To its credit, 30 Rock is the kind of show that has had such an impact on its cultural surroundings that it’s hard to imagine the comedy existing in any other form. Sure, Jane Krakowski plays Jenna Maroney, but Jenna has been marinating in Jane-ness for so long that the two have converged in the collective consciousness to a strange half-art, half-life hybrid creature. (Of course, it helps that Krakowski hasn’t really featured prominently in anything else since the show started in 2006.)
It’s more than a little eerie, then, to watch clips from an early, scrapped pilot of the show in which, instead of Jane Krakowski as Jenna Maroney, the audience is treated to Rachel Dratch as Jenna DeCarlo. And even though DeCarlo is completely different from Maroney (gruff rather than glamorous, incredulous in her success rather than delusionally confident about it), the rest of the show is largely the same. Jack is Jack; Kenneth is Kenneth. In fact, the only other thing that’s different is that Cerie is played by a beautiful blonde other than Katrina Bowden.
To make things even creepier, the compilation includes a scene in which Dratch actually says, “I’m psyched! I mean, I’m living in New York, I have my own TV show. I mean, dreams do come true, right?”
If only, Rachel Dratch. If only. But hey, at least you got in a few cameos as Greta Johanssen, the unpleasant animal handler, right? [via Buzzfeed]