20 best original songs from TV, from The Simpsons to Empire
By Sundi Rose
“Rural Juror”
The show: 30 Rock
More Tina Fey and Jane Krakowsi for this list. 30 Rock is also a parody show featuring the cast and crew of the fictional late night sketch show, The Girlie Show (TGS). Fey plays Liz Lemon, head writer and resident wrangler of all the big personalities on the show.
One such personality, Jenna Mulroney (Krakowski) is the self-involved fame-monger who is obsessed with your own youth and beauty. She is also the sort-of star of TGS, alongside loose cannon Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan). These conflicting personalities, and Liz’s response to them is the best part of the show.
Best of the best: “Rural Juror” (“The Rural Juror,” season 1)
The song is Jenna’s attempt to boost up her latest attempt at stardom, playing Constance Justice in a new movie, The Rural Juror. The inexplicably hard to pronounce movie title is the butt of pretty much every joke for the episode, and Jenna’s performance of the movie’s title song proves why.
You have to hand it to Krakowski for her elocution and poise trying to get through this ridiculous song. I can’t imagine how many takes she had to do before getting it just right. You have to see it to believe it.
Best lyric(s):
“The Irma Luhrman-Merman murder
Turned the bird’s word lurid
The whir and the purr of a twirler girl
…
Rural juror
I will never forget you”