Tracy Jordan

Infobox character


caption=Tracy Jordan
name = Tracy "Tray" Jordan
first = "Pilot"
nickname = "Tray"
gender = Male
age = 34 (as of "Ludachristmas")
occupation = Actor/comedian
relatives = Thomas Jefferson (ancestor)
spouse = Angie Jordan
residence = Da Crib Avenue, New Jersey ("Jack Gets In The Game, Somebody to Love")
42-22, 22nd Street, New York, New York, 11101 ("Ludachristmas")
children = George Foreman
Tracy Jr.
portrayer = Tracy Morgan
Elijah Cook (as a child in "The Source Awards" and "Rosemary's Baby")
creator = Tina Fey

Tracy Jordan is a fictional character on the American television series "30 Rock", played by Tracy Morgan.

Brief overview

The character is a successful African-American movie star with a reputation for unpredictable, highly erratic behavior. This reputation is well-earned and much of it is an intentional attempt on his part to maintain his "crazy" persona in the eyes of the media.

In the pilot episode, Jack Donaghy forces Liz Lemon to hire Tracy as the new star of her sketch comedy program "The Girlie Show". To the disquiet of Liz, Jack renames the show "TGS with Tracy Jordan" in the following episode. Tracy has remained the star of "TGS" ever since.

Personality

Tracy is often, especially in earlier episodes, played as a dim-witted, self-centered, prima donna. Erratic behavior depicted or mentioned on the show includes:

*Running down the 405 in his underwear while repeatedly shouting "I am a Jedi!" ("Pilot")
*Trying to stab talk show host Conan O'Brien and claiming to be a "stabbing robot" while he was being interviewed on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien". ("Tracy Does Conan")
*Getting arrested for walking naked through LaGuardia Airport. ("The Aftermath")
*Falling asleep on Ted Danson's roof. ("The Aftermath")
*Biting actress Dakota Fanning on the face (Liz mentions that Tracy's version of the story makes it sound like she deserved it). ("The Aftermath")
*Doing the robot walking backwards into a Starbucks while holding a dog that he had apparently stolen (although this was in fact misinterpreted as an act of normalcy). ("Jack Meets Dennis")
*Looting a television "because the Jets lost!" ("Cleveland")
*Believes he said "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing", though this is attributed to Edmund Burke. ("Sandwich Day")

Tracy is being treated for mental health disorder by Dr. Leo Spaceman, a sleazy quack who describes Tracy's problems as "erratic tendencies and delusions brought on by excessive notoriety and certainly not helped by [Spaceman's] highly experimental treatments". Prior to appearing on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien", Jordan had reactions to the various medications he is on, causing delusions of a blue creature that Jordan referred to as "The Blue Dude".

Tracy also believes in a variety of bizarre conspiracy theories that assume the existence of shadow organizations or supernatural creatures such as vampires. One of the former (the "Black Crusaders", which includes Jesse Jackson, Bill Cosby, Condoleezza Rice and Gordon from Sesame Street) seems to actually exist in the show's universe.

Relationships

Tracy has been married to Angie Jordan for seventeen years as of the 2007 episode "Up All Night", implying that they were married around 1990. According to Tracy, they like to roleplay, including playing rape. Tracy admitted in "Tracy Does Conan" that he often walks around his house naked to show his oldest boy "who got the biggest ding-dong". He has at least two sons, but does not have any daughters. ("The C Word"). Tracy and his wife briefly separated at the start of Season 2 but appear to have gotten back together since then.

Tracy always refers to Liz by either her last name or her full name (e.g., "Too late, Liz Lemon!"). It appears at times that Tracy has little or no respect for her or her job, generally only communicating with her when he asks/demands for things to go his way. He also considers saying "Hi, I'm Liz Lemon! I like to wear man shirts! Watch me skateboard!" in a high-pitched voice to be a stinging impersonation of her, despite the fact that she doesn't skateboard. But it is worth noting that Tracy usually orbits too far from reality, with his celebrity and mental heath issues, to be seen as thoughtful or considerate, which should not necessarily be taken as a sign of disrespect. For instance, he thanked Liz for being his secretary in "The Collection".

Tracy often lurks around the studio with his entourage of Grizz and Dot Com. Tracy thinks of himself as a mentor to Kenneth Parcell who willingly runs errands for him and puts himself in harm's way to help out Tracy, even though Tracy is often indifferent when Kenneth asks for Tracy to help him.

Career and history

As a child, Tracy was a castmember on the Nickelodeon show "Ray Ray's Mystery Garage". He lived with his single mother in 1979 and was discovered after doing stand-up comedy at the Apollo Theater in 1984. Tracy claims to have no memory of this, but it was allegedly listed on Wikipedia. (This fact was made self-referentially in the episode "The Head and The Hair") Tracy Jordan believes he is a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and slave Sally Hemings. However, this is based on information given to him by Dr. Spaceman.

Tracy has starred in 14 movies including:
*"Who Dat Ninja?", where he plays an African-American ninja. (Portrayal of a non-Asian ninja might be a reference to Beverly Hills Ninja) Early episodes show the spelling in the poster found in Tracy's dressing room as being 'Who Dat Ninga.'
*"Black Cop/White Cop" ("One does the duty; the other gets the booty!"), in which he plays a Black cop who disguises himself as a White cop. (Reference to White Chicks)
*"Black Cavemen" ("So simple, a Black Caveman can do it!"), in which he plays a Black Caveman who, along with his friends, tries to fit into a society which is slow to accept them. (Reference to Geico Cavemen)
*"Honky Grandma be Trippin"', in which he portrays a Black man who disguises himself as an overweight elderly White woman. (Reference to Big Momma's House)
*"President Homeboy", in which he plays a Black president. (a reference to "Head of State")
*"Fat Bitch" ("She's off the leash!"), in which he turns into a dog. Don Geiss wanted a sequel made, despite the fact that Coco (Fat Bitch) died at the end.
*"Samurai I Am Awry", spent nine months in Japan filming this movie.He was also in a Western in which his entire role was done without leaving his car. His current project in development is called "Jefferson", where he plays Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings and King George III. Tracy put together a truly abysmal short trailer for his prospective film that Don Geiss watched and said was horrifyingly bad. It is mentioned to come out in Christmas 2008

He also tends to play multiple roles in his films, much like actors Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy. According to Jack Donaghy, Tracy's movie career has taken a downturn because of enemies he has made in the industry.

Tracy did a Christmas album in 1998 and is a big fan of Pat Benatar. In addition to his acting career, he writes a column in Ebony Magazine called "Musings". He owns several houses and later got into debt because he didn't make the payments on them. Tracy owes Quincy Jones $75,000.

When Jack Donaghy is made the new Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming at NBC, he forces Liz Lemon, the head writer of "The Girlie Show", to hire Tracy as the show's new star. When Tracy joins the cast, the show is re-named "TGS with Tracy Jordan". Jack is constantly doing anything that he can to keep Tracy happy, but most of the cast and writing staff is unhappy with Jack's decision to hire Tracy because they do not respect his unprofessional demeanor or his film career. However, writer Frank Rossitano enjoys Tracy's films. Jenna Maroney, another actress on the show, feels upstaged by Tracy and becomes angry when she learns that he does not even know her name.

He also once wrote a novelty song entitled "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah", which he recorded for Geffen Records. The lyrics include "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah, spooky, scary! Boys becoming men, men becoming wolves!" His attorney Harvey Lemmings (who Liz is not sure actually exists) helped him record the song by teaching him Jewish religious phrases to use in it.

He created a pornographic video game called "Goregasm" after trying to decide whether to watch pornography or play video games. Frank play-tested it for three whole months without a break.

External links