The final season of 30 Rock will premiere on Thursday October 4th. In celebration of the show’s legacy, we’re looking back at some of our favorite characters and episodes. We’ve already ranked our favorite guest stars. Today, we’ll be ranking Jack Donaghy’s love interests.
Jack may have grown up poor in the Sadchester section of Massachusetts, but present day Jack is a wealthy Republican with a love for big business and an ego to match. In other words, he’s potentially a great foil for any number of women. To clarify: we’ll be ranking love interests who had multi-episode arcs. So, as hilarious as it was that Jack dated Condi Rice, she can’t be considered for this post. The fabulous Isabella Rossellini doesn’t really count here either, but we covered her in our guest star post. Okay, let’s get to it!
5. Nancy Donovan
Unfortunately, Nancy is the one of the biggest missteps in 30 Rock history. One of the few links to Jack’s past, the character is not well fleshed out and mostly seems to show up as a convenient plot device in Jack’s struggle to decide whether he wants the hometown girl of his past or the sexy cable news woman of his present. Adding insult to injury, Julianne Moore plays the character with a bizarre spin on the Boston accent. At times it is clear the accent is intended as a parody. At other times, it just sounds like Moore has trouble keeping in character. Nancy is the one Jack Donaghy love interest we could have done without.
4. Phoebe
“Careful, my bones.” Who could forget Phoebe and her Avian Bone Syndrome? Emily Mortimer shows up as the gold-digging, (not really) British Phoebe at the tail end of season 1, and she’s the only lady on our list who does not fit the mold of the others. Starting with season 2, 30 Rock made a habit of casting film and cable television actresses with more boldface names to play opposite Baldwin for longer segments of the show’s season. Those characters — although still great — never had the same absurd, quirky 30 Rock-ness that Phoebe does. She has more in common with the show’s off-the-wall guest characters than with the more firmly grounded A List love interests who came later. Mortimer is very funny in the role, and she plays well against Baldwin, Fey and Stritch.
3. Avery Jessup
Avery Jessup is the female Jack Donaghy. She’s foxy, she has a high power position in media, she’s conservative and opinionated. Elizabeth Banks has the comedic chops to do the character justice, and the writers generally give her great material to work with, but we don’t feel the chemistry between Banks and Baldwin. It’s an instance in which the idea should work, and Banks is very funny, but there just seems to be something missing from the relationship dynamic.
2. Celeste Cunningham
Now we’re talking. Whether coincidence or not (probably not), our favorite Jack Donaghy love interests are the women who were more truly foils for his character. Celeste Cunningham, played by Edie Falco, fits the bill: the Democratic congresswoman from hippie dippie Vermont is at the helm of a lawsuit against the Sheinhardt Wig Company, and just as Jack embodies exaggerated conservatism, Celeste is a parody of liberalism. The forbidden love/secret affair she has with Jack is funny, but the humor increases when they go public and try to make their long distance NY/DC affair a success. But! Our favorite thing about Celeste is her backstory, and hats off to Tina Fey and Kay Cannon who wrote the episode in which Celeste is introduced (“Somebody to Love”). In the episode, we learn that Celeste got her start in politics after being accidentally shot in the face by a dog. If you want to know more, you should totally DVR the Lifetime Original Movie based on her story: A Dog Took My Face and Gave Me a Better Face to Change the World: The Celeste Cunningham Story.
1. Elisa Pedrera
Salma Hayek takes top prize here without question. Elisa is the perfect foil for Jack. A Puerto Rican nurse with working class roots who is hired to care for Colleen Donaghy, the differences between her perspective and Jack’s is made immediately apparent when — shortly after meeting — Jack shows Elisa a pair of gold shoes that Tracy Jordan gave him as a gift: “Oh, gold shoes. My nephew just joined the Marines to try to pay for college, but that’s fun.” The cultural, religious (“Don’t tell me you’re one of those convenient Catholics that only goes to church every Sunday.”) and class differences between the two are a constant source of humor — done with sharp, smart 30 Rock flair. The writers, ever self-aware, even acknowledge the sitcom history of such an inter-cultural pairing with a Ricky Ricardo joke. The writing is only half the equation though. It can’t work if the actress isn’t up to the challenge, but Hayek is superb. Her chemistry with Baldwin is palpable, and she just seems to have a knack for this type of comedy.
Next up we’ll be ranking Liz Lemon’s love interests. Stay tuned!