Tina dishes: Future 30 Rock guest stars to include everybody in the universe … and Tim Conway (Audio)
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- March
- 27
Tina Fey chatted with the media the other day, and there was too much Liz Lemony goodness to cram into a single post. So Remote Access is doling it out over a couple of days, replete with real audio so you can hear for yourself just how awesome she is. Check out Part I here.
Will Arnett. Jerry Seinfeld. Andy Richter. Elaine Stritch. Edie Falco. Isabella Rossellini. James Carville. Sean Hayes.
I haven’t even scratched the surface.
The laundry list of guest stars and cameos that have graced the set of 30 Rock in its season and a half lifespan would fill the Kodak Theater. It probably has, in fact.
Buck Henry. Gladys Knight. Jackie Mason. Nathan Lane. David Schwimmer. Carrie Fischer. Practically the entire cast of Saturday Night Live. Al Gore.
I could keep on going.
But it’s a certain gubernatorial call-girl who has eluded the show’s casting directors, much to Tina Fey’s chagrin. Eliot Spitzer’s girlfriend will not be making an appearance.
“We couldn’t get her,” Fey said, laughing at a reporter’s tongue-in-cheek suggestion. “Small world. One of our writers used to live in the same apartment building as her. That’s New York everybody.”
On upcoming 30 Rock guest stars
With the exception of Seinfeld, who volunteered to be on the show, just about all the guest parts are written before the guest was approached about the part. Fey likes that approach because it makes the part more organic than writing for a person as she often had to do on SNL.
She did confirm Arnett and Dean Winters will be returning, and Falco is a possibility as well.
Fey said she wouldn’t rule out a guest spot by a pop star like Britney Spears, based on her past two experiences working with her on SNL.
She is still holding out hope, though, of working with Oprah Winfrey, or more specifically, being Oprah’s best friend. She did reveal that Tim Conway, someone “you idolized growing up” would be making an appearance in the second episode back.
Conway will play TV veteran Bucky Bright of the classic 1950s show Wagons Ho. Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) is very excited about that. Jack brought Bucky around for a Republican party rally but decides he wants a hipper star, so he pawns Bucky off on Kenneth, to whom Bucky shares some shocking stories about TV back in the day.
Fey said she’ll continue to find parts for her Second City, Upright Citizens Brigade and Improv Olympic friends.
At Second City, she said they teach you to take ideas that are important to you and use them to effect change with your improv. (I would not have guessed that.) Later, she said, you learn that you can just be silly too.
Second City grads make great actors because of their ensemble training, she added. While she sees herself somewhat on the silly side of comedy these days, Fey said she still finds it useful to observe the world and come up with stories from what she sees.
In less heavy news, there is no truth to the rumor that Brian Williams scrawls ugly messages about Fey on his dressing room wall.
In fact, she stressed that the anchor is a friend of 30 Rock, and his permission was obtained before he was portrayed as a slovenly alcoholic on the show. He’s actually quite the teatotaler in real life, she said.
As to her vast supporting cast, Fey said the show’s large ensemble makes it hard to work everybody into every episode.
But for the upcoming episodes, she revealed that Frank (Judah Friedlander) would be teamed up with Tracy, Toofer (Keith Powell) will play a great Sammy Davis Jr. in a fantasy sequence and Josh (Lonnie Ross) will show up on MILF Island. Lucky Josh.
Fey wouldn’t rule out a cameo one day by her old SNL boss Lorne Michaels, possibly as a ruthless media magnate.”He would be good as a Rupert Murdoch type,” she speculated. “If we do ever use Lorne he won’t be able to play himself because we realized if we used anyone from the world of SNL as themselves then our world kind of collapses, because who is Tracy? I think even like referencing that Eddie Murphy exists is maybe the closest we can get to even acknowledging that Saturday Night Live exists. So if you see Lorne he’ll be doing one of his world-famous characters in a funny mustache and glasses.”
On the potential for a Lorne Michaels cameo
Check back because there’s tons more to come from Fey’s confab with the press.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 12:00 pm by Brian Howard.
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Maybe that's why the Seinfeld stuff felt more flat than the other guest stars, since it wasn't planned.