The best comedy on TV

Last week I sat in my favorite green armchair and watched the entire second season of NBC’s “30 Rock.” Though the season was cut short due to the Writer’s Guild of America strike and included only 15 episodes, it still took me nearly six hours to watch the whole thing.

With self-deprecating quips from Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) like “I don’t think you want to talk to me. I ate a Three Musketeers bar for breakfast this morning, and this bra is held together with tape,” Jack Donaghy’s (Alec Baldwin) dry political humor and Tracy Jordan’s (Tracy Morgan) tendency to concoct crazy schemes, the second season of “30 Rock” was the perfect treat for a single girl on a rainy day.

The commentaries here feature cast members Fey, Jack McBrayer, Jane Krakowski, Scot Adsit, Judah Friedlander, Tim Conway, Will Arnett and Fred Armisen, but sadly no Alec Baldwin or Tracy Morgan. It would have been nice to hear from two of the show’s biggest stars, but I guess that’s the drawback to them being big stars.

Fey narrates “Episode 210” with former “Saturday Night Live” co-worker and husband Jeff Richmond. Listening to their witty banter is almost as good as being presented with the season’s seven missing episodes.

The deleted scenes were depressingly few. All of them made me laugh, in particular “Seinfeld Vision 2: Outside the Bridal Shop,” but I find it hard to believe that a TV show as full of funny ideas as “30 Rock” could only scrape together six DVD-worthy deleted scenes.

The rest of the bonus features include a taping of a script run-through with the whole “30 Rock” cast where Tracy Morgan keeps messing up his lines, as well as a “behind the scenes” look at the night in February when Fey hosted “SNL.” 

I think the brilliance of “30 Rock” alone is enough incentive to buy the second season, but if you need another reason, the commentaries are a truly hilarious and illuminating extension to the regular episodes. Otherwise, it left me wanting “more” like the back of the box promised.