According to director Beth McCarthy-Miller, the most impressive thing about the 30 Rock live episodes was not Jon Hamm, but rather that no one managed blow the whole thing. As McCarthy-Miller tells The Hollywood Reporter, “During the show, I was in the booth calling it live, and I think two people missed a line. Not one camera shot was missed. I mean, it was so lucky. All the special effects happened on time; all the cues happened on time. It was crazy how perfectly it all came together.” Having directed on SNL for 11 seasons, getting the go-ahead from Lorne to shoot the eps at the SNL studio made McCarthy-Miller nostalgic for her days doing live TV. “It was so much fun — the 30 Rock and SNL crews all worked together and made this amazing show,” she says. “My stage managers were teaching the 30 Rock first ADs how to stage-manage live, and they were showing them what they do as first ADs on 30 Rock, and everybody got along and everybody was so helpful. It was the absolute perfect storm.”
