"30 ROCK": ZONK CENTRAL

As '30 Rock' is set in the backstage world of NBC's televersion, there will always be Zonks caused by mentions of TV shows actually on the air, but which should be co-existing with the cast & crew of 'The Girlie Show'.

This past week had a couple of examples, in fact.

It was bad enough that Tracy Jordan called a network lawyer "my Cousin Carlton", but that might have been splained away. I could have argued that "Cousin Carlton" was a modern derogatory phrase in Toobworld, on the same plane as "Uncle Tom". Only in this case, "Cousin Carlton" referred to blacks who played the game as they climbed the corporate ladder; that there was more white about them than just their collars.

I think I could have pulled that off, but then NBC executive Jack Donaghy had to erase all ambiguity about the remark by pointing out its source in the NBC hit sitcom 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air'. And to top it off, he even offered up the dates the show aired in his attempt to suck up to the head honcho of GE.

And then there was the 'Designing Women' marathon that Frank watched on TV Land. At least with this, I can fall back on an excuse that's come in handy over the last several years - the reality show.

In Toobworld, 'Designing Women' is not a sitcom about the Sugarbaker Sisters and their associates in an interior design business, but instead it's a reality show about the Sugarbakers & Company as they ply their trade in Atlanta.

So when we heard an excerpt from the sitcom, featuring another fiery monologue by Dixie Carter, it was not as a sitcom character named Julia Sugarbaker, but instead it was an impassioned speech by the "real-life" Julia Sugarbaker.

And I have no problem with TV Land airing a reality series, even if it is about interior design. They've been airing other reality prgrams for awhile now, although those were all about TV in some way. Then again, they've moved away from their original intent of "preserving our Television Heritage" some time ago.

Finally, there was the introduction of the girl whom Kenneth was sweet on, a fellow NBC page named Grace Park. Much was made in a few blogs about the fact that she was Korean and that she shared the same name as the character from the revamped version of 'Battlestar Galactica'.

But there's no connection. 'Battlestar Galactica' takes place in an alternate dimension, and their Grace Park cannot be considered Korean. Aside from the fact that she's a Cylon, Grace has never been to Earth; her "racial" background would stem from one of the destroyed colonies which the survivors had to flee.

So there's no Zonk there at least......

BCnU!
Tele-Toby