News, Reviews & Commentary on Gay and Bisexual Men in Entertainment and the Media

30 Rock: I'm Gay For Jamie

Last night's 30 Rock had another gay subplot building on the antics of Will Arnett's gay executive Devon Banks. In the episode, actually titled "Cougars", a cute young coffee delivery guy (there are coffee delivery guys? Can I have one, please?) named Jamie shows up at the Girly Show offices and catches the attention of both Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) ...

and Frank Rossitano (Judah Friedlander).

After Jamie leaves once he's finished delivering the coffee, Franks says:

"That guy is adorable. Maybe I am gay — for that little peach. I wanna kiss him on the mouth. I wanna hold him. I want Jamie."

Both he and Liz are utterly taken by the "veal" as Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) hilariously refers to him. Check out the look on Frank's face as Jamie leaves:

One of the other guys in the office tries to razz Frank for suddenly being gay, but no one else goes along and, best of all, Frank couldn't care less. (The guy quickly gives up, wondering, "Why isn't this more fun?")

What follows is poor, hapless Frank trying to compete with Liz for the attentions of Jamie, who isn't even gay. After Frank gives Jamie a Franch-cut sweater that "wasn't on sale or anything", Liz tries to talk some sense into him.

Liz: Frank, stop it.

Frank: I can't. I'm gay for Jamie.

Liz: No, that's not a thing. You can't be gay for just one person. Unless you're a lady. And you meet Ellen.

Frank: I got some real thinking to do. It's scary, but also exciting.

Trying to figure out how to be "gay" Frank shows up in this outfit.

Overall, the episode's gay stuff was cute and I liked the message even if poor Frank makes a terrible gay man. Jamie was never put off that Frank was into him. Well, he was a little bit, but just because Frank was touching him inappropriately. The joke wasn't someone being gay, but Frank being gay, someone who is apprently best known for reading Boobs magazine. And I don't think that's meant in the Dan Quayle sense of the word. Except for the one slightly homophobic co-worker, everyone else, including Frank, was pretty not taken aback by Frank's new interest in men.

Like Scrubs and My Name is Earl, 30 Rock looks to be another show adding gay storylines that go beyond the usual lame jokes, stereotypes and usual coming out stories. (And of course Tina Fey did a major solid by mentioning "gay partners" in her acceptance speech for the show's Emmy.)

Now if they could just add a regular occurring gay character to one of their storylines...

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  • Jacob's picture

    I love 30 Rock, and I've got

    I love 30 Rock, and I've got a straight-crush on Tina Fey to boot. But what is the name of the actor who plays the Veal? Cuz I'm with Frank on this one.
    John G's picture

    Jamie is played by 28 year

    Jamie is played by 28 year old singer/songwriter Val Emmich, in case anyone feels like doing some checking up on him.

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