{"id":767,"date":"2008-04-25T21:23:47","date_gmt":"2008-04-26T01:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=767"},"modified":"2022-10-22T23:01:33","modified_gmt":"2022-10-23T03:01:33","slug":"baby-mama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/baby-mama\/","title":{"rendered":"Tina Fey raids her rolodex for Baby Mama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As a true comedy auteur, Tina Fey&#8217;s acting has always come in tandem with her own writing. This double act has progressed from improv comedy at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.secondcity.com\/\">The Second City<\/a>, to head writer for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbc.com\/Saturday_Night_Live\/\"><em>Saturday Night Live<\/em><\/a>, to supporting player in the feature film <a href=\"http:\/\/www.meangirlsmovie.com\/\"><em>Mean Girls<\/em><\/a>, (for which she wrote the screenplay), and finally to executive producer and star of her own sitcom <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbc.com\/30-rock\/\"><em>30 Rock<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Baby Mama<\/em>, written and directed by Michael McCullers, marks Fey&#8217;s first star turn in a project which she did not originate or write. Still, it certainly feels a lot like a Tiny Fey joint. Judging by the general tone and the chaotic improv of Fey&#8217;s partner-in-crime Amy Poehler, I suspect the two enhanced the production with a fair amount of script-doctoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/baby-mama-fey-poehler-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in Baby Mama\" class=\"wp-image-6227\" srcset=\"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/baby-mama-fey-poehler-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/baby-mama-fey-poehler-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/baby-mama-fey-poehler-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/baby-mama-fey-poehler-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/baby-mama-fey-poehler.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Indeed, Fey&#8217;s character fits firmly in the public persona of Endearingly Neurotic Thirtysomething Single Girl established on SNL&#8217;s Weekend Update, as Ms. Norbury in <em>Mean Girls<\/em>, and as Liz Lemon in <em>30 Rock<\/em>. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/scott\/tina-fey-notlash\">Tina Fey Notlash<\/a> notwithstanding, she is evidently more grounded in real life, and married with a child. Meanwhile, the fictionalized &#8220;Tina Fey&#8221; is the idol of every girl with glasses and crush of every boy with&#8230; uh, glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fey must have an impressive rolodex, for like her flagship TV show 30 Rock, nearly every little role is <em>Baby Mama<\/em> is filled by a familiar face. When not being amused by alumni from <em>The Daily Show<\/em> and <em>SNL<\/em>, we&#8217;re treated to Steve Martin as a wild and crazy organic food magnate and Sigourney Weaver as an initially creepy but ultimately sympathetic fertility doctor. But personally, I wouldn&#8217;t dare make fun of Sigourney Weaver&#8217;s age, lest she come after me with a <a href=\"http:\/\/avp.ugo.com\/?cur=aliens-ripley-flame-thrower\">flamethrower<\/a> or a <a href=\"http:\/\/avp.ugo.com\/?cur=ripley-powerloader\">space forklift<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a true comedy auteur, Tina Fey&#8217;s acting has always come in tandem with her own writing. This double act has progressed from improv comedy at The Second City, to head writer for Saturday Night Live, to supporting player in the feature film Mean Girls, (for which she wrote the screenplay), and finally to executive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2],"tags":[1010,77,767,1216,1215],"class_list":["post-767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3-stars","category-movies","tag-amy-poehler","tag-comedy","tag-sigourney-weaver","tag-steve-martin","tag-tina-fey"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/baby-mama-feature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-cn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5856,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/this-is-40-was-made-by-comedians-for-comedians\/","url_meta":{"origin":767,"position":0},"title":"This is 40 was made by comedians, for comedians","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"April 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Because you demanded it: a sequel to Knocked Up! Oh wait, you didn't? Neither did I. Even as an admitted \"dramedy\", Judd Apatow's This is 40 is a major bummer. Laugh and cry as you watch a couple deal with the same problems ordinary people can relate to: what to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;2 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd in This is 40","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/this-is-40.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/this-is-40.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/this-is-40.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/this-is-40.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/this-is-40.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":709,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/southland-tales\/","url_meta":{"origin":767,"position":1},"title":"Sold out but not a soldier: Richard Kelly&#8217;s bizarre Southland Tales","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"March 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't know if the roughly 140 minute version of Southland Tales that made it to DVD is a butchered or merely abbreviated version of a masterpiece, but what I just saw is an unholy mess. I'm one of director Richard Kelly's apologists for his divisive film Donnie Darko, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;1 Star&quot;","block_context":{"text":"1 Star","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/1-star\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Southland Tales","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/southland-tales-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/southland-tales-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/southland-tales-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/southland-tales-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/southland-tales-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5890,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/ghost-town-is-the-sixth-sense-as-a-romantic-comedy\/","url_meta":{"origin":767,"position":2},"title":"Ghost Town is The Sixth Sense as a romantic comedy","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"September 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"David Koepp's Ghost Town pulls at the heartstrings without being too nauseating. With a tagline that implies The Sixth Sense as a romantic comedy, its tone and subject matter are roughly comparable to As Good As It Gets: the thawing of a misanthrope with some good qualities. It mostly earns\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tea Leoni, Ricky Gervais, and Greg Kinnear in Ghost Town","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ghost-town.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ghost-town.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ghost-town.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ghost-town.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ghost-town.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1721,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/happy-go-lucky\/","url_meta":{"origin":767,"position":3},"title":"Sally Hawkins Finds a New Opportunity in Every Setback in Mike Leigh&#8217;s Happy-Go-Lucky","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"April 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Poppy (Sally Hawkins) is a creature rarely encountered in movies and even less often in real life: someone genuinely happy. She's not bothered by others' life goals; at 30, she doesn't have a baby or a boyfriend, own a house, or know how to drive, and none of these concerns\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;4 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sally Hawkins in Happy Go Lucky","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/happy-go-lucky-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/happy-go-lucky-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/happy-go-lucky-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/happy-go-lucky-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/happy-go-lucky-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":303,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/superman-returns\/","url_meta":{"origin":767,"position":4},"title":"A god walks among us in Bryan Singer&#8217;s Superman Returns","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"June 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"It's probably my own fault for buying into the hype, but Superman Returns left me cold. There's not a lot of drama implicit in the story of an omnipotent alien from another planet, and I just can't buy the \"god walks among us\" metaphors. Spider-Man is a real, troubled human\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Superman Returns","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/superman-returns-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/superman-returns-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/superman-returns-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/superman-returns-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/superman-returns-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1942,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/impostors\/","url_meta":{"origin":767,"position":5},"title":"The Time Has Come to Act: Stanley Tucci&#8217;s The Impostors","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"November 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not blind to its shortcomings, but The Impostors is one of my most favorite movie comfort foods. That I find it so funny and purely enjoyable is really saying something, considering its milieu is the joblessness, desperation, and looming international conflict of The Great Depression. The pitch: a loving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;4 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/impostors-central-park.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/impostors-central-park.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/impostors-central-park.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/impostors-central-park.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/impostors-central-park.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6755,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions\/6755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}