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Sketchy Times Critic Gets Skittish

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LET'S PUT ON A SKIT Shufflin' Crew
Considering the writer's infamy, it's not such a big deal, but something jumped out at us while reading the New York Times's Alessandra Stanley's TV Watch column about NBC's twin-SNL-esque prime-time shows, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and 30 Rock:
"30 Rock" had a wobbly start: Alec Baldwin's star turn as Jack Donaghy, a mad, mercurial network executive, eclipsed everyone else, including the show's creator and star, [Tina] Fey, who plays Liz Lemon, a single, 30-something head writer of a skit comedy show.
Skit comedy show? Not a sketch comedy show?

It may seem like a minor semantic quibble, but it's one that Studio 60 addressed head-on in episode six, "The Wrap Party." In that episode, Tom Jeter (played by Nate Corddry) is asked by his mother how the writers come up with all those funny "skits." As recounted by the Huffington Post's Eat the Press blog, Jeter blows up at his mother and shouts:

We don't do skits, Mom. Skits are when the football team dresses up as the cheerleaders and thinks it's wit. Sketches are when some of the best minds in comedy come together and put on a national television show that's watched and talked about by millions of people.
Perhaps Stanley thinks Fey's show-within-a-show (and, by extension, the show Fey used to run) are the equivalent of football players strutting their stuff for everyone.

Then again, it's probably just a mistake.

It's skit. Tina Fey has demonstrated time and time again, that she is one of the most over-rated television people in the history of it.

Posted by: billdiggity on December 1, 2006 12:58 PM

You're absolutely right, Chet. What with all the Tina Fey worshipping you barely hear anything these days about the real TV greats, like... um... what's his name - ooh, and that other guy.

Posted by: sbennett on December 1, 2006 7:27 PM

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