Funny-girl Talk: Tina Fey (30 Rock) and Jenna Fischer (The Office)

As TV Guide plays host, The Office's Jenna Fischer and 30 Rock's Tina Fey riff on their must-see comedies, sex-symbol status and... Dancing with the Stars?

TV Guide: Since you're both on TV on Thursdays, do you watch each other's shows? Don't lie!
Jenna Fischer: Seriously, 30 Rock is my favorite new show on television. My husband and I TiVo it. I'm really excited for this interview, because I want to geek out with questions about Tina's show.
Tina Fey: Thank you, Jenna! I'm also an Office geek. I have to say, that season finale last year, you and John Krasinski played that so lovely. Was it weird to have to play a tender love scene with him?
Jenna: Well, I love John, so it was cool because I was so comfortable with him. But we took it seriously. We put a lot of effort into it, and we were very protective.

TV Guide: Have you ever had to kiss someone on camera, Tina?
Tina: No. In the writers' room, whenever they get near pitching a story where I'm on a date, I'm like, "It's not going to happen!" But [in the show] I have this on-again, off-again, terrible boyfriend. He's the last remaining pager salesman in New York. Even just to have scenes where I had to hold hands with him, I felt so incredibly awkward. It was like a high-school play.

TV Guide: Who has the better TV boss?
Tina: Well, Michael Scott [Steve Carell] is the more fun-loving boss.
Jenna: Yeah, but I feel like Jack [Alec Baldwin] would sexually harass me less.
Tina: It's really fun to work with Alec. But you're like, "I have an acting scene with Alec Baldwin. He's a movie star!" I remember seeing him in Beetlejuice. I thought, "OK. All right. I get this. This is what a handsome gentleman is." I was, like, 12 years old.

TV Guide: Is it inevitable that your character, Liz Lemon, will get together with Tracy Morgan's?
Tina: Yes, I'm sure of it. Then I'll be breaking my own personal boundaries, let alone TV boundaries.
Jenna: People are going to make YouTube video tributes for you and Tracy set to slow songs, like they do for Pam and Jim!

TV Guide: Did either of you have a real-life Jim, by the way?
Tina: Probably, yeah, because before I met my husband, I could never get anyone to go out with me. There was always some sad workplace thing going on. Except the guy was always a thousand times less cute than Jim.
Jenna: My husband is my real-life Jim. I was dating someone else when I met him. And the chemistry and my desire to be around him was intense. So for like a year we were flirtatious, and my diary entries went on and on about how I can't get this guy out of my head. I tried not seeing him for a month.
Tina: That is like the show!
Jenna: It really was. Except I should say that my boyfriend was nothing like Roy.

TV Guide: Tina, is it a relief not having to go up against Dancing with the Starsanymore?
Tina: Yes! And also, every week when we aired on Wednesdays, we'd get the ratings, and I'd be like, "What?! What is Jericho?! They're killing us!" And then I'd read the synopsis and it would be like, "Gary sells his mother's jewelry for a case of soda." Now we're just going to get our asses handed to us by Grey's Anatomy. But that's classier, I think. It's like getting dumped by a really handsome guy.
Jenna: You know, I tried to get on Dancing with the Stars, and they wouldn't take me. True story! I shot the first season of The Office, and I thought, "The show's going to get canceled, and I have to milk every opportunity I can." My manager called, my agent called, but they didn't bite.

TV Guide: Their loss! Especially since you appeared on People magazine's Most Beautiful list this year.
Jenna: I was 32nd most beautiful. I counted.
Tina: Wow. In the world?
Jenna: The whole planet.

TV Guide: And Tina, you were on the Most Beautiful list in 2003?
Tina: Sounds right. And I do like to emphasize that it's the whole world.

Pick up the year-end double issue of TV Guide for a preview of what that "other" Thursday show, CSI, has in store for its Jan. 4 episode.

Send your comments on this Q&A to letters@tvguide.com.