“Welcome to the greatest night in the history of entertainment!” he said from the stage to raucous applause. “I’m Conan O’Brien, and I’m known to exaggerate.”
His comments didn’t seem hyperbolic to the 5,000 rowdy fans in the audience, who spent a pretty penny and braved a rainstorm for a chance to witness the live, never-to-be-televised event. Cheers from the crowd were near-deafening as O’Brien introduced the cast — Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski — and they kept up the enthusiasm for surprise guests like Jon Hamm, Tom Hanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Will Forte and Brian Williams.
The cast reunion doubled as a charity fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club of Harlem, an organization they wanted to honor for two specific reasons. “We chose the Boys and Girls of Harlem because they are a great New York institution,” Fey said. “But also because we figured we kind of owed them something because of how much Tracy Jordan struggled to shoot the commercial he did.” (In one memorable episode from Season 5, Tracy couldn’t remember his lines as he filmed a public service announcement for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.)
She designed the evening to be “more than just a Q&A,” stuffing the 90-minute event with elaborate musical numbers, game show sketches and other “30 Rock”-themed skits.
“No one has ever seen this show before, including us, because we have not rehearsed it,” Fey said. “But one thing I can promise you, from the bottom of my heart, we will have microphone problems.”
If you couldn’t “go to there,” as Liz Lemon would say, Variety has compiled the best moments from the night:
Tom Hanks accepts best guest star award on behalf of Elaine Stritch
But only one bold-faced name could win the coveted “best guest star” prize, which went to Elaine Stritch as Jack’s overbearing mother Colleen Donaghy. She was (posthumously) nominated against Marcella Roy as young Liz Lemon, Sherri Shephard as Tracy’s wife Angie Jordan and Kelsey Grammer as his heist-wielding alter ego “Frajer.”
Hanks was apparently tricked into attending the evening while he was one block up, near 30 Rockefeller Plaza. “I was on my way to dinner at the Rainbow Room,” Hanks said. “I eat there every night to avoid Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax.”
’30 Rock’-stradomus
“30 Rock” is famous for predicting a bunch of stuff that proved to be bizarrely accurate. “Even though we were exhausted and writing absurdist nonsense, so much of what we wrote actually came true,” the show’s writers said from the stage. Highlights in a montage of prescient jokes include Jenna’s “free Lyle Menendez” tattoo (the brothers were recently granted an early parole hearing) and Tracy’s call with someone pretending to be Bill Cosby — “You’ve got a lot of nerve getting on the phone with me after what you did to my Aunt Paulette!” — way before the comedian was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting women. Then there was Jenna’s weight-gaining role in the fictional “Mystic Pizza: The Musical” (which now exists and began a national tour this fall) and the iconic show-within-a-show “MILF Island,” which paved the way for the very real HBO Max reality dating series “FBoy Island.”
Tina and Tracy play ‘What’s my next line?’
“I’m supposed to remember that?” Morgan said. “You gotta give me a break. I got hit by a truck!”
Dr. Leo Spaceman doles out medical advice
Chris Parnell’s wacky doctor Leo Spaceman, who gets promoted to Surgeon General of the United States at the end of the series, was on hand to “clear up any confusion about our official health recommendations.” A sampling of his frequently asked questions: “Do vaccines cause autism? Or, does autism cause billionaires?” (“Either way, you’re in trouble, fam.”) “Is it safe to eat lettuce yet?” (“Nope, it never was. Stick to the paleo food groups: Beef, meat, and Zyns.”) “Can I give my spouse a GLP-1 without them knowing?” (“Now, any doctor will tell you: If you don’t know the law, you can’t break it.”) That should clear a few things up!
‘What would Jack Donaghy say?’
— In 2014, Jack’s assistant Jonathan (Maulik Pancholy) told his boss that his emails were leaked in the infamous Sony hack. “The one where I tried to get Tracy in drag in the female ‘Ghostbusters’?” Jack asks, to which Jonathan replies, “No, I never sent that one. It’s the one where you offer to give Jenna to Kim Jong Un if it would help.”
— In 2021, Jack shamed the insurrectionists who stormed the capitol on Jan. 6. “When I defecated on Nancy Pelosi’s desk,” he said, “I looked in her straight in the eye like a man.”
— In 2023, Jonathan celebrated a box office rebound — “Sir, ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ were a huge success. The movie business is back! — and Jack retorts: “And more importantly, now when you Google “Barbenheimer,” that’s what comes up, and not Cody Barbenheimer, the young man who mysteriously drowned in Lindsey Graham’s bathtub over Memorial Day weekend.”
Jane Krakowski’s musical medley
Those weren’t the only memorable musical moments. Lin-Manuel Miranda, a “30 Rock” superfan, energized the audience with the Halloween favorite “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” before Krakowski closed out the evening with a powerful rendition of the “Rural Juror” theme song.
We agree: “We will never forget you!”
