Robert Carlock's comedy gives even the shop signs jokes. His work with Tina Fey is often sharp, generous and funny enough to revisit, though the scripts sometimes hurry past an exchange worth hearing out.
Fi1m perspective
In Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015), a joke about Kimmy's out-of-date slang sits beside a cutaway to the bunker where she was held captive, then a shop sign worth pausing to read. Robert Carlock and Tina Fey trust us to keep up. We laughed enough to go back for lines we had talked over, because the script kept delivering another joke before we had finished with the last. The surprise is how kind those first two seasons manage to be, given that their heroine has spent fifteen years imprisoned underground.
Carlock wrote for The Dana Carvey Show (1996) before joining Friends during its later seasons. We like the warmth of Friends, but our pleasure there lies chiefly in the six performances; it is not where we would begin to explain his writing. 30 Rock (2006), where he worked as writer and showrunner with Fey, makes the case more clearly. Television production and celebrity give him subjects suited to jokes that expose how people would like to be seen.
On 30 Rock, a line can be funny before the next one reveals something worse about the person saying it. Carlock is part of a writing team that includes Fey, Kay Cannon and Donald Glover, and it would be careless to give him sole credit for that rhythm. The smaller jokes matter as much as the scene's main business, and Fey and Alec Baldwin make the workplace quarrels worth following. The ensemble takes time to settle, and occasionally the scripts hurry past an exchange we would rather hear out.
Co-creating Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt with Fey gave Carlock a darker starting point and an optimist to lead us through it. Editors Ken Eluto and Meg Reticker are among those who make its speed work, cutting so that punchlines barely have time to register before the next arrives. Ellie Kemper and Tituss Burgess carry the programme, but the last two seasons give them less to work with, and the plentiful jokes cannot quite cover the loss of direction. Begin with 30 Rock, and resist the temptation to talk over it.
Biography
Robert Carlock is an American screenwriter and producer. Born on 21 September 1972 in Waltham, Massachusetts, he graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1995, where he edited the Harvard Lampoon.
He began his television career as a writer on The Dana Carvey Show (1996) and Saturday Night Live (1996–2001). He later wrote for Friends (2001–2004) and Joey (2004–2006). In 2006 he joined 30 Rock as a writer and producer, serving as co-showrunner with Tina Fey. Carlock co-created Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015) and Mr. Mayor (2021) with Fey, and wrote the screenplay for Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016).
He has received multiple Primetime Emmy Awards, Writers Guild of America Awards and Producers Guild of America Awards for his work on 30 Rock.
