Tracy Jordan

Tracy Jordan
Tracy Jordan
First appearance	"Pilot"
Created by	Tina Fey
Portrayed by	Tracy Morgan Elijah Cook (as a child in "The Source Awards" and "Rosemary's Baby")
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Actor and comedian
Spouse(s)	Angie Jordan
Children	George Foreman Tracy, Jr. Virginia
Relatives	Thomas Jefferson (ancestor)
Religion	unknown

Ogbert Jordan, better known by his stage name, Tracy, is a fictional character on the American television series 30 Rock, based on and played by Tracy Morgan.

Brief overview

Jordan is a movie star with a reputation for unpredictable, highly erratic behavior.

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 chagrin of Liz and Jenna, Jack renames the show TGS with Tracy Jordan in the show's second episode. Tracy has since remained the star of TGS.

It is revealed in the episode, "College" (during the credits) that his name is Ogbert "Tracy" Jordan. And in "Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning", Tracy says that, "Perfection is my middle name. Unclaimed Perfection Baby Boy."

Personality

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

• Running down Interstate 405 with a toy lightsaber and 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 normality). ("Jack Meets Dennis")
• Looting a television "because the Jets lost!" ("Cleveland")
• Pulling down Jenna's blouse revealing her breasts during what he believed was a "live broadcast" to Japan ("Secrets and Lies")
• Getting arrested in three separate Chuck E. Cheese's and forgetting his name during at least one arrest. ("Believe in the Stars")
• Yelling at a pair of nuns thinking he was at his high school reunion. ("Reunion")
• Hiding his money in Kenneth's page jacket
• Inciting social and financial panic by comments on Larry King Live. ("Larry King")
• Showing his buttocks on live TV and his own commercial, shouting, "Here comes the Funcooker!" ("The Funcooker")

Tracy is being treated for mental health disorder by Dr. Leo Spaceman, a doctor of questionable integrity and qualification who describes Tracy's problems as "erratic tendencies and delusions brought on by excessive notoriety and certainly not helped by my (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 hallucinations of a blue creature that Jordan referred to as "Blue Man" and "Blue Dude" with whom Tracy takes issue for his apparent lack of feet. Despite his erratic and self-centered nature, Tracy is generally well-meaning. For example, he refused to market a product that could hurt people and is friends with Kenneth Parcell, who considers Tracy his best friend.

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 Lester Holt, Jesse Jackson, Bill Cosby, Condoleezza Rice and Gordon from Sesame Street) seems to actually exist in the show's universe, and Tracy ran away from New York when the group came after him for his embarrassing behavior. When he returned for the Season 1 finale, however, the group member who had been watching him walked away from the set, and Tracy got back to work.

In "Jack Gets in the Game," Tracy reveals himself as the recipient of Key to the City of Gary, Indiana, while reminiscing over a box of keepsakes.

In "Winter Madness," it is shown that Tracy is actually more intelligent than he appears. After learning that he was related to Thomas Jefferson, he took a keen interest in American history. He calls out an actor playing John Hancock on Boston's Freedom Trail that the Founding Fathers did not set all Americans free (referring to the slaves). When Hancock brought in Crispus Attucks and said he met him in 1775, Tracy pointed out that Attucks was actually killed in the Boston Massacre in 1770. In the fifth season, Tracy earns a cab ride to the birth of his daughter by answering trivia questions. He has a large repertoire of knowledge, though it's mainly based on times African Americans have been mistreated, so that he knows when to be offended. In "Lee Marvin vs. Derek Jeter," he claims to have learned the word for black people in every language, including Middle English and "dolphin."

In "Future Husband," it is shown that Tracy is incapable of repeating the same thing twice, one of the reasons he has difficulties as an actor.

According to Angie, the Jordans are both Democrats and supporters of Dennis Kucinich though Tracy was a Republican briefly in 2008.

Since he is now an (apparent) EGOT winner (see "Detailed Work" page below), he plans to have an island like Nicolas Cage, Celine Dion, and Charles Widmore.

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, where he puts on a ski mask. 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 two sons, named Tracy Jordan Jr. and George Foreman Jordan, as well as a fake son named Donald (played by Michael Benjamin Washington), who is two years older than he is. Tracy and his wife briefly separated at the start of Season 2 but got back together at some undisclosed point afterward. In "The Ones," Tracy claimed that he has never cheated on Angie, and that he only parties with women to keep up his rap credentials. This was finally made public after Tracy's nanny published a tell-all book in "Don Geiss, America and Hope."

Tracy frequently 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.

Tracy often loiters around the studio with his entourage of Grizz and Dot Com (Cheese, Young Larry and Fat Balls were all members in the first few episodes, but were written out in favour of Grizz and Dot Com by Hard Ball). 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 to the rest of the world. It should be noted, however, that Tracy often helps Kenneth with Kenneth's shyness involving women. Tracy once fired a woman whom Kenneth had a crush on, who began to date Dot Com before Kenneth could ask her out ("Jackie Jormp-Jomp"). Tracy also acted as Kenneth's voice for a date with a blind woman to whom Kenneth was too shy to speak ("St. Valentine's Day") and went out of his way to ensure that as many people as possible came to one of Kenneth's (usually lame and solely Liz-attended) parties. Kenneth may be the only person involved with the TGS show that Tracy Jordan actually cares about. When Tracy quit the show after finding out he no longer needed the money he earned on it, it was Jack's threat to fire Kenneth that changed Tracy's mind in order to keep Kenneth employed ("The Bubble"). Kenneth acted as an asexual, de facto on-set wife to Tracy during his brief Season 2 estrangement from Angie.

Tracy and Jenna have been shown having several disagreements, such as a feud over how much Tracy should have compensated Jenna for her help with his video game ("Do-Over"), or whether it is more difficult to be a black man or a white woman in America (Believe in the Stars). However, they have also had friendly interactions, such as their joint (failed) attempt to help out the crew during "Flu Shot". As seasons have progressed, the two seem to have developed their relationship and bonded over being "the special people". There is an increasing occurrence of the two being involved in shenanigans together - for example, when they try to prove Kenneth is a serial killer, when they drive around the city recruiting funny people of various ethnicities to mess with the audition process for Liz's new actor ("Audition Day"), and when they form "The Problem Solvers."

Career and history

Tracy Jordan is a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and slave Sally Hemings. Tracy's age is unknown, as he has no birth certificate. He was born in Yankee Stadium. He was given the honorary birthday of February 24, shared with TGS Co-star Jenna Maroney and male supermodel Steve Harnden in the March 5th, 2009 episode Goodbye, My Friend. He grew up in a tough neighborhood in The Bronx, though many of his claims about it sound fictitious. For example he claims that a man with dreadlocks electrocuted his fish. Tracy recollects several events from his childhood in Kidney Now! & Emanuelle Goes to Dinosaur Land.

As a child, Tracy was a cast member on the Nickelodeon show Ray Ray's Mystery Garage. He also claims to have attended middle school in an Exxon station. He lived with his single mother in 1979, dropped out of Frank Lucas High School over his inability to dissect a frog, and was discovered after doing stand-up at the Apollo in 1984.

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. At one point, Tracy owes Quincy Jones $75,000. In I Do Do, Tracy told Kenneth that, like foreplay with Angie, he doesn't do taxes, because he does a bad job at it.

His volatile personality took its toll on his movie career, however, as his reputation for being uncontrollable and his habit of insulting powerful movie executives cost him roles. 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. They have clashed over who has it harder in modern society, women or African-Americans.

Tracy is not overly interested in politics. Jack Donaghy tried to recruit Tracy to join the Republican Party, but Tracy came to realize that African-Americans would never support the GOP. Tracy then made a PSA that advised them not to vote at all. In the 2008 US Presidential Election, Tracy reportedly voted for Ralph Nader. He was briefly a Roman Catholic, after being convinced by Jack's brother, Eddie (Nathan Lane), only due to the fact that the Church offers confession. However, Jack teaches him about the concept of Catholic guilt, referencing that no matter if things are good or bad or even if "you're eating a taco in the park, there is a crushing guilt." Tracy immediately decides to leave the Church.

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 Hebrew phrases to use in it.

In order to avoid hanging out with former investment bankers-turned interns, Tracy buys out Lehman Brothers and sends the interns back to their old jobs on Wall Street.

He once acted in an unnamed animated feature film starring him and Shaquille O'Neal, which won a Kids Choice Award. He claims to have done the entirety of the work from his home, where in his words he was compensated with "A million dollars, a yellow Bentley and nothing!"

He created an adult video game called Goregasm: The Legend of Dong Slave after trying to decide whether to watch pornography or play video games. Frank play-tested it for three whole months without a break. Tracy was later sued by Jenna for not giving her a fair share of the profits for her hard work on the game.

Despite the apparent low quality of his work, Tracy is very successful financially, earning over $300 million in the year 2008 by investing profits from the massive sales of his video game into a company that dismantles bank signs (Jack notes that "they're doing very well.")

Detailed Work

Filmography

Title	Medium	Role(s)	Notes	Episode Origin
Black Cavemen	Film	Black Caveman	Tagline: "So easy, a Black Caveman could do it." Examines a society that is slow to accept African-American cavemen. Alludes to Geico Cavemen commercials.
Black Cop/White Cop	Film	Black Cop, White Cop	Tagline: "One does the duty; the other gets the booty!" Portrays the white cop in whiteface.	"Pilot"
A Blaffair to Rememblack	Film		A remake of the 1957 Cary Grant movie An Affair to Remember.	"Señor Macho Solo"
The Chunks	Film	Multiple roles	Homage to The Nutty Professor.	"Christmas Attack Zone"
The Chunks 2: A Very Chunky Christmas	Film	Multiple roles		"Christmas Attack Zone"
Cruise Boat	Film		Catchphrase: "I'm too old for this ship." Described by Tracy as a "non-hit comedy."	"Generalissimo"
Death Bank	Film		Tagline: "Money is the root of all evil."	"Gavin Volure"
Fat Bitch	Film	Coco (Fat Bitch) - voice	Animated film in which he turns into a female dog. Tagline: "She's off the leash." GE CEO Don Geiss wants to make a sequel even though Coco died in the film.	"Corporate Crush"
Garfield 3: Feline Groovy	Film	Garfield - voice	Animated film directed by Sean. Whole part to be shot on green screen in three days Paid exactly one million teacher salaries.	"Emanuelle Goes to Dinosaur Land"
The Girlie Show (2006)	TV	Himself, Government Chicken Nugget Inspector	Announced that he would become a regular cast member	"Pilot"
Goregasm: The Legend of Dong-Slayer (2008)	Pornographic Video Game	Creator	Also featured the voice of Jenna Maroney. Tracy made $300 million.	"Succession"
Hard to Watch: Based on the Novel "Stone Cold Bummer" by Manipulate	Film	D'Jeffrey "Lucky" Seeda	Tracy won an Oscar for Best Actor. According to Dot Com, it is about a boy "growing up poor in the South Bronx, moving from foster home to foster home, seeing a pigeon fight a baby." All things that happened to Tracy Jordan. Sample dialogue from script: "You don't know my pain." "You watch your mouth Tyrese." "I'll have hashbrowns." Reference to Precious: Based On The Novel "Push" By Sapphire	"Emanuelle Goes to Dinosaur Land"
Honky Grandma Be Trippin'	Film	Honky Grandma, Multiple Roles	Starred as a black man who disguises himself as an overweight, elderly grandmother. Catchphrase: "You hooligans better watch out, because this honky grandma be trippin'!" The film grossed $96 million.	"Pilot"
Jefferson	Trailer	Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemmings, King George III	Trailer produced by Tracy Jordan after he learns about his Jeffersonian ancestry. Plays several roles in white face. Credited as a Source Award nominee, NAACP Image Award presenter, and Academy Award watcher. Expected release date was Christmas 2008.	"Corporate Crush"
Larry King Live (2009)	TV	Himself - Guest	Begins the interview by recounting the entire plot of Teen Wolf. Commented on an Asian financial collapse, and potential effects on New York. Claimed that after two weeks of shooting, he was replaced by Jackie Chan in Rush Hour. Provided enigmatic clues about a secret treasure to viewers, including a caller he believed was Peter Frampton.	"Larry King"
Late Night with Conan O'Brien (2006)	TV	Himself - Guest	Tracy was a guest at least two times. Attempted to stab Conan O'Brien in the face as he proclaimed, "I am a stabbing robot. I will stab you. I will stab you." On his most recent appearance, Tracy danced and fell asleep during the episode.	"Tracy Does Conan"
Live with Regis and Kelly (2011)	TV	Himself - Guest	Informed the audience that he was not in Africa, but rather hiding in a warehouse in Queens watching vintage pornography.	"100"
President Homeboy	Film	Black President	African-American who becomes President of the United States. Reference to Head of State.
Rachael Ray (2011)	TV	Himself - Guest	Told Rachael Ray to shut her mouth, back that ass up, and make him a sandwich; however, she mistook this for Tracy portraying the verbally abusive D'Jeffrey "Lucky" Seeda.	"100"
Ray Ray's Mystery Garage	TV	Multiple	Cast member on Nickelodeon children's show. Co-starred with Raw Dog, who eventually became a rapper. Tracy was often drunk on set. Raw Dog accused Tracy of scuffing his sneakers, and threated to eat Tracy's family.	"The Source Awards"
Samurai I-Am-Awry	Film	Black Samurai	Tracy spent nine months filming in Japan.	"The Source Awards"
Sherlock Homie	Film	Sherlock Homie	Urban reimagination of Sherlock Holmes.	"The Aftermath"
TGS with Tracy Jordan (2006 - current)	TV	Various characters		"The Aftermath"
Today (2009, 2011)	TV	Himself - Guest	Sample Dialogue with Meredith Viera: “Watch TGS, Fridays at 10:30. Word!” Also interviewed by Matt Lauer.	"Generalissimo," "100"
Untitled Aquatic-themed Animated Movie	Film	Voice of purple squid	Co-starred Shaquille O'Neal, who is depicted as a green aquatic creature. Tracy mentions that he did not leave his house to make the film. Made a million dollars and received a yellow Bentley. Sample Dialogue: "Would you call what we did last night sex?" O'Neal won a Kids' Choice Award for his performance.	"Secrets and Lies"
Untitled Lethal Weapon-type Movie	Film		Liz Lemon posited that Tracy did not seem to read a script in his movies. Sample Dialogue: "Let's go rescue Karen or whatever. Is it Sheryl? Then she can tell us where the drugs are. I mean gold. Then we got the car chase. I'm getting way too old for this. Was I supposed to say that then?"	"Jack-tor"
Untitled Western	Film		Tracy does not leave his car during filming.
Who Dat Ninja	Film	Black Ninja	Misspelled in early episodes as Who Dat Ninga?	"Pilot"

Discography

Albums

• An Evening with Tracy Jordan: Released by Geffen Records, the album includes "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah."
• Untitled Christmas album (1998): Christmas album recorded in the summer that included "A Jordan Christmas."

Singles

• "A Jordan Christmas" (1998): From the untitled Christmas album first mentioned in "The Head and the Hair." Features lyrics such as "Imagine Christmas wishes/ Shooting out of your eyes/ A candy cake full of snow dreams/ A stocking full of smiles/ It's a Jordan Christmas." Frank remembers that the music video was raunchy.
• "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" - Tracy earned a gold record for his novelty party song. First appeared in "Jack Gets in the Game."

Behind the Scenes

In Tina Fey's original pilot script for 30 Rock, Tracy was named "Lawrence Jordan".