"I once drove a rental car into the Hudson, just to practice escaping."

Alec Baldwin is the funniest guy in primetime. Sure, the folks from The Office give you the most bang for your buck week after week, but that's more of a collective hilarity. Alec Baldwin is a one man juggernaut who could do a five-minute monologue and have you rolling on the floor the entire time. If you need proof, track down last night's episode of 30 Rock and watch the scene with the b-roll of his character's attempt to make a promo tape for a new GE product. Besides, if you've ever seen any of his dozen or so appearances on SNL (Brasky, Kanker, etc.), not to mention his unexpected cameos in countless movies and shows, then my opening statement should come as no surprise.

A recent profile of entertainment's latest utility man can be found here.

As for the show, 30 Rock is solid. Not great, yet, but very entertaining. There are usually one or two laugh out loud moments a week, which is more than I can say for anything ABC ever aired as part of it's popular TGIF programming. It's also more than I am willing to say for a lot of this year's current crop of new comedies. The writing is clever, the acting is good, and the show seems to have worked out some of it's early kinks. Tom Shales had some nice things to say about the series and last night's episode in particular in yesterday's Washington Post.

Though it hasn't done spectacular in the ratings, that may soon change. The show has just been moved to Thursday nights, and beginning on Nov. 30 it will find a new home sandwiched between The Office and Scrubs, which is finally getting it's sixth season underway.

However, if ratings don't improve and NBC decides to shelve the show, they really need to consider creating a project for Mr. Baldwin. As Kenny Bania would say; "He's gold, Jerry! Gold!"