30 Rock was indisputably one of the greatest comedies of all time. It might not have been as avant-garde as Arrested Development, as culturally/linguistically timeless and influential as Seinfeld, as deconstructive as Community, as relatable as The Simpsons, as stylistically groundbreaking as The Office, or as incisively satirical as South Park or Chapelle's Show. But 30 Rock blended elements of all of the above while redefining the limits of meta-humor and churning out high-quality jokes at a breakneck pace unparalleled in the ghosts of television past and present. It's my favorite show of all time, which makes it all the more irksome to hear the common refrain that the show "lacks character development". Now, the importance of character development to a sitcom's value is debatable (see: Seinfeld vs. Friends) - and there's no doubt that 30 Rock was more concerned with making a work of comedic art than a character-based comedy. But is it even true that the show lacks conventional character development? Is it really fair to characterize 30 Rock as a pure joke machine with static characters? I would emphatically argue otherwise.
