While it was on, 30 Rock was must-see tv in our house, and its inventiveness and the charm of its characters played a large part. Although I was looking forward to this well researched oral history, it didn't really break new ground.

Great material for anyone who loved 30 Rock or wanted to learn more about the series. An iconic show featuring legendary names like Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan certainly had lots of drama in play. This book provides the most amusing and fascinating tales about the underdog comedy making its place in history.

I recently read The 30 Rock Book by Mike Roe.
When 30 Rock came out when I was in college, I was intrigued by this new comedy with SNL alums Fey and Tracy Morgan about the fictitious GTS show.

Last year, I read The Office: The Untold Story, and I felt like this book went much more in depth. It is an oral history, and goes through each episode over its 7 seasons. I had no idea its 1st season they were close to cancelation and were in competition with another freshman show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Studio 60 is only a faint memory for me because I knew it was created by Aaron Sorvin.

Unlike the Office book, it has extensive interviews with the stars, writers and guest stars. I enjoyed hearing how the show changed from season to season and how the cast and writers were one big family.

This book is for any die hard fan of 30 Rock or Tina Fey.

Thank you to Mike Roe, Abrams Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange of an honest review.

This book is a behind-the-scenes look at the acclaimed show, 30 Rock. It has interviews not only with the cast, but also with many of the writers and production crew as well. The beginning of the book focuses heavily on the competition between 30 Rock and Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60, both of which were released the same fall and were a show about a sketch comedy show. The book devotes a section to each season of 30 Rock as it walks the reader through all of the interesting trivia about the show.

For me, the first half of the book was the most interesting. I haven no memory of Studio 60, so I wasn't even aware of the rivalry. It was fascinating to learn more about how the show was created and the hurdles they faced to stay on air. Once we made it past the creation of the show and the book focused on each of the seasons individually, things slowed down a lot. Each chapter contains a synopsis of many of the episodes in the season with the relevant trivia for each episode. I appreciated the recap of the seasons, but some chapters felt like they contained more of the recap and less of the behind-the-scenes story.

Despite the book slowing down at points, I did learn a lot about the show. The book also tackled some of the controversy around the show, including the usage of blackface in some of the jokes. It was good to hear different people's perspective on the controversy, and I appreciated that the author didn't gloss over some of the more difficult bits of 30 Rock's history.

If you're like me and you enjoy perusing trivia about shows and movies, this book would be a fun read for you! It would also be interesting to anyone who has watched 30 Rock and would like to know about it

Thank you to Mike Roe, Abrams Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and honestly review this book!

The first thing to know about The 30 Rock Book is that it is mostly an oral history. I wish I had known that going in, because it wasn’t what I was expecting. I’m also not quite sure who this book is for. If you are already a 30 Rock fan, this book doesn’t cover much new ground. And this book goes too in-depth for the casual fan. It was nice to hear from some of the less well known cast and crew of the show, but overall I was left unsatisfied with this read.

While I received an ARC of The 30 Rock Book from NetGalley for free, this had no bearing on my rating and review.

In the vein of the book about The Office which is in oral history format, this is written in the same way.

It was so great, but the long chapters made it take a lot longer to get through. I learned so much that I had no idea about, and I thought I was a super fan. I also loved learning about the rivalry with Aaron Sorkin's TV show.

This is great for super fans, but I can't imagine anyone enjoying this one the same way.

In all honesty, I am a casual watcher of 30 Rock. I know the memes and I know the ending but I've never truly sat down to appreciate the show from beginning to end. However, after reading how this show was brought together I will have to fix this. This is a wonderful read for fans both new and old who may be finding themselves with a bit more time on their hands.

Thank you to NetGalley and Abrams Press for this advanced copy which I received in return for an honest review.

As a massive 30 Rock fan, I was intrigued by this book. Unfortunately it’s more of an episode guide with some oral history sprinkled in. For a fan there’s not much that is new and it’s probably best for someone who is watching or rewatching the series to use as a read-long. Inexplicably a lot of the TV critics interviewed seem to hate the show. Furthermore, if you want to criticise a show for being racist, maybe don’t use quotes from white people to support your claims. Just a thought.

I’ve never seen a book like this before. The author does a deep dive into every single season of the show, including quotes from everyone associated (cast, producers, etc). I thought this would be a coffee table book for fans, but it was “how the sausage was made” for super-fans. Well done and unusual! I wish they had this type of book for my other favorite shows! No photographs whatsoever.

30 Rock is one of my favorite TV shows. I was thrilled that there will be a book about the history of the show. I liked how the author structured this book. Each chapter is about what's happening in one season of 30 Rock and starts with the first episodes until the season finale. Each episode is accompanied by interviews, a summary, and commentaries from the author. It's like the podcast Office Ladies, but about 30 Rock in book format. I enjoyed reading it and felt like rewatching the show afterward.

Oh em gee I squealed out loud when I saw this book! I LOVE 30 Rock, I don’t even know how many times I’ve seen it, and to be able to deep dive further into the world was a wonderful treasure! I now will be on the lookout for more books like these for my other favorite shows!

Okay, partially cheating here. This book is not advertised as an Oral History, but it functions largely as one. The major difference in form here is that there is more editorializing from the author going on, and quotes from the cast and crew feel more in support of that at times. For a show like 30 Rock, that actually works really well as there probably could only be so many times you read, “We sought to push boundaries and satirize everyone. Hopefully that episode never gets taken down from Netflix” before you want to put your head through a wall. Mike Roe is actually presenting a great model for future Hollywood Oral History books to consider in order to prevent them from feeling lazy and like an advertisement paid for by the show. Most great television shows are complicated and have ups and downs, and it usually takes an outsider to properly contextualize it all and assess it.