This September marks the 20th anniversary of 30 Rockbut Tracy Morgan isn’t waiting until the fall to revisit Tina Fey‘s much-loved Saturday Night Live send-up. “I’m binge-watching it now!” the former Tracy Jordan reveals to Gold Derby while discussing his long-awaited reunion with Fey, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins. And his current rewatch has given him fresh perspective on a series that remains the gold standard for early-aughts network comedies.
“You don’t know how tall a mountain is when you’re up it,” Morgan muses. “Time has to go on and then you watch it again. What I think about it now is that all of those character are hilarious, and now Reggie Dinkins gives me the same feeling. We want to give the world a gift.”
“If we are touching the hem of 30 Rockthen I’m happy with that,” adds Morgan’s Reggie Dinkins costar, Daniel Radcliffe. “To me, that’s one of the greatest shows that’s ever been made.” Luckily, Morgan has the receipts to put Radcliffe’s mind at ease. “Being No. 3 on that call sheet, I’m telling you — we’re touching it,” the actor says with a vintage Tracy Jordan grin.
For the record, Fey didn’t create Reggie Dinkinswhich had its official premiere on Feb. 23 after NBC sneak-previewed the pilot episode in January. Instead, the series sprang from the pen of her 30 Rock cocreator, Robert Carlockas well as Sam Meanswho wrote for Fey-produced series like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Girls5eva. Morgan plays the titular disgraced football star who plots a comeback with the help of Radcliffe’s equally disgraced documentary filmmaker, Arthur Tobin. Bringing his cameras to the Dinkins estate, Tobin becomes part of Reggie’s extended family that already includes ex-wife Monica (Erika Alexander), their son, Carmelo (Jalyn Hall), Reggie’s new fiancée, Brina (Precious Way) and his best friend/gofer, Rusty (Bobby Moynihan).
“I kind of can’t believe that 30 Rock happened,” Carlock says when asked about the show’s upcoming porcelain anniversary. “We got to do 138 episodes with those characters and telling stories that got to go anywhere comically and having the horses to do it. It all comes down to whether your actors can be funny and play that nonsense that real. It was a weird seven years, but it was alchemy.
“Like we literally had Tracy read the phone book,” Carlock marvels now. “It was funny on the day.”
Means says that Morgan had approached the 30 Rock brain trust over the years about a reunion, but the timing was never quite right… until now. “We love that guy and love writing for him,” the Emmy-winning scribe emphasizes. “And I’ll just stay that 30 Rock was my favorite show even before Robert hired me to write for it!”
Moynihan also has a 30 Rock story — the ex-SNL star made a cameo early on in the show’s run as the super in charge of Liz Lemon’s building who has a penchant for dressing up as Mario’s nemesis, Wario. That scene hit the cutting room floorbut he was invited back for the Season 6 episode “Murphy Brown Lied to Us,” which allowed him to leave the Wario costume at home.
“I will always remember Tina looking at me dead in the eyes and going, ‘There is no ofy this is going to make it into the show,” Moynihan recalls about that lost Super Mario Bros. gag. “I was like, ‘Thank you for being honest!’ Basically there was something wrong with the pipes in Liz’s apartment, she went downstairs to find me and I was literally dressed in a cartoon Wario outfit. It was insane!”
Carlock and Means have already said that Reggie Dinkins is officially in-canon with 30 Rock and the first few episodes are filled with Easter eggs illustrating the connections between the two shows. And here’s an in-universe in-joke from an upcoming episode. Reggie’s favorite show is FDNY: Chicago and the voice that emanates from the TV screen during those moments belongs to none other than Dean Winterswho played Liz’s jerk boyfriend Dennis Duffy.
“That guy doesn’t need to drag himself to a recording booth,” jokes Carlock. “He’s got all that Allstate insurance money! But what a prince he is.”
“There’s a few more Easter eggs as the series goes on,” adds Radcliffe. “There are some nice 30 Rock callbacks and characters that exist in both shows.[[30 Rock fan favorite] Mike Carlsen is here a lotwhich is great.”
Asked whether FDNY: Chicago is the kind of show that both Tracy Jordan and Tracy Morgan would binge watch, Morgan answers in the affirmative. “My go-to shows when I’m on the road doing stand-up are Chicago Fire and Law & Order so they took that and put it on this show,” he says. “Everything that I do, they put in the script! It tickles me whenever I see it.”
