Say “30 Rock†and odds are that most viewers think about Tina Fey. But where would she be without Robert Carlock â€" friend, writer, show runner and self-described set-up man?
Call them the Face and the Force â€" she, the public persona; he, the guy who gets things done behind the scenes. After spending four years in the late ‘90s with Ms. Fey in the writers’ room of “Saturday Night Live,†Mr. Carlock headed to California to fine-tune his storytelling technique on “Friends†and its floundering Matt LeBlanc spin-off, “Joey,†easing into the production side of things as well.
But then Ms. Fey came calling, and despite a new house and a 9-month-old baby, the offer to work on a show starring her and Alec Baldwin was too good to ignore. So back he headed to New York, where eight seasons later the rest is sitcom history, including another Emmy nomination for comedy series writing for Mr. Carlock.
In a recent phone interview, he reminisced about the old times (like competing against the Aaron Sorkin drama “Studio 60 on the Sunset Stripâ€), speculated on the new ones and admitted there’s a part of him that wants to commit a burglary. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
You’ve won three Emmys on “30 Rock†already, for outstanding comedy series. Does getting nominated ever get old?
No, because you can just see when it’s going to end. It’s nice to have someone love us. We need it so badly. That’s the sad part.
Tina has been the show’s public face. Was it hard being behind the scenes?
Oh, no. I know no one wants to look at me. I put myself in the show this year. I played a German lawyer in Alec’s office. I just figured I had to, at some point, give myself a line. And then I watch it, and we’re editing it, and I’m like, “What am I doing with my head there?†I just didn’t know how to move my body when the camera is pointed at me. So I know where my place is.
Was that your first acting work?
When I was on “SNL†at the beginning of my career, on the monologues and that kind of thing, they used the writers as people in the audience asking questions. So I would do that, more just to face that fear. I was sitting next to Tina, who was a writer at the time, before she decided to become famous, and we both had lines and Tina messed hers up. So I’ve always got that over her.
Is that how you met?
I was producing “Weekend Update†when she did it with Jimmy [Fallon], and that was where we really worked together. Within “SNL†there were these little worlds, and our worlds didn’t intersect that much as writers. But when I was doing “Update,†I think we very greatly came to appreciate each other’s work ethic and sensibility and worldview, and just had a good time together but also got a lot done together. I took off to Los Angeles to get more storytelling experience on different shows and was very glad to be dragged back to New York.
So Tina requested you?
Tina called up and said, “Please do this.†And my wife and I said, “Well, for Tina and Lorne [Michaels] and Alec [Baldwin], what choice is there?†It was a nice step up. I was going to run a show. And I can’t imagine what conversations went on behind the scenes. You know, “This guy’s a supervising producer on a show that was a giant disaster for us, and he’s never run a show before?†Tina and Lorne must have gone to bat for me, but I would rather not hear about the sausage-making in that particular instance. And look, we figured it would be great, but just looking at the odds, we thought we’d be back [in Los Angeles] in a couple of months, and that was over seven years ago. Even though we were stacked with Alec and Tina, “Studio 60†was out there, and that was going to be the one that stayed on TV, and obviously Aaron Sorkin is a great writer and we weren’t really on anyone’s radar.
Why did you choose to submit “Hogcock,†the first half of the series finale, which you wrote with Jack Burditt, for Emmy consideration? Ms. Fey and Tracey Wigfield were nominated for the second half.
To make people say “hogcock†a lot. [Laughs] Really, the only reason. Those two last episodes â€" the two half-hours that really were an hour episode â€"our intention was to submit it as an hour and have all of our names on it. But some union nonsense kept us from doing that. And if we are lucky enough to win â€" well, I can’t imagine that Jack Burditt and I would win because it was all the set-up and Tina got write all the payoff. That’s my job, setting up Tina. And I’m happy to do that.
Tina has already won for outstanding comedy writing, right?
She has. I’ve been nominated four times on this show and I’ve never won.
So is there a part of you that wants to . . . ?
Yeah, there’s a part of me that wants to sneak into her apartment, just take all of her awards, especially her SAG awards. It would be lovely to win. I take pride in having run the writers’ room and it’s like a World War II bomber, with all the crosses for the German planes you’ve shot down. I like to take credit for all these shoot-downs. I live in this fantasy world where I do all of it. But I think to gird myself against disappointment is probably in my interest.
What are some favorite episodes?
There was one that Matt Hubbard won an Emmy for where Jack and Liz end up going back to Liz’s high school reunion, it was one of those episodes where you say, “Boy, this feels familiar, people going back to their high school reunion,†and you try to puzzle through. “O.K., what’s our version of doing it, and how to you get Jack to agree to go?†You know, perversely sweet was my favorite place for the show to hit, when there’d be these sweet moments for the characters, our version of emotion, I guess, that were a little off. Like Liz running to go see Floyd at the airport and getting stopped because she has a special sandwich that has a sauce and so she has to choose between the man and the sandwich and realizes she can have it all, and eats the sandwich in real time â€" Tina just devouring the sandwich then running through. And I love the finale. One of my favorite moments was when we had Buzz Aldrin yelling at the moon with Liz Lemon. To me that’s just Buzz Aldrin and Tina Fey yelling atthe moon, and I wrote the words. I can just stop there.
What’s next?
We’re working with two of our former writers. We sold a show to Fox that Matt Hubbard was pitching, and one to NBC from Colleen McGuinness, a little bit based on her life, about a Long Island girl who stops drinking. And Tina and I are keeping our thing under wraps for now while we work on it.
So, any desire to make like Aaron Sorkin and write a drama?
Yeah but I haven’t tried. Like him, we start with the story, with the characters. But at the end of the day you can cover up some blemishes with a well-placed joke.
