Wed, May 2, 2007

When he's not cataloging hall-of-fame comedy movies for us, Arksie keeps track of the best show currently on TV. This week – some might say, five months late – he recognizes 30 Rock and its rightful place at the top of the pile.

His characteristically excellent write-up includes a passing reference to a rumor that Alec Baldwin wants to leave the show. I've tried to give the rumor a wide berth (it isn't really a rumor, since he did very publicly say that he'd like to leave the show), because I don't want to panic anyone unnecessarily – myself included. I'm sure he's not going anywhere – this is one of those things that all parties involved will just pretend never happened.

I TiVo'd The View in order to watch Baldwin's "exclusive" interview. (That action should not be taken lightly, by the way; I had to spend the next three days carefully convincing TiVo not to take that into account when gauging my TV tastes.) From that interview, and all available evidence, Baldwin is clearly very emotional about the situation with his daughter. (Which – you can take his side or not; agree that this should never have been made public or not; forgive him or not – but you can't assert that this situation has any bearing on whether or not he's fantastic on 30 Rock or the funniest actor on TV.) Whether or not you agree with him, he feels strongly that he's been mistreated in the custody battle – and the sad reality is that this is very common in divorces, which is why you really shouldn't marry someone (or at least, don't have children) unless you're a mature person and capable of loving someone other than yourself. (This cuts out most people in Hollywood, quite rightly.) Baldwin wants to devote himself to the issue of parental alienation (he has a book coming out on the subject), and specifically to restoring his relationship with his daughter. More importantly in this particular climate, he wants to be seen as giving that relationship top priority. So, he says, "If I never act again, that's fine with me." Which is what you say in that situation, and I think he sincerely means it. If someone literally gave him an ultimatum between having a good relationship with his daughter and continuing his acting career, he'd never look back. Thankfully, that's not the case. He'll be able to keep working on 30 Rock and still have a good relationship with his daughter, because that's what you do: you work some and you spend some time with family. Nobody can impugn those priorities. (Except maybe Caitlin Flanagan.)

He also said that he doesn't want his scandal to adversely affect the show, which can sometimes happen, but is truthfully pretty rare. The tabloids, blogs, and entertainment shows made a big deal about this issue, but even today it's pretty much died down. You can respect Baldwin for offering to throw himself on the grenade, but it turns out to be a pretty hyperbolic gesture – the kind you make in the heat of the moment, but nobody expects you to follow through. He'd look immodest to say so publicly, but Baldwin knows the show would absolutely collapse without him. His departure would wreck 30 Rock much more than this or any scandal could hope to.

The best I understand it, Baldwin is contracted to 30 Rock for at least next season. NBC has made no move to release him from that contract (and they'd be insane to). By the time shooting resumes later this summer, I'm sure Baldwin will be back in a mindset to continue his work on the show without protest, and everyone will politely pretend like this never happened.

Rejected titles for this post:

Between 30 Rock and a Hard Place
My Birth Mother is an Alien
Alec Daddy
The Brave Little Toaster and Malice