Six ways that Tina Fey's new show 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt' is just like '30 Rock'
"30 Rock" fans rejoiced when it was announced Tina Fey and Robert Carlock would reunite on new comedy, "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt."
Since "Kimmy Schmidt" just hit Netflix on March 6, it's too early to tell whether the show can live up to the success of "30 Rock," which ran for seven seasons and won the Emmy for best comedy series three years in a row. But after just one season, "Kimmy Schmidt" already stands on its own, thanks to its A-list cameos, quirky humor, and a catchy theme song.
But hardcore "30 Rock" fans may have spotted a joke or two that echoed moments from Fey's other great sitcom.
Here are six of the most obvious "30 Rock" references in season one of "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt."
1. The Jokes
Even if the dialogue sometimes comes off like improv, "Kimmy Schmidt" is very tightly scripted. Like "30 Rock" before it, there's plenty of quirky one-liners.
From "30 Rock":
Mixed with the New York scenery, the show's jazzy score might give you some serious "30 Rock" flashbacks. It was also composed by Fey's husband Jeff Richmond, who also directed several episodes of "Kimmy Schmidt."
The comedically correct term for this would be "double-talk," something Fey seems to relish in. There are a lot of characters here who get Spanish wrong the same way Jack Donaghy's French sounded more like gibberish and Liz Lemon didn't remember as much German as she thought she did.
4. "Can I Watch You Eat That?"
In one "Kimmy" episode, the stress of Jacqueline Voorhees' (Jane Krakowski) divorce makes her want to eat her feelings but without the calories, so she asks Kimmy to eat a burger in front of her.
She must have picked up that behavior from Jack Donaghy, who liked to watch people eat red meat in front of him while he was recovering from a heart attack early in season two of "30 Rock."
5. Bad Doctors
One of the funniest recurring characters in "30 Rock" history is Dr. Spaceman (Chris Parnell), who is the go-to physician at "The Girlie Show," despite his blatant incompetence. He once claimed that "medicine is not a science."
Meanwhile, "Kimmy Schmidt" introduces us to Dr. Franff, an unattractive plastic surgeon, played perfectly by Martin Short.
6. Werewolves
One of the best cutaway jokes in "30 Rock" involved a song performed by Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) called "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" (fun fact: Donald Glover wrote the song):
