Legal Commentary

Therapy, Jack Donagy-style

By Tom Kirkendall

Whew! After that business week, we all could use a little levity.

The creator and star of NBC's clever sitcom 30 Rock -- Tina Fey -- has been getting quite a bit of publicity lately because of her spot-on impersonation of GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin. But the real star of 30 Rock is Alec Baldwin, who plays Jack Donaghy, the  self-important television executive who oversees the fictional television show that 30 Rock revolves around.

In the clip below, Baldwin's Donagy helps counsel Tracy Morgan’s character (who is the star of the fictional TV show) through a therapeutic role-playing session that a psychologist has arranged at Donagy's request to bring Morgan out of a personal crisis. In just over two minutes, Baldwin resolves the root cause of Morgan's crisis (estrangement from his family) by assuming the roles of Morgan’s father (a black man from "funky North Philly" with a droopy lip), Morgan’s mother, the white boyfriend of Morgan's mother, Morgan himself and a Hispanic neighbor, Mrs. Rodriguez.

Television these days doesn't get any better than this.

Full post as published by Houston's Clear Thinkers on October 04, 2008 (boomark / email).