WMG / 30 Rock

Tracy's dad really was out getting cigarettes for decades

Tracy's dad supposedly left to get cigarettes one day while Tracy was a kid and never came back. In the last episode Tracy calls Liz and tells her that his dad finally came back, and he's there with Tracy holding a box of cigarettes. Messing up such a simple task is totally something Tracy might do, and he could take after his father.

Kenneth is an Angel.

Think about it.

The show is set during an apocalypse.

Think about it... the first season was relatively normal. The characters were eccentric and unstable people working in a bizarre environment. But still.... relatively normal. But since then things have become stranger and stranger. Kenneth's apparent immortality. The way Jack and his latest wife's marriage fell apart. Bizarre, surreal secrets from the characters' pasts. Realities are clashing on the 30th floor and the line between the real and the unreal is starting to blur.

30 Rock is the modern version of The Mary Tyler Moore Show

I thought about this while watching the latter show. Both include

• A TV Station setting
• A female protagonist working at a TV Show while balancing a hectic personal life (Mary/Liz)
• A boss she trusts yet also battles with creatively (Lou Grant/Jack)
• A manchild star with a big ego(Ted/Tracy)
• A bald friend who offers advice (Murray/Pete)
• An entitled blonde who causes problems (Sue Ann/Jenna)

Update the setting from news to sketch comedy and add an immortal page and you have 30 Rock.

Dr. Drew Baird is Don Draper's illegitimate son

Remember that Liz's mom worked for Sterling Cooper in the 60s, so we know that Mad Men and 30 Rock share a common universe. And we know from St. Valentine's Day that Drew's mother had him out of wedlock in her teens or early 20s. And he was probably born sometime in the 60s, and he looks just like Don Draper. It all adds up to Drew Baird being Don Draper's bastard son.

Past Pete really WAS coming to kill future Pete.

Tracy found out about while running through the studio, but nobody believed him because of his craziness. Fortunately, Past Pete failed and went back to the past. That's why Pete never wore the wig again. He never had one.

The show is real—we are the Good End Alternate Universe!

Think about it! Liz wants to have a good boyfriend and possibly get married and have kids! Tina Fey is really able to become an accomplished writer who has also acted in various films and shows unlike her real-life counterpart. Tracy and Tracy both come from slightly sad backgrounds, but then again, both made it on top—Morgan did do some serious films, though. Jenna's actually trying to deny the fact that she's getting old, but now, Jane's become a dignified model and actress at 37! But Kenneth might be a transdimensional constant.

Jack is right about Kenneth.

Kenneth is Obfuscating Stupidity in an attempt to take over the whole company, possibly the world. Everything he's done on the show is all part of a complex master plan.

• His page job at the Olympics was a major step. By now, he rules half of China.
  • Alternatively, when the NBC/Comcast Kabletown deal goes through it'll be discovered that between the NBC stock in his 401(k), some shares in one of Kabletown's predecessor companies that his grandfather invested in in The '50s when one-man cable operations in rural areas were common and an interest in Sheinhardt we didn't know about, Kenneth has a controlling interest in the new company.
    • His grandfather...right.
  • Interestingly, in season 1 Jack theorized that Kenneth would end up running the company in 5 years. It's now season 5, and now that Kabletown owns NBC, it's being run by a guy who Jack explicitly compares to Kenneth in terms out outlook and personality.
• Well as of the finale, it's half right since he's now president of NBC and it's shown that he remains so long enough into the future where Liz Lemon's granddaughter pitches him the idea of 30 Rock.

Liz has Autism.

She's a geek, and Jack says that she's "socially retarded", which seems to be true. That defines autism right there, doesn't it?

• Agreed.
  • Liz is way too social to have autism. Liz was a part of Second City back in the day. A person with autism would not be able to go and perform in front of a bunch of people like that.
    • Dan Aykroyd has autism, and he was in Second City.
    • This autistic troper goes to a drama class and has no problem performing on stage.
    • This autistic troper once considered a career as an actor.
    • Also, one of the symptoms many people on the Autistic spectrum have is the inability to deal with noise. Liz seems to have the normal reaction when dealing with noise.

Liz is the classic geeky-social-misfit-turned-comedian.

She started making people laugh with her not at her, probably as a child. She got good enough at it to do it professionally in a "glamorous" network TV setting. And then the Peter Principle kicked in, and she wound up in a position that's as much Human Resources as it is comedy writing.

Liz is the grown-up version of Carly.

This does run into serious continuity issues - 30 Rock doesn't seem to be Twenty Minutes (or years) into the Future, and iCarly by definition can't be set in The '80s... so there is a Time Paradox in there somewhere.

• There is a very plausible WMG that Carly is a Haruhi, so that might provide an alternative explanation.

Kenneth is immortal.

As mentioned elsewhere, he has apparently owned a pet bird for over 60 years.

• In another episode we flashback to people dancing "The Microwave" in The '50s — Kenneth is one of the dancers.
• There was also a deleted scene from "Mamma Mia" in which a World War II veteran recognizes him as one of his war buddies.
  • And when he has to replace Donaghy's pants: "You know that woman in accounting who thinks you're her dead husband from the war?"
• When he started working at NBC, Shirley Temple was eight - that's 1936/37.
• But, most chillingly, someone asks him if he wants to be a page forever, and he mishears and replies (in a very disturbing tone for him) "Who says I have been alive forever?". Either he simply looks very good for his age, or our favorite NBC page is some sort of Humanoid Abomination.
• In the closing tag of 100 Kenneth's hand pops out of his grave, giving a thumbs up. It also reveals his birth year as 1781.
• See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLStS6bSWeg

Kenneth is the Wandering Jew.

His devout Christianity is due to actually witnessing the life of Jesus millennia ago.

Kenneth is the Spirit of America.

We know that Kenneth has lived through all of the 20th Century at least, as noted above. His life has followed the trajectory of American culture: born in the backwoods, raised by a small, (putatively) nuclear family, educated at Bible College... then was seen in the swing dance halls of the '20s, served with the Greatest Generation in World War II, and finally moved to the Big City and joined the world of television, where America's heart now lies. His crazy can-do optimism and ability to do absolutely anything despite appearing utterly incompetent, only serve to underscore his quintessential Americanosity against the backdrop of a modern business and cultural environment that sometimes forgets the values upon which this great nation was founded.

Kenneth is related to Forrest Gump.

The more you think about it, the more it makes sense.

Kenneth is related to Jennifer Rogers.

She touched his face and was instantly repulsed after touching her own for reference. It wouldn't be the first time the cousin card was played on the show.

The Generalissimo in Elise's grandmother's soap opera is played by Jack's evil twin brother.

He looks exactly the same. And just look at the other Donaghys that appeared on the show; Evil Twin Separated at Birth seems almost mundane.

OR

The Generalissimo in Elise's grandmother's soap opera is played by Jack's good twin brother.

Think about it.

Kenneth is a Highland Immortal.

He had the same bird for sixty years. But he looks young.

• Naturally, his bird is also a Highland Immortal.
  • No, some birds just live that long. Macaws live well over 90 years in captivity, for example. And didn't it die of pesticide poisoning?
• And the whole 'innocent farmboy' thing is just an act so he can get the jump on other immortals.

Kenneth drank from the spring in Tuck Everlasting.

He is taking it much better than the Tucks did.

Kenneth brought back an Eldritch Abomination or an Artifact of Doom when he came back from the dead.

This, as with many things regarding Kenneth, does not bode well for mankind.

Jack Donaghy represents the mentality of Real Life NBC executives exactly.

So, if anyone still cares about NBC, then they ought to watch this show.

Kenneth drank from the Fountain of Youth in Pirates of the Caribbean.

See, about sixty years ago, Jack Sparrow had another curse on him that made him avoid the sea. He was exploring the Appalachians when he fell, hit his head, and was adopted by a nice family that washed his hair for the first time in his life (turns out he's blonde) and gave him a pet bird. If they had tried to teach him that rum was the devil's drink rather than coffee the devil's temperature, then he'd have been out of there like a shot.

30 Rock isn't a parody — it's Tina Fey's and Tracy Morgan's anecdotes about their time at SNL with people's names changed to protect the innocent.

Yes, that means there really is an immortal NBC page out there.

Tracy Jordan isn't crazy; he just acts that way to get attention.

It's confirmed that some of Tracy's weirdness is an image:

"If I'm normal, I'm boring. If I'm boring I'm poor and poor people can't afford to pay back the $75,000 in cash they owe Quincy Jones!"

• Also backed up in the Pilot when he brings Liz Lemon to where he grew up, talks about how lucky he was to get out and then proceeds to pee on the building. He's a talented enough comedian to know a good, grounded set-up when he sees one, and likes the reaction he gets with the payoff.

Tina Fey and Liz Lemon and Kenneth are Tropers.

It would be very surprising if they weren't.

There is going to be a Liz Lemon/Jenna Maroney plotline any day now.

Recall "Season 4" (the episode), where Jenna remarks that her options are to become a country music star or enter a lesbian relationship. She seems to be dropping the country act lately, and during "Into the Crevasse" she was very interested in the Liz/Jenna porno going on...

• Confirmed in the same season's finale.

Kenneth's mom's friend Ron is Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation.

We, after all, don't know anything about Kenneth's mother. As long as she's a pretty, dark-haired woman named "Tammy", it fits. She doesn't even have to be the Tammy played by Megan Mullally.

• Jossed. Bryan Cranston will be playing him in the final season.

Kenneth is the human embodiment of the human conscience.

Liz, Jack, Tracy, and Jenna are all selfish people in their own way and Kenneth's goal is to set them in the write direction. Kenneth can never affect the outcome events but can influence others.

• Liz can tend to be arrogant and elitist. She also occasionally becomes very whiny about her problems. Kenneth is there to remind her that there are people who have it a lot worse off than her and she should count her blessings.
• Jack frequently is faced with moral dilemmas and Kenneth is always around to remind him of his guilt and to make the right decisions.
• Tracy often participates in various crazy schemes and Kenneth is usually around to remind him of how his actions have consequences on others and attempts to ground him in real life scenarios.
• Jenna is a self-centered individual and Kenneth has on numerous occasions attempted to allow her to become selfless.

TGS was cancelled three years ago, and no-one noticed.

Given that they spend all their time solving various wacky personal problems and dealing with Tracy and Jenna's craziness, they've simply forgotten all about writing, rehearsing and performing sketches.

The Live episode was a depiction of how Jack sees the world while sober.

He spent the whole episode sober for the first time in ten years. As soon as he took a drink, the show went back to normal.

• When he was sober he was apparently able to see into Liz's flashbacks (and note that she imagines herself as looking different). Interesting, considering how clever and focused he can be when drunk. Sobriety just takes his natural brainpower up to eleven, giving him literal superpowers. We'd better hope he stays on the stuff. A psychic Jack Donaghy could take over the world!

By the finale of Season 5 (or less likely, during the first episode of Season 6), Kenneth will have either taken over NBC or Kabletown by some strange confluence of incidents, historical or otherwise, or doomed everyone one way or another.

Early in Season 1, Jack said that in five years, they would all be ruled over by Kenneth or die by his hands. The "die by his hands" thing is unlikely, even if it's the Series Finale, but Kenneth-from-pre-industrial-Stone-Mountain ruling over NBC (even without exercising any power) would be even more comically nauseating for Jack than Kabletown alone.

• Seeing how in Que sorpresa! , Kenneth actually showed quite a lot of compatibility with Kabletown owner Hank Hooper's way of business and values. This may actually happen.
  • Jossed as of "The Ballad of Kenneth Parcell." He's instead gone into a downward spiral.
  • It came a bit late, but as of the second-to-last episode, confirmed.

Donaghy Estates Champagne is like Nia's Cooking from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Everyone who drinks it hates it and spits it out, but Tracy Jordan drinks several glasses while sitting in a meeting with Jack during "The Source Awards". Just like Nia's cooking is directly related to how much spiral power each character possesses in Gurren Lagann, how much the characters like Donaghy Estates relates to how much spiral power they have, it's just that Tracy is the only one who has any.

Lutz is a zombie

It would explain all his health issues (extreme gas passing, him with his shirt off...) and it would explain his reaction to Liz saying "one unsolved crew member death".

Carmen Chao is one of Kenneth's race.

She has no discernible background and may or may not be able to speak every language. She's clearly their Richard Alpert.

Paul (Will Forte) is the same character that he was in "Black Tie," Tomas. This could work in one of two ways:

1. After meeting Jenna at the party, he became infatuated with her, leading him to change his name and his new lookalike persona.

2. Because Jenna was basically responsible for Prince Gerhardt's death, he swore revenge upon her and is using their relationship to get closer to her and take her down.

• 2a. The above was the original plan, but he actually did fall in love with her along the way.

Kenneth is an Angel Unaware

This is why he hates to lie. It goes against his nature. Should he fall, humanity will have difficulties.

• In 6.16 Jenna asks if she's a terrible person and Kenneth replies "only God and his angels can judge... so, yes."

Kenneth is the latest host to an immortal alien parasite.

The Parcells are an ordinary tribe of humans who have been inbred to homogeneity to suit the preferences of the alien parasite.

Kenneth is a Time Lord.

He may not be immortal, just a time traveler that can live for a very long time.

• Kenneth has keepsakes that directly reference him just like the Doctor.
• Kenneth makes many references that outdate his outward age appearance like the Doctor.
• Donaghy's supernatural business sense foreshadowed Kenneth taking over the company in five years, and a man with similar personality to Kenneth is running Kabletown. Maybe Kenneth regenerates at some point to become the owner?
• He strokes and kisses 30 Rockefeller Plaza like The Doctor strokes his TARDIS. Maybe 30 Rock is Kenneth's TARDIS?
• Kenneth once referred to himself as "the elderly". The Doctor has done this on a number of different occasions, claiming he's "much older than he looks" or "an old man".
• During a televised dance for "Do the Microwave" in the 50s, Kenneth himself can be spotted in the crowd. This is a common antic for a number of different incarnations of the Doctor.
• In season one, Cerie mentions to Kenneth that she feels he "has an old soul", to which Kenneth makes a wacky anecdote about being the reincarnated soul of the town minister who died in a fire. Perhaps this minister didn't really "die"; he's just one of Kenneth's previous regenerations.
• When Jenna puts strawberries into Kenneth's sandwich (he's allergic to strawberries), Kenneth blurts out "My real name is Dick Whitman!" while in shock. While it's unlikely that he is the same person in Mad Men, as that character has an established childhood/birth; perhaps one of Kenneth's other regenerations was called "Dick Whitman". In Doctor Who, the Doctor will sometimes make asynchronous statements from other regenerations when incapacitated; Kenneth may have been doing the same thing.
• Kenneth has also implied that he doesn't sleep, but instead sits in the dark and patiently waits for daytime. The Doctor also does not appear to ever sleep.
• Kenneth appears to be omnilingual, claiming to even be able to speak to animals (though he quickly retracted that statement when it raised some eyebrows.) The Doctor has claimed to be able to speak every language, and has shown it on multiple occasions.
• Liz once asked "Do you have a second, Kenneth?", and Kenneth misunderstood the question to imply that there is a second Kenneth; his response was a very dodgy "No, there's only one of me." Kenneth might have been hiding the fact that there are other incarnations of Kenneth or feared that Liz had seen a version of his current incarnation displaced in time. In Doctor Who, a time lord will often be described as being multiple people; logically, a time lord in hiding would be very adamant in admitting that there is only one of him/her.
• Seeing as the writers of this show are admitted ubernerds, it would be a safe guess that they are, at least, aware of TV Tropes and the running gag it has about wild mass guessing various characters in fiction are time lords. The writers may have actually written Kenneth to, at least, showcase time lord traits so they could get tropers to write about it here. If that is the case...well played, Lemon.

The show is porn for geeks.

Just like the "Porn for women" concept, the entire show is designed to be "turn on" for geeks. Let's just count the damage: Liz has the body of Tina Fey, an interest in all sorts of geeky things, and while smart and creative, she is at the same time predictable, subservient and dependent.

• They still haven't had the obligatory Felicia Day cameo for the show to be true geek porn.
  • Well, now, there is a difference between "softcore" porn (attractive people doing technically non-sexual things in skimpy clothing) and "hardcore" porn (attractive people get naked and perform overt sexual acts). 30 Rock is softcore nerdporn (Tina Fey. What, you need more? Well, there is more.) as opposed to hardcore nerdporn (Tina Fey deciding to do a 30 Rock episode with Felicia Day, Nathan Fillion, William Shatner, Lucy Lawless, etc, and so on, etc).
    • great now i have to walk around with this hard on all day,

Leap Day William is a Lovecraftian/Derlethian Elder God

Probably Nodens, since he lives in the Miriana Trench and is vaguely benevolent towards humans (gives candy to children) in an unsettling way (you have to make the children cry first, eg: poking them in the eye). The end of the episode reveals that the kindly looking old-timey man has gills and pointed teeth.

Jack's attempt to "tank" NBC will create a Springtime for Hitler situation.

Calling it now!

The show will end with...

Here are some possibilities. Feel free to add more.

• Jack's "tanking" of NBC works too well and the entire network is shut down forever. Then Seinfeld turns 30 Rock into a Lane Bryant after all.
• The series turns out to be All Just a Dream. Liz wakes up to find herself still in High School. Turns out Mitch was right all along about it still being 1985!
• Gretchen Thomas comes back and has a kid now. Liz can't help herself and moves in with her. As Liz resignedly lets Gretchen do sex stuff to her, she's hit with the crushing revelation that this was the only relationship she could ever make work. A Single Tear rolls down her cheek and then the show ends with Liz stuck in a loveless lesbian relationship.
• Everyone except Tracy gets fired.
• Kenneth takes over NBC, as Jack predicted in "Blind Date".
  • confirmed as of "Last Supper"
• Hazel is brutally killed. Or at least we can hope.
• Jack's "tanking" backfires and NBC becomes a huge success. Hank Hooper offers to promote Jack, but only on the condition that he cancel TGS as it's the only show which lost money.
  • Of all the guesses, this one is very, very close. In reality, Jack's attempt to tank NBC fails, as some of his shows bring in big ratings and TGS boosts ratings with popular sketches where Tracy plays a VP candidate who looks exactly like him and acts like a buffoon. Hank Hooper retires and names Jack CEO of Kabletown. Hank's last act as CEO before he leaves is to cancel TGS.
• Kenneth finally snaps and brutally murders everyone. The last shot of the show is Kenneth smiling cheerfully and waving as he stands in the middle of the bloody corpses.
• Frank finds the box of hot dogs which Liz bought in the pilot and starts eating them. Liz yells at him that they're seven years old, Frank looks up, says "oh", and then goes back to eating them.
• Liz flies away from 30 Rock in a helicopter and looks back to see that the windows spell out "GOODBYE".
• Liz gets Jack's job and the show ends with Liz becoming a mentor to the head writer of a new show which has replaced TGS.
• Liz's baby is a boy and she names him after Jack. That's right, his name will be Jack Lemon.
• Jack's "tanking" plan works out exactly like he predicted with no surprises.
• Jack and Liz get married. (Yeah, you wish, shippers!)
• 30 Rock is destroyed in an apparent terrorist attack and everyone dies. But then Kenneth appears, smiles at the burning rubble, gets on his bike, and rides away. Fade out.
• Jack will join the TGS cast and crew for a poker game...then wake up in bed next to Kim Basinger, and start talking about a dream in which he was a TV executive...at which point the screen will cut to black in mid-sentence.

Kenneth is an winged unicorn turned human who had more Earth Pony magic than Pegasus and Unicorn magic

That would explain his longevity and his fascination with television(technology is powered by Earth Pony magic).

Kenneth is a Changeling who feeds off negative emotions

That's why he seems to like people treating him like crap: he needs it.Oh, and he's too kind to feed off negative emotions people have towards someone else.And...he's in denial.

Kenneth is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing

Kenneth will die at the age of 1000 because his body is Nightmare Moon's prison

His soul was chosen to break the evil in Luna in order to make the Mane Six be able to change her back to good.Momma, I am not a person. My body is just a flesh vessel, for an immortal being whose name, if you heard it, would make you lose your mind.

• As of May 10, 2014, he's 232. He'll be around for a while yet.

If Liz had a high position at work, she would have turned out like Carol

With Jack's talk with Liz at the beginning of "Double Edged Sword" spoke of how she should be careful of dating someone like her. Let's look at the facts;

1) Both take the rules far too seriously (Carol took it to almost Knight Templar levels with his position as Captain of the plane).

2) Liz tries to fire a woman for dating the guy she like back in season one.

3) She constantly puts herself in the center of the universe and treats her problems as bigger than they really are while the writing staff are more well adjusted and laid back (whom she always views as morons) while having slight self-centered tendencies.

Really, be thankful she didn't get a higher level job like manager of NBC or Carol isn't a wall street executive.

Kenneth is a Black Butler.

Homonyms doesn't actually just choose the other option, everyone just has horrible luck.

Sometime before the birth of Liz's great granddaughter someone will discover how to stop and/or reverse the aging process

Which is why no one blinks an eye at Kenneth still being president of NBC.

Abby Flynn from the episode "TGS Hates Women" is the doppelganger of the The Mother

This long article is an accurate description of Kenneth's immortality and its effects on the future.

Why not?

Kenneth was forced into immortality by God to give him a chance to atone for something he did in the past

His soul is continuously reincarnated not only to give him a chance to atone for his sins, but to help others atone for theirs as well. He must live life as a pure-hearted man for at least 100 years and redeem at least 3400 people.

Kenneth invented Twitter

What did you think he meant by Bird Internet?

Kenneth deliberately held of on making a show based on Liz so it would be a smash.

Liz's great-granddaughter essentially pitches the same show Liz did— one based on her life as the writer of TGS— but tells her that he loves the idea, while Liz couldn't even finish her pitch. Kenneth being Kenneth, he likely did love the idea just as much when Liz suggested it, and could have green-lit the show despite the concept being on his no-no list. So why didn't he, and why did he green-light it 100 years later? Because he wanted this show to be adored. If he has said yes to Liz, the show would have been in the same position as 30 Rock was: critically adored, cult following, but always on the bubble, because it wasn't what people wanted. Rather than dooming something that likely would have meant a great deal to him to cult status, Kenneth said no, biding his time. 100 years later, Liz's great-granddaughter comes in to pitch a series about Liz and TGS, but this time, audiences tastes have shifted, so much so that a smart period comedy about a fictionalized version of a cult sketch comedy show's production would be a huge success.

Liz Lemon is intersex.

Based on a few things: There's a throwaway line where Liz tells Jack that of course she is a woman, that doctor was a "quack" anyway and her parents shouldn't have trusted him. Later, in one of the final seasons, there's another throwaway line where her boyfriend comments on her being a woman, but then wonders why he's never seen baby pictures of her. It's possible she was born with some sort of ambiguous genitalia and that the doctor who delivered her declared her male, which wasn't corrected until her parents took her to a different doctor who steered her parents in the other direction. This might also have had something to do with her inability to conceive. As a bonus, it adds a little something to the scene in which she receives the gender neutral doll - with both sets of genitals - that she always wanted as a kid. While there would be nothing unusual about her wanting it even if she wasn't/isn't intersex, it could be seen as her being excited about a doll she felt was at least somewhat like her.

Doctor Leo Specimen is immortal as well

In the second live episode of the series, the good doctor's actor plays both him and another character with the same name during a show's advertisement from the 1950s. The weird part comes from how both times he's on the show, his character calls himself "nazi doctor Specimen", though with different names. At first glance, you'd think it was just Leo Specimen's father for a flashback.

But what if that man wasn't his father, but actually just a past self? We never get much about his past or his youth that would make a concrete case of age, just past adventures like working with Saddam Hussein, a marriage where he murdered his wife, just one off gags like Kenneth back in the previous five seasons. In fact his name could've likely been a big tip off since its spelled the same as Specimen, like a science specimen (possibly one done my nazi mad scientists?)

• His name is spelled “Spaceman”, hence Tracy yelling “call Dr. Spaceman!” in “Tracy Does Conan”.