30 Rock is one of the last great network sitcoms, and was absolutely stellar throughout its seven seasons on the air. Choosing ONE moment from a season of 30 Rock is a superhuman feat, not unlike when Alec Baldwin’s elitist, CEO character, Jack Donaghy, attempts to have a perfect day (“Reaganing” is what he calls it). Jack Donaghy is easily one of my top 10 characters in TV history, and it will be the defining role of Alec Baldwin’s career. One of my favorite Jack moments comes in season 6 episode 18 (“Murphy Brown Lied to Us”) when NBC is purchased by a fictional company called KableTown, and Jack is demoted to running their subsidiary company, KouchTown.
The couches, unfortunately are death traps, closing like Venus Flytraps on their sitters. This may have stopped a lesser CEO, but this is Jack Donaghy and he was going to impress the new brass by selling every one of those death traps. He hires actor Stacy Keach to film an increasingly hilarious and desperate series of commercials; marketing them as the Tough Man’s Couch. It’s stupid and brilliant and that’s 30 Rock in a nutshell. Here’s a bonus video of some of Jack’s other great moments with some commentary from 30 Rock‘s writers.