Few shows will ever be able to top 30 Rock's signature brand of occasionally absurd satire, but perhaps a spinoff series from co-creators Tina Fey and Robert Carlock would do the job. Amazingly enough, there allegedly was a 30 Rock follow-up project in the works, with Alec Baldwin's pompous businessman Jack Donaghy at the center. For better or worse, Baldwin is said to have backed out of the project, which then became The Good Place star Ted Danson's new show. What the fork?
Let's back things up. For close to a year, negotiations were in place to bring Alec Baldwin back to the 30 Rock universe for a new comedy spinoff that would have seen Jack Donaghy as the Mayor of New York City. The show would have focused on Jack's reign an entity that is slightly bigger than the General Electric/Kabletown corporation that he ran on 30 Rock.
The new 30 Rock-inspired project was being developed as a new original series for the upcoming Comcast and NBCU streaming service, which is set to debut its ad-supported platform in the spring of 2020. THR reports that Baldwin was in extended negotiations for many months before eventually backing out of the project. No reasons were mentioned for why he may not have wanted to be involved.
At this point, it's stated that Tina Fey and Robert Carlock reached out to Ted Danson to see if he was interested in running New York City for the new comedy. Danson, who will turn 72 years old in December, made it clear he did not want to move to New York to take the role, however.
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Instead of reaching out to even more actors to gauge their interests, Tina Fey and Robert Carlock decided to change the story itself to adhere to Ted Danson's locational wishes. The duo transferred the central story to have Danson's character run for mayor of Los Angeles, as opposed to the Big Apple. Once the setting got shifted, that took away just about everything tying the project to 30 Rock, beyond the creators, so probably don't expect to see Jenna Maroney singing about her muffin top or Tracy Jordan getting women pregnant behind family pharmacies. May do expect to see Danson behind a bar.
Ted Danson's new collaborative effort with Tina Fey and Robert Carlock was awarded a straight-to-series order from NBCU and Comcast's upcoming streaming service, though it's not clear when the project will see the light of day. Danson is currently filming the fourth and final season of NBC's The Good Place, so that filming will need to conclude before he's able to dive into a new project.
30 Rock regularly took aim at the entertainment industry, workplace politics, and its central hub of New York City. Considering Tina Fey and Robert Carlock's other projects together were pretty good about sharing those attributes, it can be assumed that their new Ted Danson comedy will showcase the same kinds of humor. Perhaps there will be a point when Alec Baldwin will agree to make a guest-starring appearance, and perhaps he will reprise Jack.
This wasn't the only time that rumors of a 30 Rock spinoff have gone public. Tina Fey, who will soon be seen in Amazon's anthology romance Modern Love, spread some herself last year by talking about making a new show focusing on her Liz Lemon and Amy Poehler's Parks and Recreation character Leslie Knope. That could technically still happen, so our fingers are still crossed for it.
Don't expect this project to be the only upcoming streaming series that was conceived as a spinoff, revival or reboot. Studios and networks are seemingly as eager as ever to bring past projects back for current-day glory, with some like Will & Grace and The Conners being on the successful end of the spectrum. So expect to hear more about potential reboots for The Office, Friends, ER and more.
As stated earlier, it's unclear when Ted Danson's new show with Tina Fey and Robert Carlock will arrive on NBCU's new streaming service. We don't even know when that service will be started, but stay tuned for that, as well as Comedy Central's upcoming roast of Alec Baldwin.
