Muppet Show this season. Rip-off is the wrong word.
http://base58.com/ilx/lizmuppet.gif
The Miss Piggy thing is correct. They don’t correctly account for Statler and Waldorf except for a picture. This = wrong.
While a lot of us might want to, I am pretty sure no one has their hand up Tina Fey’s underside.
W7ngman is an exact copy of Jim Halpert. It freaks me out sometimes.
Well that’s a stretch. Even if it were ‘true’, can’t someone be inspired by past successes without their work being called a rip off? I mean, if you enjoy 30 Rock, watch it. If not, don’t. No reason to call Tina Fey, who by all accounts is a successful comedy writer, a plagiarizer.
Totally funny, but you could do that with nearly any tv show. Like Dick Van Dyke, for instance…. (with a time machine).
The fact that they even have a muppet-like show during one of their shows isn’t “Pretty much admitting it” – The show has never pretended to be anything than a very fine presentation of old and new sitcom / theater jokes wrapped in an extremely clever candy shell.
@pipi- you should learn not to take things too seriously.
Also, while humor is subjective (and thus the claim that she is a successful comedy writer can be debated) I would throw out that someone who’s entire career is based upon parody and mocking things comes close to the fine line between “inspiration” and “plagiarizer”
Thanks Brian. That’s fucking great and speaks to how funny that show is, 3
@1 I don’t see how anyone who’s watched both shows for the past 2 seasons could possibly think that The Office is better.
@7 & 8 — Um, I am pretty sure the Brian Lynch is not actually suggesting that 30 Rock is a rip off of The Muppet Show. It was a funny / amusing blog post about the similarities. Nobody is suggesting that anybody plagiarized anybody else.
The Honeymooners is a total ripoff of the Flintstones. (yes, yes, I know)
At the risk of taking it too seriously (I realize it’s a jokey post), you would be able to do the same thing with any show. The Muppets had so many characters that they pretty much covered any archetype for the sitcom. And many, many, many sitcoms are built on the premise that there’s a “normal” straight-man surrounded by a bunch of crazy personalities that eventually drive them to break down. I guess I’m just saying that the comparisons are not as clever or revelatory as the poster wants them to be.
This is neither here nor there, but everyone go Youtube the Muppet Show pilot. It’s a little different than what the series became, and it’s completely brilliant.
Hee-larious.
Well, I think that the Muppet Show comparison reaches too far back– I’m thinking the inspirations for 30 ROCK’s format is (are) SPACED, from the UK, SCRUBS, and ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT…ok, and FAMILY GUY.
It’s mainly due to the vignette/flashback/dream sequence nature of the narratives.
The theme of behind-the-scenes of a variety show is just a casual association…
What happened to Bethany’s brilliant (yet nearly identical) subsequent post on this same topic? It seems to be missing. Is SLOG leaking and loosing posts? Or do you regularly have to clean it up to hide her incompetence?
Well, 30 Rock being based on The Muppet Show certainly explains how I love both of them with my whole heart.
*Shrugs* I dunno, I just like how jokes creep up on me and how I’m never quite sure what a character is going to say next, even though they themselves don’t break character. Kenneth and Liz Lemon crack me up every time.
I tried to like The Office, I really did. I swear. I think Dwight and Michael Scott are hilarious. But the show just makes me SO uncomfortable!
Also, I would be hard pressed to call Liz Lemon normal, and even that much of a straight man (fine, fine, woman.) I mean, she freaking stole a baby. She’s just as crazy as everyone else.