Tina Fey Talks the Return of 30 Rock

After the writers' strike left fans mourning the temporary loss of their favorite show, 30 Rock returns this Thursday night on April 10, beginning a run of five new episodes. The new episodes will offer up the same hilarity fans have seen in the past with guest appearances that include Will Arnett, Dean Winters, comedy legend Tim Conway, and the possibility of Edie Falco in the role of Celeste Cunnigham.

Leading up to the return of 30 Rock, The Deadbolt caught up with the absolutely fabulous Tina Fey on a conference call who dished the dirt on what fans can expect for the remainder of the season, the casting of 30 Rock, the possibility of eventually getting SNL creator Lorne Michaels to appear on the show, and what Liz Lemon thinks of Barack Obama.

Tina Fey on the premise of Jack’s reality show "Milf Island":

"It is a Survivor-like show where - Oh gosh, I think it’s twenty Milfs and fifty 8th grade boys are put on an island. And we actually sat down and tried to figure out the rules of Milf Island and were not entirely successful. It involves something where the boys vote the moms off if they don’t like them anymore. And then it involves physical challenges and that’s about all that we know. But when I sell it to Ben Silverman, we’ll know more."

Fey on the various celebrities she’d love to work with:

"I still want Oprah to play my best friend. I want to spend time with Oprah and I don’t know what I need to do to make that happen. So far we’ve been super lucky to have people - here’s another guest star that we’ve got coming up... Tim Conway is going to be in, I believe, our second episode back."

On referencing the writer’s strike in upcoming episodes of 30 Rock:

"We are not. We decided that the strike did not happen in our world because we sort of felt like for people viewing at home the real strike was a big enough pain and that they didn’t really want it; probably didn’t really want to hear anymore about the strike. Before there ever was a strike, we had a writer's strike story that we may just save for later down the road because it didn’t have anything to do with the actual strike."

On the writers and shows that inspire her:

"The Larry Sanders Show was just one of the greatest TV shows ever, especially in terms of being about a similar topic to this show. I’m a big fan of The Office, both the British and the American versions. I grew up on a lot of classic TV, too - Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, The Carol Burnett Show, all [of] that kind of stuff. I’m trying to think if there’s anybody I’m forgetting. I really like Christopher Guest movies."

Tina Fey on the casting of 30 Rock:

"In the series regulars... I worked with Jen McNamara directly on all that stuff. She would do a big casting session, then she would bring me and Adam Bernstein in, the guy that directed the pilot, we would come in. She is really piped in to all the great actors that are in New York. And when we have small recurring roles, too, she finds us great, great people. A lot of these parts of the people who are regulars, I wrote with people in mind. For example, Jack McBrayer who plays Kenneth is an old friend of mine from Chicago. So I really wanted him for that part and was very happy when no one objected. And Scott Adsit is an old friend of mine. I wrote that part with him in mind and we wrote with Alec [Baldwin] in mind, too. And we were very pleasantly surprised when he agreed to do it."

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