Alec Baldwin

Alec Baldwin

Alexander Rae Baldwin III (born April 3, 1958) is an American film and television actor. Working as Alec Baldwin, he has appeared in prominent films such as Beetlejuice, The Hunt for Red October, and in the Martin Scorsese films The Aviator and The Departed.

He was nominated for the Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance in the 2003 film, The Cooler. Currently, Baldwin appears as Jack Donaghy on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, a role for which he won an Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.

Baldwin has hosted Saturday Night Live over a dozen times and is the oldest of the Baldwin brothers, a family which has been prominent in film and television for the last two decades.

Baldwin was born in Massapequa, New York, the son of Carolyn Newcomb (née Martineau) and Alexander Rae Baldwin, Jr., a high school history/social studies teacher and football coach. Baldwin was raised in a Catholic family of Irish, English and French descent. He attended Alfred G. Berner High School in Massapequa, Long Island, and played football there under Coach Bob Reifsnyder, who is in the College Football Hall of Fame. Baldwin worked as a busboy at the famous New York City disco Studio 54. He attended George Washington University from 1976 to 1979, where he was known as "Alex." He then transferred to New York University to study acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute under Elaine Aiken and Geoffrey Horne. He returned to NYU in 1994 and graduated with a BFA that year.

The other Baldwin brothers, Daniel (Homicide: Life on the Street), William (Backdraft), and Stephen (The Usual Suspects) all followed him into the acting profession.

Baldwin made his Broadway debut in 1986, in a revival of Joe Orton's Loot alongside theatre veterans Zoe Wanamaker, Željko Ivanek, Joseph Maher and Charles Keating. This production closed after three months.

His other Broadway credits include Caryl Churchill's Serious Money with Kate Nelligan and a highly acclaimed revival of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire; his performance as Stanley Kowalski garnered him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor. This production also featured Jessica Lange, Amy Madigan, Timothy Carhart, James Gandolfini, and Aida Turturro. Baldwin would receive an Emmy nomination for the television version of the production, in which both he and Lange reprise their roles. That version featured John Goodman and Diane Lane.

In 1998 Baldwin played the title role in Macbeth at the Public theater alongside Angela Bassett and Liev Schreiber. The production was directed by George C. Wolfe. In 2004, Baldwin starred in a revival of Twentieth Century with Anne Heche.

On June 9, 2005, he appeared in a concert version of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific at Carnegie Hall. He starred as Luther Billis, alongside Reba McEntire as Nellie and Brian Stokes Mitchell as Emile. The production was taped and telecast by PBS on April 26, 2006. In 2006, Baldwin made theater news in Roundabout Theatre Company's Off-Broadway revival of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane.

Baldwin's first major role was as Billy Aldrich on the daytime soap opera The Doctors from 1980 to 1982. In the fall of 1983 he starred in the short lived television series Cutter to Houston. He then shot to stardom co-starring in the television series Knots Landing from 1984 to 1986.

In 1986, Baldwin starred in Dress Gray, a four-hour made for television miniseries, as an honest cadet sergeant who tries to solve the mystery of a murdered classmate. The film was adapted by Gore Vidal from the novel by Lucian K. Truscott.

Baldwin made his theatrical film debut with a minor role in the 1988 film She's Having a Baby. Also in 1988, he appeared in Beetlejuice and Working Girl. Fresh from those hits, his film career was firmly established with his role as Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October (1990).

Baldwin met his future wife Kim Basinger when both played romantic lovers in the 1991 film The Marrying Man. He appeared with Basinger again in The Getaway, a 1994 remake of the 1972 Steve McQueen film of the same name.

In a brief but memorable role, Baldwin played a ferocious sales executive in 1992's Glengarry Glen Ross, a part added to the film version of David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play. He then starred in 1992's Prelude to a Kiss with Meg Ryan, which was based on the Broadway play. The film received a lukewarm reception by critics though it grossed over $22 million worldwide.

In 1994, Baldwin joined the fray into pulp fiction-based movies with the role of the title character in the entertaining The Shadow. The film made $48 million but was considered a commercial failure due to the high expectations that it would be a blockbuster. Baldwin played in several thrillers including The Edge (with Anthony Hopkins), The Juror (with Demi Moore) and Heaven's Prisoners (with Teri Hatcher).

Baldwin appeared in a celebrity edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in November 2000, competing against Jon Stewart, Charlie Sheen, Vivica A. Fox and Norm Macdonald. He won $250,000 for PAWS, and used Kim Basinger as a phone a friend.

Baldwin shifted towards character acting, including in his Academy Award-nominated performance in 2003's gambling drama The Cooler. He appeared with Leonardo DiCaprio in the director Martin Scorsese films The Aviator and The Departed.

Baldwin is also a voice actor, working in the films The Royal Tenenbaums, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. Baldwin has hosted Saturday Night Live 14 times as of February 2009, including a 1998 episode with Kim Basinger. He performed as the narrator in the hit RTS video game World in Conflict.

Baldwin wrote an episode of Law & Order entitled "Tabloid", which aired in 1998. He played the role of Dr. Barrett Moore, a retired plastic surgeon, in the series Nip/Tuck. In 2001, Baldwin directed and starred in an all-star version of The Devil and Daniel Webster with Anthony Hopkins, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Dan Aykroyd. The then-unreleased film became an asset in a federal bank fraud trial when investor Jed Barron was convicted of bank fraud while the movie was in production. The film eventually was acquired by The Yari Group without Baldwin's involvement.

In 2002, Baldwin appeared on two episodes of Friends as Phoebe Buffay's overly enthusiastic love interest, Parker. In the episode entitled "The One in Massapequa", Parker, seemingly clueless and curious about its history, comments that Massapequa sounds like a "magical place". In reality, Baldwin was born and raised in Massapequa. Baldwin appeared in a number of episodes in season 7 and 8 of Will & Grace. He played Malcolm - a 'top secret agent' and the lover of Karen Walker (Megan Mullally). He also appeared in the first live episode of the series.

In 2006, he starred in the film Mini's First Time, alongside Nikki Reed and Luke Wilson. In 2007, the Yari Film Group announced it would give the film, now titled Shortcut to Happiness a theatrical release in the spring and cable film network Starz! announced they had acquired pay TV rights for the film. Baldwin performed opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in 2007 romantic comedy, Suburban Girl.

Baldwin stars in the Emmy Award-winning NBC sitcom 30 Rock, which first aired in October of 2006. Baldwin had met series creator Tina Fey and one of his co-stars, Tracy Morgan, during several tapings of Saturday Night Live. He received numerous honors for his work as TV exec Jack Donaghy, including two Golden Globe awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He was again nominated for the Emmy for Best Actor in a Television Comedy or Musical in 2007, for the role but lost to Ricky Gervais. He received his second Emmy nomination for his role as Jack Donaghy in 2008, marking his seventh Primetime Emmy nomination and went on to win the award as Best Actor in a comedy series.. Since season 3, Baldwin has been credited as producer of the show.

On July 7, 2007, Baldwin presented at the American leg of Live Earth. He recorded two nationally distributed public service radio announcements on behalf of the Save the Manatee Club.

Baldwin will co-host TCM’s upcoming season of The Essentials.

In 1990, he met his former wife, actress Kim Basinger, when they played lovers in the film The Marrying Man. They married in 1993. Basinger and Baldwin had a daughter, Ireland Eliesse "Addie" Baldwin (born October 23, 1995). They filed for divorce in January 2001; it was finalized in February 2002. Since then, the couple have been locked in a contentious public custody battle.

In 2008 Alec Baldwin and Mark Tabb published A Promise to Ourselves, which chronicles his seven-year battle to remain a part of his daughter's life.

Baldwin contends that after their separation in December 2000, his former wife, Kim Basinger, endeavored to deny him access to his daughter by refusing to discuss parenting, blocking visitation, not providing telephone access, not following court orders, not dropping their daughter off for reasons of it being inconvenient, and directly lobbying the child. He contends she spent over $1.5 million in the effort.

Baldwin wrote that he spent over a million dollars, had to put time aside from his career, travel extensively, and find a house nearby in California (he lived in New York), so he could stay in his daughter's life. Baldwin contended that after seven years of these issues, he had hit a breaking point and left an angry voicemail message in response to yet another unanswered arranged call. He contends that the tape was sold to TMZ, which released the recording despite laws against publishing media related to a minor without the permission of both parents. Baldwin admitted he makes mistakes, but asked not to be judged as a parent based on a bad moment.

During the autumn of 2008, Baldwin toured in support of the book, speaking about his experiences related in it.

Baldwin serves on the board of People for the American Way. Baldwin is an animal rights activist. He is a strong supporter of PETA and has done work for the organization including narrating the video entitled Meet your Meat.

During his appearance on the comedy late night show Late Night with Conan O'Brien on December 12, 1998, eight days before President Bill Clinton was to be impeached, Baldwin said "if we were in another country... we would stone Henry Hyde to death and we would go to their homes and kill their wives and their children. We would kill their families, for what they're doing to this country." Baldwin apologized, and the network explained it was meant as a joke and promised not to rerun it.

In February 2009, Baldwin spoke out to encourage state leaders to renew New York's tax break for the film and television industry, stating that if the "...tax breaks are not reinstated into the budget, film production in this town is going to collapse and television production is going to collapse and it's all going to go to California." The conservative American Spectator endorsed Baldwin's statement, noting that the tax revenue brought in from the industry presence in New York outweighs the amount of the tax breaks offered.

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Thomas and the Magic Railroad

Thomas and the Magic Railroad is a 2000 American film based on the well-known TV series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends and its successful American sequel, Shining Time Station. This film was produced by Gullane Entertainment and distributed by Destination Films, and originally released to movie theatres by 2000. It received harsh reviews from film critics, resulting in a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and failed to meet expectations at the box office, making just under $20 million worldwide. It was narrated by Alec Baldwin, who also played the part of Mr. Conductor.

Sir Topham Hatt, normally in charge of the railways on Sodor, is on holiday and has left Mr. Conductor (Alec Baldwin) in charge. Meanwhile, Thomas and Gordon encounter an evil diesel locomotive, Diesel 10, stating he has unfinished business on Sodor and he wants to finish it quickly. Thomas and Gordon are shocked.

Mr. Conductor has problems of his own. The mysterious gold dust that allows him to magically transport from place to place is running out, and without it there will be no way for anyone to travel to Sodor. The lost engine is able to travel between Sodor and Muffle Mountain via the Magic Railroad, but nobody knows where she is.

An old man named Burnett Stone (Peter Fonda) lives on Muffle Mountain, near Shining Time Station. Unknown to everyone, he is the guardian of the lost engine. The engine crashed after an earlier encounter with Diesel 10, and ever since then he has been trying to repair her, so far without success.

Percy and Thomas find out that there is a secret railway and there are magic buffers that lead to it. However, Diesel 10 overhears them. Toby the Tram Engine follows him and hears him telling Splatter and Dodge, his diesel locomotive henchmen, that he will find the buffers and destroy the steam locomotives by destroying the Golden Engine. This is largely because Mr Conductor's sparkle is running out and he is too weak to stop him. Toby suddenly rings his bell and Diesel, Splatter and Dodge hear it. During this point, Diesel 10 says "It's the old teapot! Smash him!" and then accidentally fractures the foundation of the shed they are sheltering under and it collapses on them while Toby runs off.

Burnett's granddaughter Lily (Mara Wilson) comes to visit him. During her stay, she meets C. Junior, Mr. Conductor's cousin, who takes her to Sodor and introduces her to the talking engines who live there, including Thomas the Tank Engine. Later, Thomas is assigned to take Lily back, having discovered the start of the long-abandoned Magic Railroad by an old grotto. He finds a truck of special Island of Sodor coal and takes it with him. He arrives on the side of Muffle Mountain, and Lily goes to her grandpa's house, leaving Thomas stranded on the mountain. Suddenly, Thomas falls off the mountain and rolls all the way to the bottom where he re-enters the Magic Railroad through another portal there.

Lily reunites with Burnett at his workshop, where he shows her Lady, the lost engine, and explains his problem getting the engine to steam. Lily suggests using Island of Sodor coal from the truck Thomas brought. This proves to be exactly what was needed, and the engine comes to life. For the first time in years, Burnett smiles. Lily and Burnett take Lady along the Magic Railroad, which regenerates beneath her wheels. As the Magic Railroad is reborn, Lady's face appeared, commenting that Burnett had never given up on Magic. The team reunites with Thomas and find their way back to Sodor, where Diesel 10 finds them and gives chase. He is foiled by a damaged viaduct, which collapses beneath him.

Thomas, Lady, Burnett and Lily meet Mr. Conductor and Junior. They use the water from a wishing well and shavings from the rails of the Magic Railroad to make more gold dust, and the Island of Sodor is saved.

The film proved popular among the young children at whom it was aimed, but not only was it panned by the critics (it currently has only a 19% "Rotten" rating, with an average score of 3.9/10 on Rotten Tomatoes.com and a 19 out of 100 rating on Metacritic indicating "extreme dislike or disgust"), but was also a box office flop as it only made $15,933,506 domestically against a $19 million budget according to Box Office Mojo. The scale of the failure was so great that Britt Allcroft, who produced, directed, wrote and voiced Lady, was asked to step down from her production company. The film did manage to make an additional $3,814,503 in overseas sales, for a total of $19,748,009 in worldwide ticket sales.

The same trailers also depicted Diesel 10 with an upper class English accent rather than the American one he had in the release. The reason for this change is that there was a different actor playing Diesel 10 in the trailer (an English one instead of an American one) or that that was the voice of PT Boomer. It was revealed that the original voice of Diesel 10 was Australian voice actor Keith Scott.

Prior to filming, it had been announced that Thomas' voice would be provided by an Isle of Man taxi driver named John Bellis (who also worked as a fireman on the Isle of Man Steam Railway). However, during a test screening in Los Angeles, the test audiences disliked Bellis' voice for Thomas due to his Liverpudlian tones, claiming that he made Thomas sound too old. Subsequently, Bellis was dropped from his role and was replaced by Edward Glen, who gave Thomas a more youthful voice.

It has also been revealed that Michael Angelis, the narrator for the UK version of the TV Series since 1991, would have been the voice for James & Percy. However, like Bellis, Angelis also suffered at the hands of the American test audiences, claiming that he made the characters sound too old. Eventually, James was voiced by Susan Roman, while Percy was voiced by Linda Ballantyne.

It has been revealed that Cranky the Crane and George the Steamroller were originally in the film with roles but they never appeared in the finished film.

In 2009, a YouTube user discovered the original Chase Scene with PT Boomer (Doug Lennox). It had a timeline at the top of the clip that represented that actual time of the whole movie.The original workprint was about 2hrs and 40mins long. Although the clip was covered by the Dark City score, it was a thrill to finally see PT Boomer's scene. Diesel 10, Splodge, and Thomas all had different voices. Keith Scott, Neil Crone, Kevin Frank, and John Bellis had each given them different voices. Hopes are still high to see the full workprint of TATMR.

Diesel 10: AHA! It's Puffball! Look Who With Him! Splodge, Come And Destroooy!!

Splatter: No Diesel.

Dodge: Yea. Yea.

Splatter: You do it yourself.

Dodge: But we mean that.

Splatter: Yeah we mean that.

PT Boomer: How can it be!?

PT Boomer: Waaaaaaaaah!!!

PT Boomer: That makes two of us!

Thomas: Run Lady, quickly. And I'm going to help you!

Burnett Stone: And so am I m'Lady. I won't let you down again!

Mr Conductor: Watch out for the viaduct, its dangerous!

PT Boomer: Now I'll get you Burnett Stone, and that engine too! Ha, ha!

Burnett Stone: No you wont 'cause the magic that you refused to believe in, will get the better of you!

Diesel 10: You can run but you can't hide!

Thomas: Ooh, get back!

Burnett Stone: C'mon Lady.

PT Boomer: Coming, second's out! Ha, ha!

PT Boomer: Duck!

Diesel 10: Now I'll get you!

Diesel 10: GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Percy: What the-?

PT Boomer: Hey Burnett, the gloves are off!!

Burnett Stone: Well Lady, this is your Shining Time too.

Lady: I hope!

Thomas: Come on Lady, little engines can do big things!

Burnett Stone: Well done Thomas! Well done!

PT Boomer: *Gasp* OH GOODNESS, NOO!!

Diesel 10: Oh no, help me!!

PT Boomer: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Diesel 10: Gaaaah!!!

Diesel 10: Puffball! Teapot! Gr-ah! Tin Kettle!!

Diesel 10: *Sigh* They'll pay.

PT Boomer: Sludge, I hate it.

The film received two movie awards by Youngstar awards and Youngartist Awards.

The movie was filmed at the Strasburg Rail Road in Pennsylvania, Ontario and on the Isle of Man. Castletown railway station on the Isle of Man Railway formed part of Shining Time Station and the goods shed at Port St Mary railway station became Burnett Stone's workshop. The Strasburg Railroad was used for shots of the full-sized Indian Valley railroad. Norfolk & Western 4-8-0 475 was the Indian Valley Engine.

Sodor was realised using models and chromakey. The models were animated using live action remote control, as on the television series. Strangely the model sequences were filmed in Canada instead of Shepperton Studios.

The Magic Railroad was created using models and CGI.

The Fat Controller is seen throughout the movie on posters, and his voice can be heard (muffled) over the telephone in several scenes. All the characters in the movie refer to him as Sir Topham Hatt. His wife, Lady Hatt can be seen in a photograph in The Fat Controller's office.

Played by Alec Baldwin, Mr. Conductor is an eight-inch-tall conductor who steps in to manage Sodor while Sir Topham Hatt is on holiday. The part was previously played by Ringo Starr (Season 1) and George Carlin (Seasons 2-3) of Shining Time Station.

These two (voiced by Neil Crone and Kevin Frank) are Diesel 10's dim-witted henchmen during the film. They are not quite as smart as they like to believe, and Diesel 10 calls them "Splodge" because he claims he doesn't have time to say both their names. They defect from Diesel 10 at the end of the film, and to this day their whereabouts are unknown. Splatter and Dodge appear to be the same class of diesel locomotives as Diesel.

Lady (voiced by Britt Allcroft) is a purple-red and gold tank engine (although the official site on one occasion, in a section with letters to Sir Topham Hatt, a response to an email stated that Lady was pink when asked if there were any pink engines on Sodor).

Lady is also the second Thomas engine character (after Percy) of freelance design rather than inspired by a specific real-life class of engine, or to which a specific inspiration was later assigned (like Henry and James). Unlike Percy though who is a generic amalgam of multiple industrial shunting engines, Lady is wholly fanciful, although from the running-plate up she is reminiscent of elaborate British engines built during the Edwardian era. Her square cylinder casings and permanent electric head/tail-lights however are an oddity, more akin to later American switchers.

Lily (played by Mara Wilson) is a young girl with a huge imagination to try to help her grandpa and Mr. Conductor.

Burnett Stone (played by Peter Fonda) is a shy man that doesn't speak about the truth that he has Lady and used to visit the Island of Sodor. But with the help of Mr. Conductor and Lily he saves the island of sodor from Diesel 10.

The cousin of Mr. Conductor (played by Michael E. Rodgers), who likes nothing better than surfing and lying on the beach. Mr Conductor requires his help to replenish the supply of gold dust.

A boy played by Cody McMains who enjoys horse riding and helping Burnett Stone. He is one of the few people who understands that Burnett is not unfriendly, just sad.

The kind mistress of Shining Time Station, who helps Lily out when she ends up at Shining Time by mistake. She is played by Didi Conn the same actress who played her in the Shining Time Station Television Series and Specials.

An intelligent dog who realizes that Lily can help, and so sends her to Shining Time Station. The dog who acts as Mutt was also in another show called Come Outside, on CBeebies, who went by the name "Pippin".

A wise Native American engineer who understands the magic of the valley better than anyone. He is played by Russell Means and previously played by Tom Jackson.

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The Departed

The Departed is a 2006 American crime-thriller film remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. The Departed was directed by Martin Scorsese, written by William Monahan and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg and Ray Winstone. The film won four Academy Awards at the 79th Academy Awards, including the Best Picture, and a Best Director win for Scorsese.

This film takes place in Boston, Massachusetts, where notorious Irish Mob boss Francis "Frank" Costello (Nicholson) plants Colin Sullivan (Damon) as an informant within the Massachusetts State Police. Simultaneously, the police assign undercover cop Billy Costigan, Jr. (DiCaprio) to infiltrate Costello's crew. When both sides of the law realize the situation, each man attempts to discover the other's true identity before being found out.

The film begins in South Boston and Charlestown, where Irish mob boss Francis "Frank" Costello (Nicholson) beguiles a young neighborhood boy named Colin Sullivan (Conor Donovan), who enters into Costello's criminal underground at a young age. Years later, Colin (now played by Damon) completes his training for the Massachusetts State Police, graduating as a state trooper. Colin, who quickly distinguishes himself, is assigned to the Special Investigations Unit ("SIU") of the State Police by SIU's Captain Oliver Queenan (Sheen) and Staff Sergeant Sean Dignam (Wahlberg). However, Colin's express intent is to serve as a double agent for Costello within the police force.

In another State Police training program is William "Billy" Costigan Jr. (DiCaprio). After his graduation, Queenan and Dignam interview Billy, convinced that his family ties with the Boston underworld make Billy unsuitable for anything other than undercover work. Billy agrees to work for Queenan and Dignam's undercover division of SIU and become a mole in Costello's crime family. To make his new identity believable, SIU creates a false assault conviction for Billy; he serves a jail sentence, is placed on probation, and attends mandatory psychiatry sessions. Billy's police academy record and file are concealed from the department, leaving only Queenan and Dignam with any knowledge of his true identity.

Both Colin and Billy are able to infiltrate their chosen organizations, with Billy being initiated in with Costello after a particularly brutal torture by Costello's right hand man, Mr. French (Ray Winstone). However, the intelligence they provide soon alerts both SIU and Costello that their groups contain double agents. To catch his group's "rat," Costello requires his enforcers to submit their biographical data to him, and transfers the data to Colin in SIU for a records check. The information, including social security numbers, is collected on paper and placed in a distinctive envelope. Billy follows this envelope, predicting it will lead him to SIU's mole, and observes the handover between Costello and his mole (Colin) in a porno house. Because of where he's sitting, though, Billy, cannot directly identify Costello's mole, and is forced to follow him out into the streets into the Chinatown district, where Colin becomes alerted to Billy's presence. Despite a protracted game of hide and seek leading to the stabbing of a bystander, neither man is able to positively identify the other.

SIU initiates its own measures to capture the moles in its division. Organized Crime's Captain Ellerby (Alec Baldwin), beguiled by Colin's "immaculate record," assigns him to investigate SIU troopers and locate the moles. Colin uses his new authority to instead target Costello's rat. He orders SIU troopers to follow Captain Queenan, which eventually leads them to a clandestine meeting. Colin, realizing Queenan must be meeting with Costello's rat, calls in mob enforcers, who arrive before Billy and Queenan can escape. Queenan orders Billy to flee, and stays behind to confront Costello's crew alone, leading to his death when he is beaten and thrown out of an upper story of the building.

In the aftermath of Queenan's death, Colin orders Dignam to "unlock" the files on undercovers for him; Dignam, knowing that this will expose Billy's identity, refuses violently. Ellerby steps in and places Dignam on a two week probation with pay, but Dignam chooses to resign in protest instead. Colin then opens the box of evidence retrieved from Queenan's murder scene, and finds a scribble in Queenan's personal notebook indicating that Costello might himself be an informant for the FBI.

Costello is later tailed by SIU to a Sheffield warehouse where he is to acquire packages of cocaine for distribution. Colin, disturbed by the possibility of Costello's informant identity, stages a police ambush there (using intelligence from SIU's mole, Billy). Costello's entire crew is killed, Mr. French committing suicide after crashing his car, and he himself is badly wounded, but he manages to slip away and attempts to contact Colin for aid. Colin, however, confronts Costello about his status as an informant in the FBI, and demands to know whether Costello has alerted the FBI to Colin's criminal activities. After a heated exchange, Costello attempts to kill Colin with a concealed pistol, but Colin shoots first, killing him after emptying his clip on Costello.

At the station, Colin is showered with praise from his co-workers. Billy, who has come in after Costello's death to regain his identity, meets with Colin for the first time. While Colin leaves the room to retrieve Billy's file, Billy notices the distinctive biographical-information envelope on Colin's desk; he flees the station. Colin, upon realizing he's been discovered, erases Billy's police record and file from the department database.

Colin receives a piece of mail from "WM Costigan," containing audio recordings of Colin and Costello's private conversations, along with Billy's phone number. When called, Billy explains that the tapes, Costello's immunity from prosecution insurance should he be arrested, had been bequeathed to him upon Costello's death, as Billy was the only man Costello truly trusted. Using the tapes as leverage, Billy orders Colin to meet him later that day at the building where Queenan was killed.

On the building's rooftop, Billy confronts and handcuffs Colin, intending to arrest him and reveal his part in Costello's organization. Billy is determined to do so even as Sullivan reveals that he has erased his record. Though Colin's SIU colleague, Trooper Brown (Anthony Anderson), arrives and demands that Billy stand down, Billy convinces Brown (his former classmate in MSP training) that Sullivan must be the mole and backs Colin into an elevator at gunpoint. On the way down, Sullivan boastfully claims that Costigan will never be able to explain his case to Internal Affairs, before his hard exterior melts and he begs Billy to just kill him then and there. Costigan replies bluntly: "I am killing you". When Billy's elevator reaches the ground floor, though, he is gunned down by Trooper Barrigan (James Badge Dale), who then proceeds to shoot and kill Trooper Brown. Barrigan explains that he too was in Costello's employ, and appeals to Colin for solidarity, stating that they "gotta take care of each other" to survive. Instead, Colin executes him and then manipulates the crime scene. Colin's official report states that Barrigan, Costello's lone mole, entered the building and shot both Billy and Brown, whom Colin was unable to save. Colin closes by recommending William Costigan Jr. for the department's Medal of Merit.

After attending Billy's funeral, Colin returns home to find Dignam waiting in his apartment. Dignam, knowing of Colin's treachery and escape from punishment, shoots him through the head with a suppressed pistol, then exits the apartment. The film ends with a lone rat crawling on the apartment's balcony railing, which frames the gold dome of the Massachusetts State House in the background.

The father-son relationship is a motif throughout the film. Costello acts as a father figure to both Colin and Billy while Queenan acts as Costello's foil in the role of father-figure presenting both sides of the Irish-American father archetype. Colin also refers to Costello as 'Dad' whenever he calls him to inform him of police activities.

In Rolling Stone magazine, Scorsese linked the zero-sum feeling of the end of his movie to real-world feelings toward terrorism and the war on terrorism.

There were two albums released for The Departed, one presenting the original score composed for the movie by Howard Shore, and the other featuring earlier recordings, mostly pop/rock songs, which were used on the soundtrack.

The film opens with "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones and prominently plays "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" by Dropkick Murphys with lyrics written by Woody Guthrie, which gained the band some popularity. "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" was also used in the CBS News radio brief the morning following the Oscars, with the intro of "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" playing in the background as the awards were announced. Similarly, in an episode of The Simpsons ("The Debarted"), the song was used multiple times. The film also features a live version of "Comfortably Numb" by Roger Waters and Van Morrison from the 1990 Berlin Wall Concert which was originally by Pink Floyd.

Although "Gimme Shelter" is featured in the film, the song does not appear on the album soundtrack. Also heard in the movie but not featured on the soundtrack is "Thief's Theme" by Nas, "Well Well Well" by John Lennon, "Bang Bang" by Joe Cuba and the Act II Sextet from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.

The movie closes with a cover of Don Gibson's "Sweet Dreams," interpreted by Roy Buchanan.

The film score for The Departed was written by Howard Shore and performed by guitarists Sharon Isbin, G.E. Smith, Larry Saltzman and Marc Ribot. The score was recorded in Shore's own studio in New York State.

Born to an Irish-American family in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester, Massachusetts, William Monahan (who adapted the screenplay from Infernal Affairs) incorporates the culture and history of Boston heavily into the film. The first images are news clips from the busing riots of the 1970s, over which Costello muses about the city's troubled racial history. Several times, Dignam refers to Billy as "lace curtain," a term used primarily in the Boston metropolitan area by working-class Irish-Americans to disparage upper-middle class Irish-Americans who have "strayed from their roots" in their attempt to better themselves.

The majority of the characters have the non-rhotic Boston accent. The Massachusetts State House is also featured in the film as a symbol of Colin Sullivan's ambition. Boston Red Sox apparel is seen and worn, including the appearance of a now-out-of-print "Reverse The Curse" bumper sticker on the wall at SIU headquarters. Also, in a bar scene the logo of the Harpoon Brewery, which has locations in Boston and Windsor, Vermont, is clearly seen. Costello and his gang drive over the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in one scene. The building off which Queenan is thrown (and where Billy and Colin later meet) is in the Fort Point section of South Boston with the downtown skyline as backdrop (the fictitious "344 Wash" is actually an alley between Farnsworth Street and Thomson Place). The John Hancock Tower is referenced by Costello, who also makes an obscure but, according to urban legend, accurate reference to "the Fens"--a section of the Fenway--as a popular spot for gay cruising. Boston's Chinatown is also portrayed in a crucial scene which is somewhat inaccurate, as the neighborhood is no longer home to pornographic movie theaters. Characters are shown working in the striking, Brutalist Government Service Center downtown. The film includes the song "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" by the Dropkick Murphys, an Irish-American punk rock band formed in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Other references include state locations such as Route 128, regions such as the North Shore, there is a shot of the Park Street and South Station MBTA Red Line stops, local towns such as Brockton, Worcester, Gloucester, and Somerville while having turf wars with crew from nearby Providence, a cameo by the Lynn police, mention of the Dedham Mall (located in Dedham just southwest of Boston), and state slang like "Staties," a local nickname for Massachusetts State Police troopers. Also, Deerfield Academy, a boarding school in Deerfield, Massachusetts, is referenced when Dignam points out that Costigan was expelled from the school after assaulting the gym teacher (though in reality Deerfield, like most Independent Schools, has no gym class). Additionally, the label on Billy's prescription bottle shows a Beverly Street address in Boston.

The character Frank Costello was largely based on James "Whitey" Bulger, a real life Irish-American mobster in Boston who was secretly an FBI informant for over three decades. The revelation that the FBI had long protected Bulger and his gang from prosecution caused a major scandal in Boston law enforcement. Bulger was believed to have been seen coming out of a theater showing the film in San Diego in November 2006. Matt Damon's character is based on John Connolly, the FBI agent who tipped off Bulger for years, allowing him to evade arrest. In real life, Bulger went into hiding and is still presumed to be at large, currently occupying a spot on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list; Connolly is currently imprisoned for his role in Bulger's criminal activities. Costigan's undercover role as a former State trooper who joins the Irish mob parallels the story of Richard Marinick, a former State trooper who later joined Whitey Bulger's crime syndicate. Costigan also lives in Somerville, where Bulger's Winter Hill Gang began. Thomas Duffy, the film's technical advisor (he also plays the Governor at the State Police Academy graduation ceremony), is a former MSP major who was assigned to investigate the Irish mob upon making detective.

The Departed was highly anticipated when it was released on October 6, 2006 to overwhelmingly positive reviews. The film is currently one of the highest-rated wide release films of 2006 on Rotten Tomatoes at 92%.

Popular critic James Berardinelli awarded the film four stars out of four, praising it as "an American epic tragedy." He went on to compare the film favorably to the onslaught of banality offered by American studios in recent years. "The movies have been in the doldrums lately. The Departed is a much needed tonic," he wrote. He also went on to claim that the film deserves to be ranked alongside Scorsese's past successes, including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas.

Andrew Lau, the co-director of Infernal Affairs, who was interviewed by Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, said, "Of course I think the version I made is better, but the Hollywood version is pretty good too. made the Hollywood version more attuned to American culture." Andy Lau, one of the main actors in Infernal Affairs, when asked how the movie compares to the original, said, "The Departed was too long and it felt as if Hollywood had combined all three Infernal Affairs movies together." Lau pointed out that the remake featured some of the "golden quotes" of the original but did have much more swearing. He ultimately rated The Departed 8/10 and said that the Hollywood remake is worth a view, though "the effect of combining the two female characters in the original into one isn't as good as in the original," according to Lau's spokeswoman Alice Tam.

The film also evoked some controversy in Boston. Michael Patrick MacDonald, author of the Southie memoirs All Souls and Easter Rising, wrote an op-ed piece for The Boston Globe praising the film's ability to recreate the "strangulating" culture created by Boston gangsters, politicians, and law enforcement officials at all levels of local, state, and federal government - a culture of violent death and silence that led to years of young suicides and an epidemic of painkilling through heroin and OxyContin, the latter even shown in the film. The op-ed piece caused a stir in Boston, eliciting a missive from a South Boston state senator as well as letters from South Boston real estate agents concerned about the "negative" depiction of the "trendy" neighborhood of South Boston.

The film grossed $26,887,467 in its opening weekend, becoming the third Scorsese film to debut at #1. The film saw small declines in later weeks, remaining in the list of top ten films for seven weeks. The film grossed $132,384,315 domestically and $289,835,021 worldwide. Budgeted at $90 million, the film is believed to be the most commercially successful of Scorsese's features and is his highest-grossing film to date, easily beating The Aviator's previous record of $102.6 million.

The film won four Academy Awards at the 79th Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Martin Scorsese) (The latter was thought to be long overdue, and some entertainment critics subsequently referred to it as Scorsese's "Lifetime Achievement" Oscar), Best Film Editing (Thelma Schoonmaker), and Best Adapted Screenplay (William Monahan). Mark Wahlberg was also nominated for the Best Supporting Actor award for his performance, which he lost to Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine.

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2006.

Carrie Rickey of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal, Ruthe Stein of the San Francisco Chronicle, and Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer named it one of the top ten best films of 2006. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times named it the best film of 2006.

The Departed was released by Warner Brothers on DVD on February 13, 2007 in Region 1 format and on February 19, 2007 in Region 2 format, and has also been released on March 14, 2007 in Region 4 format. The film is available in a single-disc full screen (1:33:1), single-disc widescreen (2:40:1) edition, and 2-disc special edition. The second disc of this film predominately contains features that concerned the crimes that influenced Scorsese with deleted scenes being the only feature that are actually film related. The Region 1 version has three available audio tracks: English, Spanish, and French (all of which are in Dolby Digital 5.1), and also three subtitle tracks (English, Spanish, French). The film was also released on HD DVD and Blu-ray at the same time as the standard-definition DVD. The 2-Disc Special Edition was also packaged in a Limited Edition Metal Steelbook. It also marked the first time that an Oscar winning Best Picture was released to the home video market only in the DVD format, as VHS was totally phased out by the start of 2006; the 2005 Best Picture, Crash, was the last Oscar winner to be issued in the VHS format.

However, the film is said to be on hold, due to producer Brad Grey's involvement since he's now the head of Paramount Pictures and the film is a Warner Bros. project. A prequel has also been mooted several times.

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30 Rock

30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that currently airs on NBC. The series takes place behind the scenes of a fictional live sketch comedy series depicted as airing on NBC; the name "30 Rock" refers to the GE Building where NBC Studios is located and which has the address "30 Rockefeller Plaza". The series has an ensemble cast that currently consists of 10 regular cast members, including Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer, Scott Adsit, Judah Friedlander and Alec Baldwin.

The pilot episode first aired Oct. 11, 2006, and the first season comprised 21 episodes. The second season, which premiered Oct. 4, 2007, was originally intended to contain 22 episodes, but was abbreviated to 15 episodes because of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. A third season, which is expected to contain 22 episodes, premiered October 30, 2008.

The series is produced by Broadway Video and Little Stranger, Inc., in association with NBC Universal. The current executive producers are Tina Fey, Lorne Michaels, Marci Klein, David Miner and Robert Carlock. 30 Rock is produced in a single camera setup and is primarily filmed at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, Queens, New York, with some scenes filmed on location at Rockefeller Center.

30 Rock has been a critical success, winning several major awards including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series both in 2007 and 2008, the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Series, the Producers Guild of America Award for Producer of the Year in Episodic Comedy Series, and a Peabody Award, as well as achieving the top ranking on myriad critics' year-end best of 2006 and 2007 lists. Despite these accolades, the series averaged a low 5.8 million viewers in the United States during its first season, according to the Nielsen Ratings system, and ranked 102 out of 142 television series. TV commentators have pointed out that 30 Rock is a low rated show.

On January 15, 2009, NBC renewed 30 Rock for a fourth season to air in the 2009–2010 television season.

In 2002, Fey was the head writer and a performer on Saturday Night Live (SNL). She pitched the show that became 30 Rock to NBC, originally as a sitcom about cable news. NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly felt that "Fey was using the news setting as a fig leaf for her own experience and encouraged her to write what she knew." The show was subsequently reworked to revolve around an SNL-style sketch show. In May 2003, Fey signed a contract with NBC to remain in her SNL head writer position until at least the 2004–2005 television season and to develop a prime-time project to be produced by Broadway Video and NBC Universal.

During the 2004–2005 pilot season, a pilot was announced named Untitled Tina Fey Project. The 30 Rock pilot focused on the head writer of a variety show who has to manage her relationships with the show's volatile star and its charismatic executive producer. The storyline evolved into one that dealt with a head writer of a variety show who dealt with both the stars as well as the show's new network executive. 30 Rock was officially given the green light to air May 15, 2006, along with a 13-episode order.

The show underwent further changes during the months leading up to and following its debut. A May 2006 press release mentioned that sketches from The Girlie Show would be made available in their entirety on NBC's broadband website, DotComedy.com. The idea was to air the fictitious TGS with Tracy Jordan online. This aspect of the series was abandoned prior to its debut.

30 Rock is filmed in New York City. Although establishing shots of 30 Rock are often repeated, outdoor scenes are filmed on location at Rockefeller Center or in other parts of New York City. Most of the indoor scenes are filmed at Silvercup Studios in Queens. In the episodes "Cleveland" and "Hiatus," Battery Park City, Manhattan, and Douglaston, Queens, doubled for Cleveland, Ohio, and Needmore, Pennsylvania, respectively. In the episode "Gavin Volure," stock footage of the Arkansas Governor's Mansion was used for exterior shots of the home of Steve Martin's character.

The series features a "jaunty" jazz score. Most of the score's melody is played by either clarinet, bass clarinet, or saxophone. The music is composed by Fey's husband Jeff Richmond, who is also a producer for 30 Rock. Richmond wrote the theme music, which was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music. Seven short, original songs have been featured in episodes, five of which were performed by Jane Krakowski, another performed by Tina Fey and Jason Sudeikis, and another performed by Tracy Morgan. The show has also covered three existing songs, including the song "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight and the Pips. The song had its lyrics altered to accommodate the character Kenneth being "misinformed about the time ." The song "Oh My" performed by the The Gray Kid is heard throughout the episode "The Source Awards", which was mixed with a piano arrangement composed by Richmond.

On April 2, 2008, NBC announced 30 Rock 360, an online extension of the 30 Rock series. The extension will feature Jack Donaghy's Online Business Courses (or Jack U). Users will also be able to read Jack's blogs and upload their own business advice in video form. Users will be able to submit skits for TGS with Tracy Jordan and act out skits from TGS. The feature will reopen Ask Tina, an interactive question and answer platform in which users can ask Fey questions. Fey will answer the questions in video form. Ask Tina was a fixture on NBC.com's 30 Rock section throughout the first season. Complete episodes of 30 Rock are available online, to U.S. residents only, along with downloads through the "NBC Direct" service and as of September 9th, 2008 once again on Apple's iTunes after Apple and NBC came to a deal to re-offer NBC shows on iTunes. NBC's shows were originally pulled from iTunes during December 2007 due to pricing disputes. The first and second seasons can be streamed on Netflix, which requires a paid subscription, and can also be purchased on Amazon Unbox for $1.99 per episode.

The title sequence is made up of photos and video of 30 Rockefeller Plaza and features Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer, Scott Adsit, Judah Friedlander and Alec Baldwin. The sequence ends with a time lapse of the building and then a title card reading '30 Rock'. The sequence has remained mostly the same throughout the series, however there have been some small changes from season to season. Mainly the video of each actor has changed over time.

The 30 Rock universe is centred on a fictionalized version of the NBC network with an alternative lineup of entertainment programming, including TGS with Tracy Jordan airing Fridays at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT, and other programming such as the reality show MILF Island. Programs like NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien are (or were) replicated on the fictional NBC, and accordingly their respective personalities may either appear or be referred to on 30 Rock from time to time. However, the existence of other entertainment programs (such as SNL itself) are neither confirmed nor explicitly denied.

All six actors credited after the opening credits are credited only in the episodes in which they appear.

Tina Fey worked with Jen McNamara and Adam Bernstein for the casting of the series. Fey's first act as casting director was to cast herself as the lead character, Liz Lemon, who is said to be much like Fey herself when she first became head writer on SNL. The next actor to be cast was Tracy Morgan as Tracy Jordan, who was then a former castmate of Fey's in SNL. Morgan was asked by Fey to play the role, and he believed it was "right up alley and it was tailor made for ". Fey said that the character of Kenneth Parcell was written with Jack McBrayer in mind. McBrayer was an old friend of Fey, and she "really wanted him for that part and was very happy when no one objected".

Rachel Dratch, Fey's longtime comedy partner and fellow SNL alumna, was originally cast to portray Jenna. Dratch played the role in the show's original pilot, but in August 2006, Jane Krakowski was announced as Dratch's replacement, with Dratch remaining involved in the show playing various characters. Fey explained the change by noting that Dratch was "better-suited to playing a variety of eccentric side characters", and that the role of Jenna was more of a straight-ahead acting part. Although Fey went on to say that "Rachel and I were both very excited about this new direction", Dratch said that she was not happy with the media's depiction of the change as a demotion. Dratch was skeptical about the reasons she was given for the change, and was not happy with the reduction in the number of episodes in which she would appear.

Shortly following the casting of McBrayer and Dratch, Alec Baldwin was cast as Jack Donaghy, the "totally uncensored" Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming. Fey said that the character of Jack Donaghy was written with Baldwin in mind, and she was "very pleasantly surprised when he agreed to do it". Judah Friedlander was cast as the staff writer of The Girlie Show, Frank Rossitano. Friedlander had never met Fey before auditioning for a role in 30 Rock. His character was based on at least two writers that Fey used to work with at SNL, but said that he "certainly brought some of own things to it as well". Finally, Scott Adsit was cast as Pete Hornberger, a long time friend of Liz's and producer of The Girlie Show. Adsit, an old friend of Fey, also had his character written based on him.

Season one began airing in the United States on October 11, 2006, and featured 21 episodes. The season finale aired on April 26, 2007. Jack Donaghy, the "Head of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming" at General Electric (GE), is transferred to work at the NBC headquarters, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and retool the late night sketch comedy series The Girlie Show. The show's cast and crew are outraged by this; especially head writer Liz Lemon and main actress Jenna Maroney. Jack proceeds to wreak havoc on The Girlie Show, forcing Liz to hire the off-the-wall movie star Tracy Jordan. He again angers the cast and crew of The Girlie Show when he changes the name to TGS with Tracy Jordan (or just TGS).

As the season progresses, the episodes become less about TGS and more about how the characters deal with juggling their lives and their jobs — specifically the protagonist, Liz Lemon, but other characters are also explored. Episodes also become less self-contained and various story arcs develop in the second half of the season. For example, the first major story arc centers on Liz's relationship with Dennis Duffy (Dean Winters), "The Beeper King." Other story arcs include: Jenna promoting her movie The Rural Juror; Tracy going on the run from The Black Crusaders; Jack's engagement, which was eventually called off, to a Christie's auctioneer named Phoebe (Emily Mortimer); and another relationship of Liz's with Floyd (Jason Sudeikis).

Season two began airing in the United States on October 4, 2007, and featured 15 episodes. The second season was originally intended to consist of 22 episodes but the order was cut to 15 due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, The season finale aired on May 8, 2008. After Liz broke up with Floyd in the summer, she is looking for ways to rebound. When Jerry Seinfeld confronts Jack about a new marketing campaign which featured clips of Seinfeld's sitcom, Seinfeld, in all NBC shows, he has a chance encounter with Liz that gives her some much needed advice. During the TGS summer hiatus, Jenna becomes overweight due to performing in the Broadway show Mystic Pizza: The Musical (based on the real 1988 film Mystic Pizza) and with the help of Kenneth, loses the weight. Tracy has encountered some marital problems with his wife Angie Jordan (Sherri Shepherd) and they become separated, but later reunite.

30 Rock returned with a third season as part of NBC's fall schedule, airing immediately after The Office. The season will consist of 22 episodes. In August 2008, Jennifer Aniston filmed her guest appearance on the show, marking the second actor from the NBC show Friends, following David Schwimmer, to make an appearance. Oprah Winfrey guest starred in the second episode, playing herself. Rose McGowan will also be making a guest appearance, and Salma Hayek has been confirmed for a multi-episode arc, portraying Jack's new girlfriend. Other guest stars this season include Megan Mullally and Steve Martin. It is also been confirmed that Jon Hamm will play Liz's love interest and neighbor for at least 3 episodes.

The season 3 premiere became available online on October 23 2008. According to Nielsen, the premiere of the third season garnered 8.5 million viewers, becoming the highest viewed episode in the series.

30 Rock has been well received by critics but has struggled to attract viewers. Robert Abele of LA Weekly declared that the show was "A weirdly appropriate and hilarious symbol of our times." The Wall Street Journal's Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote that "The standard caution is relevant - debut episodes tend to be highly polished. All the more reason to enjoy the hilarious scenes and fine ensemble cast here." Some less favorable reviews were received from Brian Lowry of Variety. Lowry said that "Despite her success with "Mean Girls," Fey mostly hits too-familiar notes in the pilot. Moreover, she's a limited protagonist, which is problematic." Criticism was also received from Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune, who said that "30 Rock is less than the sum of its parts, and, as an entry in the single-camera comedy sweepstakes, it fails to show either the inspired inventiveness of Arrested Development or provide the surprisingly perceptive character studies of The Office." Metacritic gave the pilot episode a Metascore—a weighted average based on the impressions of a select thirty-one critical reviews—of 67 out of 100.

The season premiere of the second season, "SeinfeldVision," which featured Jerry Seinfeld, received mostly positive reviews. Jeff Labrecque of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "SeinfeldVision was a clever and ironic way to incorporate Seinfeld." Matt Webb Mitovich of TV Guide said that " was a solid start to the new, fought-for season" and that it did have "some great, great moments." Despite this praise, Webb Mitovich criticised Kenneth and Tracy's "office wife" storyline saying that "we've seen this shtick before on countless other sitcoms, so it was a bit empty and filled with 'easy' jokes." Criticism was also received regarding the "striped outfit... it didn't work. No," referring to a joke involving Jenna trying to distract the TGS writers from her newly gained weight. Lisa Schmeiser of Television Without Pity graded this episode as a "B+." Despite the mostly positive reviews, Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times thought that "SeinfeldVision" "is mostly a reminder that even the most talented actors and writers sometimes slip under pressure." Days before the premiere of the season premiere, Seinfeld was criticized as using his appearance in this episode as a plug for his upcoming feature film Bee Movie. Seinfeld, NBC and General Electric stated that this was done as metahumor.

At the end of 2006, LA Weekly listed 30 Rock as one of the best "Series of the Year." The show also appeared on similar year end "best of" 2006 lists published by The New York Times, The A.V. Club, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Sun-Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, People Weekly, and TV Guide. The Associated Press wrote that NBC's "Thursday night comedy block—made up of My Name Is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, and 30 Rock—is consistently the best night of prime time viewing for any network." In 2007, it appeared on The Boston Globe's "best of" list as well as the "best of" lists of The Chicago Sun-Times, The Chicago Tribune, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, New Jersey Star-Ledger, The New York Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Jose Mercury News, TV Guide and USA Today. 30 Rock was named the best series of 2007 by Entertainment Weekly.

Capping its critically successful first season, 30 Rock won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series and Elaine Stritch was awarded an Emmy in September 2007 for her work as a guest actress in "Hiatus." Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin were nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actress and Outstanding Lead Actor in a comedy series categories respectively. "Jack-Tor" and "Tracy Does Conan" were both nominated in the category of Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. 30 Rock received four Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Alec Baldwin received the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical in 2007. Baldwin also received the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series in 2007. The show also received various other guild award nominations during its first season.

Also in 2008, 30 Rock completed a sweep of the major awards for best comedy series at that year's Primetime Emmy Awards. The show won Outstanding Comedy Series, Alec Baldwin was recognized as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and Tina Fey was given the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. This marks the eighth time in the history of the Emmy awards that a show won best series plus best lead actor and actress. Tina Fey also won the award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for the episode "Cooter".

At the 2008 Golden Globe awards, 30 Rock won the award for Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy, Alec Baldwin won Best Actor in a Television Musical or Comedy, and Tina Fey won Best Actress in a Television Musical or Comedy.

Below, "Rank" refers to how well 30 Rock rated compared to other television series which aired during primetime hours of the corresponding "Television season." The television season tends to begin in September, of any given year, and end during the May of the following year. "Viewers" refers to the average number of viewers for all original episodes (broadcast in the series' "Regular Timeslot") of 30 Rock aired during the television season. Although the viewer average may be higher for some seasons than others, the rank will not necessarily be higher. This is due to the number of programs aired during primetime. In some seasons there may be more regular programs aired during primetime than in others. The "Season premiere" is the date that the first episode of the season aired. Similarly, the "Season finale" is the date that the final episode of the season aired.

The pilot episode generated 8.13 million viewers, the series' highest ratings until that of its third season premiere which garnered 8.5 million viewers. In its original timeslot of Wednesday at 8:00PM EST, the show averaged 6.23 million viewers. 30 Rock aired on Wednesdays for its first four episodes. The seasons lowest ratings were achieved by "Jack the Writer" and "Hard Ball" which both achieved 4.61 million viewers. The season two premiere, "SeinfeldVision," was viewed by 7.33 million viewers, the highest rating since the pilot. 30 Rock entered a hiatus due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike on January 10, 2008. The episode that aired on that date was viewed by 5.98 million viewers. The second season finale, "Cooter", which aired on May 8, 2008, was viewed by 5.6 million viewers.

On December 29, 2006, Nielsen Media Research (NMR) reported the results of having, for the first time, monitored viewers who use a digital video recorder to record shows for later viewing. NMR reported that 30 Rock adds nearly 7.5% to its total audience every week as a result of viewers who use a DVR to record the show and then watch it within a week of its initial airing. A March 2007 report from MAGNA Global, based on NMR data about viewership ranked by among adults 25–54, shows that as of the time of the report 30 Rock's viewers have a median income of $65,000, high enough to place the show tied at 11th in affluence with several other shows. This is during a period where for the season 30 Rock is tied at No. 85 in the 18–49 demographic. During its second season, 30 Rock ranked in fourth place, against all primetime programming, for television series' which are watched by viewers with income above $100,000. Following Fey's popular impressions of Alaskan governor Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live, the third season premiere was seen by 8.5 million viewers and earned a 4.1 preliminary adults 18–49 rating, an increase of 21% from the second season premiere.

Evidence of the overlapping subject matter between the shows, as well as the conflict between them, arose when Aaron Sorkin, the creator of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, asked Lorne Michaels to allow him to observe Saturday Night Live for a week, a request Michaels denied. Despite this, Sorkin sent Fey flowers after NBC announced it would pick up both series, and wished her luck with 30 Rock. Fey said that "it's just bad luck for me that in my first attempt at prime time I'm going up against the most powerful writer on television. I was joking that this would be the best pilot ever aired on Trio. And then Trio got canceled." Fey wound up "winning" over Sorkin when Studio 60 was canceled after one season and 30 Rock was renewed for a second. Though 30 Rock's first-season ratings proved lackluster and were lower than those of Studio 60, Studio 60 was more expensive to produce.

Some critics have compared 30 Rock to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, with parallels drawn between the relationship of Liz and Jack and that of Mary Richards and Lou Grant. It has also been compared to That Girl. Like That Girl and Mary Tyler Moore, 30 Rock is a sitcom centering on an unmarried, brunette career woman living in a big city where she works in the television industry.

The season one box set was released on March 17, 2008 in Regions 2, 4 and 5 format, but not as separate volumes and without special features.

The region 4 DVD set was released as a three-disc edition on 8th January 2009 and, unlike the previous season release, featured all special features.

The region 2 DVD set is to be released on the 25th May 2009 and will include special features.

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Suburban Girl

Suburban Girl is a movie starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Grudge), Alec Baldwin (30 Rock, The Departed) and Maggie Grace (Lost, The Fog), which was filmed in New York City. The movie is adapted from two short stories in Melissa Bank's best-selling book The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, which spent 16 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.

It is a romantic comedy produced by Gigi Pritzker and Deborah Del Prete, producers of The Wedding Planner and Green Street Hooligans. The movie was shown at New York's Tribeca Film Festival in April and May, 2007. The DVD and Blu-ray release date was January 15, 2008.

For many months, the makers of Suburban Girl used the title of the book, The Girls’ Guide To Hunting and Fishing for their film. Francis Ford Coppola (who has the rights to the title and short story of that name) and American Zoetrope are developing a film which is adapted from the last short story in the book.

Sarah Michelle Gellar stars as Brett Eisenberg, an ambitious young New York book editor living in the literary hotbed of Manhattan's Upper East Side. While attempting to navigate the very political regime change at her office, she faces the pressure of leaving her safe, but immature college boyfriend for the charms of the notorious (and much older) publishing playboy Archie Knox (Alec Baldwin). The movie also stars Maggie Grace as Brett's friend.

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The Marrying Man

The Marrying Man is a 1991 film starring Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger.

Charlie Pearl (Alec Baldwin) is the heir to a big fortune. Soon, he falls for Vicki Pearl (Kim Basinger). Charlie is a very wealthy young man but he is unable to make money like his father or grandfather. This is because money keeps flowing from him. He is first forced into marrying Vicki. However, they fall in love. After that, Charlie and Vicki keep marrying and separating throughout the movie. Towards the end, they decide on togetherness and happiness.

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