THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => ENJOY => Topic started by: Aimless on 08 Dec 2007, 03:06
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Has anyone been following this show?
After a few shaky episodes in the beginning of season 1, 30 Rock quickly became one of my favourite comedy shows ever. Now, in season 2, it's become one of my favourite shows ever in general. Every single episode (barring the last, but I blame that on the probs with the strike and all) has delivered what I feel is the smartest, sharpest, FUNNIEST comedy on TV today. It gives me the same fuzzy-wuzzies I get from watching great Simpsons episodes.
Yeah, I think that's the closest comparison I can make. Like Simpsons, but with real actors. And on the matter of real actors, I must say, Alec Baldwin is AMAZING as Jack Donaghy.
Check this out:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=21085443
When he gets to the voices, man... *quivers*
I warmly recommend this show. If you gave it a shot and then gave up, I'd like to urge you to give it another try because it becomes something amazing very quickly.
Cheers :)
EDIT: Al Gore's cameo was another sweet moment, for me =)
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So, the rest of the series is better than the pilot then? Because I watched the pilot when it aired here in Australia last week, and it was bad. So horribly, toe-curlingly bad.
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30 Rock is a really good show. I didn't think it would be, but my parents started watching it and DVRed some episodes for me and they were hilarious.
Tina Fey is forever wonderful.
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Hilarious! I will have to check out more.
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30 Rock is also one of my favorite shows at the moment, and it has gotten better as time has gone on. At first, it seemed it was only going to be alright, but the actors have started to shine and become hilarious. Not to mention that they have some of the biggest guest stars ever, and use them well.
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It has indeed gotten better and better as time has gone on. Baldwin and Tracy Morgan always bring their A game. But lately, they've been relying a bit too much on Kenneth, like they want him to be the "breakthrough" character that makes the show an actual hit (these last 2 episodes or so have gone without a Kenneth B or C-story, thankfully). Personally, I think he's the weakest character on the show. Jenna is slightly behind. It gets less fun the more they're around. Shit, only one episode left until the strike takes it out. I'll miss it.
Hey, remember when everybody thought that Studio 60 was going to be the big SNL-derivative show to take off and 30 Rock was just going to be a run-of-the-mill, forgettable comedy? Man, people must have smoked a lot of crack back then.
So, the rest of the series is better than the pilot then? Because I watched the pilot when it aired here in Australia last week, and it was bad. So horribly, toe-curlingly bad.
I find it's best not to judge a show by its pilot. Unless it's, uh, Twin Peaks or something. Character-driven shows like 30 Rock or Arrested Development (anybody catch the AD references in this week's 30 Rock?) usually need some time to get their legs.
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Arrested Development is definitely a good show to mention in the same breath as 30 Rock.
It is very apt.
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I really dont like Jenna, the character is funny, the actress.... not so much.
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I really dont like Jenna, the character is funny, the actress.... not so much.
It was originally going to be Rachel Dratch. Be thankful.
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Haven't seen any first season episodes, but I'm loving this season. Too bad the strike has it cut short.
But yeah, it is a great show.
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I find it's best not to judge a show by its pilot.
True, but a show has to demonstrate at least something in its pilot episode. There was nothing there that I found even remotely amusing or fresh or in any way redeemable.
Maybe I'll give it a try again some time later.
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I find it's best not to judge a show by its pilot.
True, but a show has to demonstrate at least something in its pilot episode. There was nothing there that I found even remotely amusing or fresh or in any way redeemable.
That would be the case optimally, but even a good pilot isn't indicative of a good show. Bringing back Studio 60 to flog again, a lot of people found the pilot episode to be quite excellent, what with that supremely self-righteous Aaron Sorkin monologue opening (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-PD4lUu3uAM) and all. But as the show went on, it failed to live up to the promise of the pilot and couldn't find a consistent tone, and it was quietly taken off the air, dragged behind a shed and shot. A TV blog I frequent watches the first three episodes of a new series, and if nothing worth sticking around for comes up, they drop it. I think that's a good policy, but when you don't have much time to spare it's probably easier to judge by the pilot.
I get what you're saying, the pilot ought to be a sort of "mission statement" that presents what promise a show has to offer its viewers. But it often doesn't work that way. And if you stop watching a show after a suck pilot, most of the time you'll be right and the show will keep on sucking. But you shouldn't be surprised if that doesn't happen sometimes.
And really, if you were being skeptical about, say, Arrested Development I'd tell you to stop being dense and watch this shit, but I was in your shoes early on. It was compared a lot to AD, and I felt like it was lacking the superb characterization and "heart" that made AD so brilliant. And it's not as good as AD, not even close. But the more I watched, particularly due to Baldwin and Morgan, the more I got onboard. It's certainly the best comedy currently on network TV. It hits some false notes here and there (Page-off, ugh) and some of the minor characters sometimes get neglected, but it's worth Tivoing, at the very least. NBC.com has the 5 or so episodes previous to this week's up on their website, and you can watch them there, but be prepared for excruciating JC Penney commercials. Might be best just to torrent.
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The page-off was stupid until Pete came and busted it up. That was righteous :D
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So, I watched the first episode last night and I liked it very much. I found myself chuckling at the general silliness of it all but when the adds came on there was a promo for American Dad! and Family Guy which I just didn't find funny at all.
I don't know why, but I find awkward things rather funny and i'll probably watch it again next Thursday evening.
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I'm just bumping this up because I feel that, of the shows I follow, 30 Rock is the only one that's come out of the strike even stronger than before. These last few episodes have been really awesome, and they're doing a great job of moving the plot forward (yes, there IS a plot). I have high hopes for season 3 =)
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Has there been a third season confirmed?
Actually I thought the first post-strike episode was a little weak, but then the Amadeus references and subtle jabs at Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip started up. The season finale was pretty excellent, with standout moments from just about every character, even Pete.
Lots of great quotable lines, too.
"The roof isn't leaking. I'll show you the study."
"Touch my knees. Touch my feet.Touch my feet... with your knees."
"But that was 2 YEARS AGO!"
"Let's do this."
"He saw me eating a hamburger once. And it wasn't even a hamburger, it was a sandwich."
"The President gave me a nickname... The Jacker."
Hmm, I guess you have to get the context for most of them to work. But it's pretty brilliant. Watch it. (http://www.nbc.com/30_Rock/)
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even Pete.
Hey, man, Pete is one of the best parts of the show.
And yeah, there's a third season comin'.
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I'd watch this more if channel 7 didn't constantly fuck around with the timing. I think, when I have money, I will by the DVD.
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even Pete.
Hey, man, Pete is one of the best parts of the show.
He is, but his juiciest plotline this season was ripped off from the Simpsons (stuck inside a vending machine) he's one of the characters that's suffered from Kenneth's domination of C-stories.
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Wait, wait.
Tell it to me in Star Wars.
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He is, but his juiciest plotline this season was ripped off from the Simpsons (stuck inside a vending machine) he's one of the characters that's suffered from Kenneth's domination of C-stories.
What! I thought that was taken from The Darwin Awards movie!
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Hmmm, I haven't seen that. But it has Wynona Rider in it, so I don't plan on doing so anytime soon.
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Okay, but when he threw the various objects from his pocket at the phone and dialed his own office was brilliant.
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Live every week like it's Shark Week.
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30 Rock is great. but I can only watch it online now what it's moved to a later time.
(have to bee off computer and TV at 9)
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I've probably seen, in total, 3 episodes of the show. I think it's great, it's brilliant, I love how that baldwin guy is finally doing something good again. That being said if someone else tells me how "amazing" Tina Fey is I'm probably going to start throwing sharp objects around. I know she's amazing, I know she's talented.....so stop saying it already.
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I thought it was hilarious when Tracy brought in the cappuccino machine and Kenneth got addicted so coffee.
"I've broken so many promises to I made to my mother. I drank coffee. Why, just last weekend, I went out to see a PG-13 movie. New York is the new city of Sodom, and I've just been Sodomized!"
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New episode up online! (http://www.hulu.com/watch/40482/30-rock-sneak-peek-do-over#s-p1-so-i0)
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That is a damn fine season premiere.
Damn, I love this show.
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Ooh, new season, looking forward to it.
Werewolf bar mitzvah/boys become men/men become wolves
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Really looking forward to Season 3. 30 Rock was wobbly to begin with, but it had a really strong Season 2, I think because they made better use of Baldwin and Jordan. I wish Adsit and Friedlander got a bit more screentime, but basically the ensemble cast works well.
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I have watched snippets of this show. It looks like every other bullshit American sitcom, and I wish the Liz Lemon character would die in a fire.
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It's actually extremely self-aware and occasionally hilarious. At the very least, it's different because it takes the piss at itself (did I say that correctly?). I highly recommend any episode with Will Arnett, who has graduated suma cum laude from the Lithgow school of comedic overacting.
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We should have a betting pool on how long it is before we see an iPad on this show.
Money on Tracy
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I think one of the reasons that est doesn't like it is that I am pretty sure he doesn't like comedic overacting, which from what I have seen of 30 Rock, is a fairly large part of the whole 30 Rock deal.
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I have watched snippets of this show. It looks like every other bullshit American sitcom, and I wish the Liz Lemon character would die in a fire.
That's how I feel. Everyone keeps telling me it's phenomenal and brilliant, but when I've watched it I haven't anything funny.
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You've heard of the old saying that in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king? Well in the land of witless shit comedies, the self-referential sporadically clever is king. In a market with a fair number of intelligent witty comedies (say Britain) the show would probably sink like Jeff Zucker's job security. And yes, if you don't like comedic overacting, 30 Rock is almost as fun as gouging yourself in the arm while ingesting poison.
Incidentally, for all you Steven Coogan fans, Saxondale is apparently getting adapted by NBC. Heh.
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What british show isn't these days? They've got Prime Suspect and Wire in the Blood in the pipeline, and about a decade ago they fucked up Cracker for a season.
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Ah, but were the stars of those shows accused by Courtney Love of giving Owen Wilson the drugs that brought him to suicide?
I think not.
Good day sir.
I say good day.
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You've heard of the old saying that in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king? Well in the land of witless shit comedies, the self-referential sporadically clever is king.
It's not like someone is forcing you/me to watch one of them, so we've got to choose the least crap one. Couldn't you just not watch any of them and do something else you actually enjoy?
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I do enjoy it, I was explaining why 30 Rock's reputation may be disproportionate to its objective value (were there such a thing). I wince at some of the overacting and some of the stereotypes being explored, but on balance, the good episodes justify the bad. Also, the restraining order limits me to 30 minutes of Coogan time per day maximum.
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if you don't like comedic overacting
When I read that my first thought was "how can you have comedy without overacting?" That's how much the current state of television has infected my sensibilities, and I'm a relatively self-aware person so just imagine how fucked the average viewer is.
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You've heard of the old saying that in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king? Well in the land of witless shit comedies, the self-referential sporadically clever is king. In a market with a fair number of intelligent witty comedies (say Britain) the show would probably sink like Jeff Zucker's job security. And yes, if you don't like comedic overacting, 30 Rock is almost as fun as gouging yourself in the arm while ingesting poison.
Incidentally, for all you Steven Coogan fans, Saxondale is apparently getting adapted by NBC. Heh.
Witty comedies like what? Limmy's Show has been hit and miss but with a reasonable amount of hit, but that only gets broadcast on BBC Scotland for some reason. Thank god for iplayer. There's Newswipe I guess, but that's a review show really and also loses huge amounts of points for Tim Key. The Thick Of It was brilliant but it's over now and I can't see it coming back, and the other big revival of recent times was Vic and Bob bringing back the godawful Shooting Stars, basically discarding the return to form they had with Catterick a while back. What else have we got these days, Mock The Week? Argumental? The flogging of a dead horse train wreck that is Have I Got News For You? They're shoddy as hell cheap panel shows, I genuinely can't think of a current UK sitcom I could sit through an episode of without wanting to hurt the TV. A case in point being Adam Buxton's appalling new effort The Persuasionists, that's what the UK has to go up against 30 Rock.
It's a long time since the glory days of The Armando Iannucci Shows, Jam and Big Train. And British comedy was never as good as it might look from the outside. For every Father Ted there were a lot more programmes like My Family and Hippies. The US on the other hand currently has Better Off Ted, Parks And Recreation, Community, 30 Rock, Archer and it's not that long since Eastbound And Down was being shown here and outclassing pretty much everything we had to offer. 30 Rock might get its arse handed to it by a good Parks And Rec or most Community, but it holds its own alright and has much stiffer competition than it does in the UK, where it's up against the US Office basically. Hell, the US Office might have run too long by now but it's still watchable and still better than the UK version. If that example's anything to go by the US Saxondale could well be much better than the UK version, which wasn't one of Coogan's best efforts.
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For me 30 Rock is a pretty average sitcom which benefits from a couple of decent performances and an embrace of internet-based geek humour. It's just about self-aware and satirical enough to survive being overly reliant on old-fashioned slapstick mugging. It's a lot meaner than the average sitcom and the hugging and learning is kept to a minimum. It doesn't try to be touching or serious, which I think is to its credit. It's ridiculous but in a way that aptly reflects the genuine absurdity of that which it mainly lampoons - television and corporations.
However, it's nowhere near as bright as the enduring Arrested Development (to which it is often compared) and utterly inept compared to the genuinely superb The Larry Sanders Show (which is also about a television show and remains the greatest sitcom of all time alongside Curb Your Enthusiasm).
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It's certainly no Friends
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The Larry Sanders Show
Jeffrey Tambor, Rip Torn, Gary Shandling, Jeremy Piven, Janeane Garofalo, Rip Torn... all I'm saying it's setting the bar a little high.
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You forgot to mention Rip Torn.
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what
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Nothing screams "classic comedy" like the casting of Jeremy Piven.
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Also Judd Apatow co-wrote and produced. And Jon Stewart was a frequent guest. Frankly, with the talent they had on that show, it could have been Shandling lighting his farts 30 minutes every week and would it would still be epic.
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even Pete.
Hey, man, Pete is one of the best parts of the show.
He is, but his juiciest plotline this season was ripped off from the Simpsons (stuck inside a vending machine) he's one of the characters that's suffered from Kenneth's domination of C-stories.
That has also been done by Sealab (Off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are MANY others, like inviting two dates to the party, it's been done before & will be done again.)
Wolves, I'm super glad you said you've been watching community, me & the Oliver watched all them in a row the other weekend, started off slow, let you get into the characters then let it get steadily funnier. Which is something 30 Rock did, also Parks.
Now what do these three things have in common?
SNL. It might be just awful at the mo, but we have NOTHING like that in the UK. Whilst the stand up circuit might produce a lot of AMAZING comedians that you barely ever see on TV. (Daniel Kitson, Will Hodgeson) there's nothing that really stretches Character writing, sketch writing AND live performance. I think Lorne Micheals is responsible for A LOT of good American comedy. (As are the writers of the Daily show.)
Have a look on 4OD at the Comedy Lab. There always used to be great pilots on there, more recently the only two great episodes on the involved David Cross (<3) & Demetri Martin (<<3) Last time I checked they were both American.
Honestly apart from Misfits & Charlie Brooker I barely watch ANY UK tv. I listen to a lot of the comedy shows on radio 4 (Just a minute, I'm sorry I haven't A Clue, The News Quiz, The Now Show.) & I like QI & Mock The Week, but all those shows have Older, more seasoned comedians on. There's no one really new & exciting.
It's still the Mary Whitehouse Experience, Adam & Joe etc. People involved with Spaced, from when I was at school making the shows.
This is why I'm going to make a TV show myself. Oh look, I making a blog about it: http://idonemadedatvshow.blogspot.com/?zx=6f0ca41b2825f29f (http://idonemadedatvshow.blogspot.com/?zx=6f0ca41b2825f29f)
(It counts because the last post is about Tina Fey.)
Also this:
Peter Serafinowicz
Still blown away that my DVD is the fastest-selling ever in UK. http://bit.ly/cVAGPT (http://bit.ly/cVAGPT)
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For Community, I think episode 3 was probably when it really got going, if only for these bits: that's racist (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmAUlGR3_ZY) and krumping (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8kKbbdJTFA). Since then it's been by far the most consistent of the Thursday night run. Parks can be great when Ron Swanson is just being awesome and I have a lot of time for Aziz Ansari, but it can go badly wrong like the Venezuela episode which was appalling by their standards and far too "lol foreigners".
Hey, you know what the new equivalent of The Mary Whitehouse Experience or The Day Today is for new British comedians? Cowards. Most notable cast member being Tim Key. You'd better hurry up with your programme, because things are looking bleak for our side of the pond.
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Before we stop talking about classic British comedies altogether I'd like to remind everyone of the Book Group (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPXbSObNs4o).
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That looks awesome. I want more adulation for A Bit of Frye and Laurie. Specifically, I want to know what condiment you would smear on your body if it would get you new episodes.
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Holy shit tonight's episode was grand.
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Before we stop talking about classic British comedies altogether I'd like to remind everyone of the Book Group (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPXbSObNs4o).
Ah yes. Bit patchy, but there were some good bits. I particularly liked the one where the team went to Spain and the hot Spanish player is macking on Rab. But for unfairly forgotten Scottish comedies Mr Don And Mr George (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVtfVuj98_w) is probably the pinnacle.
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Holy shit tonight's episode was grand.
Did you know that "Julianne Moore" is an anagram for "Still hot at 50"?
Re Book Group, as much as I enjoy Anne Dudek, just once I want to see her cast as someone other than a highly strung insecure self-hating bitch.
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Also Judd Apatow co-wrote and produced. And Jon Stewart was a frequent guest. Frankly, with the talent they had on that show, it could have been Shandling lighting his farts 30 minutes every week and would it would still be epic.
I spent most of last night watching this: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D3C727E190B87869&search_query=Undeclared&rclk=pti (http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D3C727E190B87869&search_query=Undeclared&rclk=pti)
It's Judd Apatow's sitcom form ages ago, Undelcared. I think it's pretty funny, I am massively biased as I have a huge crush on Jay Baruchel, but it has Amy Pohler in it & I love her.
Also Charlie Hunman from Sons of Anarchy. I thought he had a terrible British accent, then realised who it was & that he is British & felt silly.
Just thought I'd add that in...
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Undeclared was pretty amazing. Everybody talks about Freaks and Geeks being the great unheralded, underrated series of the past however-many-years but at least most people I meet have actually heard of F&G-whether they've seen it or not is another matter- which is more than you can say about Undeclared.
Also Eliza how could you forget to mention that it has David Krumholtz! I love me some Krumholtz (except for Numb3rs, that's dogshit)
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This is true, Freaks & Geeks was pretty good & had some ace people in it, but Undeclared has some AMAZING cameos & moments. Will Ferrel & Adam Sandler being two of the most famous, if not the best of them.
I also love me some Krumholtz, enough to watch more than one episode of Numbers *blushes*
This is fairly interesting also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tP1HQSComo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tP1HQSComo)
It's part of the panel discussion with the cast of Undeclared at the Museum of Television and Radio. There's some interesting bits about casting & whatnot.
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Now I miss Undeclared. The Ex and I, that was one where I'd go to his place after work and he'd have a new disc from Netflix and I remember saying "Man, this is so good!" each time after like every episode. I watched Freaks and Geeks when it was on tv but not that one for whatever reason.