Watching "30 Rock" on Hulu: Why was Carrie Fisher's line changed?

December 2, 2020 10:30 AM

In "Rosemary's Baby" (season 2, episode 4 starring Carrie Fisher as Rosemary), Rosemary describes to Liz Lemon the plot of a movie screenplay she's writing. Rosemary says, "women in their 50s join the army and get laid by a bunch of grateful 18-year-olds." This isn't the original line! (More below)

From the awkward cutaway while Carrie Fisher is speaking in this scene, it is obvious that this line has been edited. The original line that I recall, and which also appears in the subtitles, is "women in their 50s go on spring break and get laid by a bunch of grateful 18-year-olds."

I'm aware that Tina Fey pulled the "blackface" episodes from the show. And I can at least understand the reasoning behind other changes that have been made to this show (such as removing a reference to Chris Brown). I also can at least understand Hulu's desire to censor the "adult content" in shows such as Always Sunny or Family Guy (even if I don't agree with it!). But I just can't get my head around why "spring break" would be changed to "the army" on Hulu. I don't think changing "spring break" to "army" (even if it's maybe a Private Benjamin-related joke?) makes the line all that much funnier. And if you're gonna censor, why not edit the "get laid" part instead? WTF is up? Trying to understand the editing of this particular line has become a bit of an obsession for me, and Google is not helping. Any ideas? TIA!

posted by quixotictic to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

Best answer: lizziec1993 on Reddit claims that "The original line (‘go on spring break’) was a dig at a movie Rachel Dratch & Amy Poehler did called Spring Breakdown. I think they changed it after because Tina Fey caught some flack for it from her friends."
posted by gideonfrog at 10:52 AM on December 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Someone on Reddit advances the plausible theory that the original spring break line was a dig at the 2009 Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch movie _Spring Breakdown_, and that Tina Fey changed it after the fact because they were upset about the joke.

edit: gideonfrog beat me to it!
posted by crazy with stars at 10:53 AM on December 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

How would that theory work, though? The Carrie Fisher episode was first broadcast on Oct. 25, 2007. "Spring Breakdown" didn't come out until Jan. 16, 2009.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 11:57 AM on December 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

They're friends with a long history, and it's entirely plausible that Fey knew about the movie while they were still writing it.
posted by amtho at 11:59 AM on December 2, 2020

Spring Breakdown was filmed in the summer of 2006, so presumably well before that episode was written.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 12:04 PM on December 2, 2020

Could it be that Spring Break doesn't make sense to a non US audience and they changed it for international syndication?
posted by vunder at 12:09 PM on December 2, 2020 [2 favorites]