Changes for the Beloved "30 Rock"

It's official: "30 Rock" is moving on.

Take it easy: that's not to say we're not going to be getting any more of Liz, Jack, Jenna, Tracy and Co. It just means they're changing up the formula a bit.

"We had some big changes, and we're trying to explore how those changes affect people's lives," says executive producer Robert Carlock of the changes in "30 Rock's" world last season: Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) started dating a pilot (guest star Matt Damon), while Jack Donaghy (the great Alec Baldwin) had just found out his lady friend (Elizabeth Banks, another guest star) was pregnant with his kid.

So while we'll be getting the usual high jinks from the "30 Rock" crew – including an avalanche of guest stars, among them Damon, Banks, Paul Giamatti, Queen Latifah and Rob Reiner -- it's pretty safe to say the show will be moving forward with its characters a bit more than previous years.

"Last year we were starting to try and broaden that world, because we'd been there for three and a half years," says Carlock of the motivation for the show's changes. "The fun is seeing how it all kind of reverberates under my usual players."

On tap for this year will reportedly be a vow of sobriety from Jack, and some newfound awards clout for Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), the gloriously warped comedian who, last we saw, was in dogged pursuit of his "EGOT" (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony).

Of course, one of the biggest changes came in the final episode, when the beloved Kenneth the Page (Jack McBrayer) was fired from his job at NBC. It feels like a pretty safe assumption to say that, regardless of whatever else happens, that's one change that isn't designed to last.

Which isn't to say McBrayer isn't going to enjoy playing it up while he has the opportunity. "I do get to explore life after TGS With Tracy Jordan, and it's fun to see how some of the NBC employees are dealing with my departure," McBrayer says of the start of next season.

Adds Carlock, "To see McBrayer wearing something other than a page uniform is jarring."

If "30 Rock" was ever going to pick a time to switch up its game a bit, it would be now. The show was snubbed in a major way at the Emmys this past year, losing Best Comedy to "Modern Family" and Best Actor (Baldwin's the previous two years) to Jim Parsons from "The Big Bang Theory."

"One of our writers said to me, 'we just have to work harder,'" says Carlock. "So we'll certainly do our best."

Perhaps the biggest change "30 Rock" is making a live episode, which will air later in the season and is already the most buzzed-about development of the new year. Keeping all of "30 Rock's" sprawling flashbacks and tangents contained to one set will be difficult, but Carlock is more excited than anything to face this latest test.

"The limitations of doing a live show is really different and really fun in a lot of ways," says Carlock of the challenges. "We want to do all of it live."

McBrayer is a bit more pragmatic about the live shoot. "The one thing I'm worried about is the number of mistakes we make on a usual shoot," he says with an infectious laugh that sounds exactly like Kenneth's. "Cross your fingers, man."

(There's also the elephant-in-the-room change, or at least a rumored one: Baldwin has been reportedly plotting his departure after the fifth season, although Carlock is mum on the details. "We love working with him and hope that continues for a long time," is all he'll say.")

McBrayer, for his part, will probably see the least adjustment in his role. As Kenneth, he's often the glue of the "30 Rock" crew, the doting idiot who dives headfirst into danger at the command of his nearest superior and loving every minute of it. Luckily, McBrayer seems to have a bit more restraint than his onscreen counterpart.

"I tend to be a people-pleaser and I try to be good at my job, but I certainly hope I'm not as annoying as Kenneth," says McBrayer. Maybe my co-workers can answer that one."

Sadly, fans won't get to see any more of Kenneth's back-story, hinted through various ramblings and about as convoluted a history as Keyser Soze's. But Carlock, for his part, does have some resolution in mind at the very end of the show.

"I think at the very end of the series, like the end of "The Shining, we push in on a photo of the pages from 1932, and there is Kenneth," says Carlock. "And Jack Nicholson."

It wouldn't be "30 Rock" without guest stars. Some things never change.

Anthony Benigno is a staff writer. E-mail him at film@nyunews.com.