James Franco/Kings of Leon

James Franco/Kings of Leon

A huge congratulations to Marci Klein and Lorne Michaels for their Emmys for "30 Rock". It was great to see them win. The same goes for Tina Fey, Jeff Richmond, and Alec Baldwin who are all part of the SNL family. Jeff Richmond composed the music here for many years.
Many of us on the cast got together to watch the Emmys since SNL was up for a few awards. The writers were all out there for the ceremony in L.A., and we kept pausing the show whenever there was a shot of the audience so we could try to spot them.

About the show last week:

I thought Kings of Leon were especially great. I really like Caleb Followill's voice.

James Franco really did go to classes before our rehearsal days. That is true dedication. I am never going to complain about having a busy schedule again. Well, maybe I will anyway. Sometimes it's fun to complain a little, right?

Cameron Diaz is always fun to have around and she's so funny in Cougar Den. The sound effect that they use for that intro, that "rwooawr!" always makes me laugh. It's so loud!

Andy had very little time to take off all that prosthetic alien makeup from the OJ Jury Selection sketch to get into Juliette Lewis in The Looker. I remember sitting there staring ahead and I could hear the makeup people behind me, ripping everything off Andy. They were using that whisper/yelling tone: "Take it take it! No, not the back yet! Just throw it down. Go go go!"

We shot the Yankee Stadium Stories piece out in the real (now former) Yankee Stadium. I can't believe we got to shoot on the actual field. I've been to so many games there and it was amazing to see the stadium from where we were. I wonder if it's the only time in that stadium's entire history that someone played baseball using a meatball. I am going to guess yes. The people who work for the Yankees were so nice to let us shoot there. They had very little lead time to organize everything and were incredibly gracious to us. A special thank you to them.

Here are some pictures I took during the week:

This is Danielle. She does all the choreography. This was for "Agent 420".

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I saw Don Pardo, our announcer in the hall and thought I would take a picture.

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Here are a few that I took during goodnights at dress rehearsal. I turned around and took one of Lenny Pickett and the band.

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Thanks!

Season Premiere Michael Phelps/Lil Wayne

Hello! I hope everyone had a great summer. Mine went pretty quickly as the show started earlier than usual this season. It's funny, as soon as I step through the doors of 30 Rock (meaning the actual offices, not Tina's show, Thursday nights at 9:30 on NBC), it feels like no time has passed at all. We got right back into the insane hours. The first thing we shot was a commercial parody, "Jar Glove". It was the first time I got to work with our newest cast member Bobby Moniyhan who is sweet and super friendly and really funny. I'm glad that I got to be in his first scene on the show.

It was great having Michael Phelps as our first host. People really freaked out about him. There were so many people waiting to get a peak at him outside of the studio. He really seems to have made a splash. That is the dumbest joke ever, sorry.

The scene backstage was kind of crazy. Crowded. I remember saying out loud to myself, "oh wow, there's William Shatner."

I can't believe how pitch-perfect Tina was at doing Sarah Palin. That accent! What is that accent? Perfect.

Will's Locker Room sketch was fun to do. I figured out a way not to laugh in it. I just kept looking past Will into the lights. I literally can not look at Kenan. I think he smiles all the way through. I had to wear this bathing cap and I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be worn ears in our ears out. So I decided to ask Michael Phelps, who was sitting next to me. I thought I would get this long professional answer about aqua-dynamics that I could repeat to my friends and show off. But his answer was "it doesn't matter."

I can't tell you how happy I am to see the cast and crew again. Many of us get together over the summer breaks, but it was just a good feeling. We have a busy schedule in the next few weeks so there will be plenty of time spent together. The writers and producers are going to Los Angeles for the Emmys. Congratulations to them for being nominated. That is truly incredible. And Amy too! I'll be watching and crossing my fingers really hard. Congratulations to our hair department too. They won the Emmy in their category last week. Okay, here's a picture I just took with my computer this second.

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Thanks!
Fred