The "30 Rock" gang shows us the true spirit of Christmas -- from which "as hard as you try, no one can escape"

"Christmas Attack Zone": In this year's Christmas episode of 30 Rock, Jack (Alec Baldwin) explains, "We Donaghys believe that when there is something at all delicate to talk about, it is best to suppress it-- until it erupts into a fistfight in a church barbecue," and his seven-months-pregnant lady friend Avery (Elizabeth Banks) chimes in, "The symbol on the Jessup family crest is a knight refusing to talk about his feelings."

"You know what I learned tonight? As hard as you try, no one can escape the horror of Christmas."

-- Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), in this year's
Christmas episode of 30 Rock

by Ken

Liz, who'd been ducking "the annual Lemon family blow-up" of Christmas back in White Haven, planning to travel on Christmas Day and swoop in in time for presents, but instead has found herself immersed in the Christmas dramas of all her NBC-TGS nearest-and-dearest, went on to say:

As hard as you try, no one can escape the horror of Christmas. So it might as well be with your onw family. I'm going to go get a bus to White Haven now, and I should be home just in time for Aunt Linda to try to prove that she's sober by holding someone's baby while cooking.

I know Christmas is over, but I'm so imbued with the holiday spirit that I just rewatched the 30 Rock Christmas episode, which is just chockful of it, what with Liz accepting an invitation to the Donaghy family Christmas, figuring it's safe thanks to the dependable old-line right-wing tradition of keeping feelings safely bottled up, only to find herself in the midst of a family free-for-all -- starring, of course, the reigning queen of family dysfunction, Colleen Donaghy, direct from the Death Shore Retirement Community -- another memorable appearance by the great Elaine Stritch, but also featuring the return of Jack's "hippie pacifist" real father, Milton Greene (Alan Alda), who reported excitedly from Vermont that they've just gotten caller ID there!

It's also an episode in which Tracy, still trying to establish his new image as a "serious actor" in hopes of winning a Golden Globe, appears at a Christmas Eve charity function, as Dotcom (Kevin Brown) points out many stars do, including Russell Crowe, who's holding one "for victims of his own mood swings." Resuming tomorrow there'll be plenty of time for the Social Security mess, the Obama triangulation mess, the Afghanistan mess, the Irish mess, and all those other messes and messes-to-come. For now let's just revel a bit more in the spirit of the holidays. (Of course Jack Donaghy would insist on "Christmas" rather than "holidays." He's the pathologically Jesus-defiling Bill O'Reilly's and Bill Donohue's kind of guy.)


SOME ELAINE STRITCH MUSICAL MEMORIES

It seems to me we're going to need a DVD compilation of Elaine Stritch's memorable 30 Rock episodes. Meanwhile, I yanked these records off the shelf, memorializing two memorable Stritch Broadway roles: the first a smallish one in a landmark musical with a large ensemble cast in with which she darned near stole the show, the second a starring role in a not very successful and now (despite the distinction of its principal creator, Noël Coward) mostly forgotten show.

Regular readers won't be surprised that I'm presenting these numbers in exactly backwards order (both the two shows, and the numbers within the Sail Away group). Note that tonight's late-night post (midnight ET, 9pm PT) features a much more recent Elaine Stritch video performance of "Here's to the Ladies Who Lunch."

From Company (1970), music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

"Here's to the Ladies Who Lunch"
Elaine Stritch, from the Original Broadway Cast Album, Harold Hastings, cond. Capitol, recorded 1970

From Sail Away (1961), music and lyrics by Noël Coward

(Sorry about the LP surface noise early on in the "Why Do the Wrong People Travel?" track. I came close to paying the 99 cents to download this great song, but the noise cleared up, and as I like to say, 99 cents saved here and there adds up to 99 cents saved here and there.)

"Why Do the Wrong People Travel (When the Right People Stay Back Home)?" (Mimi Paragon)

"You're a Long, Long Way from America" (Act I finale, Mimi and company)

"Come to Me" (opening number, the Stewards and Mimi)

Elaine Stritch and company, from the Original Broadway Cast Album, Peter Matz, arr. and cond. Capitol, recorded October 1961

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