Hoping that '30 Rock' rocks on

The fifth season of "TGS" is over, and the Hamptons beckon. Liz (Tina Fey) gets a great sublet, but Tracy (Tracy Morgan) wants to move next door. Jack (Alec Baldwin) craves companionship because Avery (Elizabeth Banks) is in North Korea, remarried to Kim Jong Il's crazy offspring. (There was no review disc available.)

MY SAY Shows that reach 100 episodes are kind of like people who turn 50 or dogs that turn 10. Time to celebrate! And time to worry. The clock's ticking. The future's starting to crowd in. Unless you're, say, "The Facts of Life" (209 episodes) or "Petticoat Junction" (222) -- and we can all agree that "30 Rock" is not -- you're closer to the crypt than the crib. For "30 Rock" (102 episodes old Thursday) the end may be nearer, too.

In a fit of honesty, or maybe with the Champagne doing the talking, Baldwin told New York magazine's "Vulture" at some recent gala that the sixth season would be the last, although he later said he hoped it would go on forever. (Baldwin will likely be gone after the sixth.)

But fans can take solace that the fifth season revealed no obvious signs of decline and fall. The lunacy was as inspired -- if not as consistent -- as any in the show's run. In the 100th episode, "100," viewers got to see four Jack Donaghys at different stages of life, a hallucination created by a gas leak caused by a building custodian who looked suspiciously like Michael Keaton. Morgan, who underwent a kidney transplant, was gone for a spell -- somewhere in Africa, "TGS" fans were told -- but "Rock" worked around that hole without breaking a sweat. And while Comcast swallowed NBC in the real world, Kabletown swallowed NBC in the alternate "30 Rock" universe. Who knew that Manhasset native Ken Howard, who played Kabletown's mentally defective CEO, had comic chops this good? We know now.

BOTTOM LINE Like "Arrested Development," the few who are ever going to love this classic are completely onboard, while the rest of the world couldn't care less. If the sixth (gasp) is the end, may it be even better than the one that wraps tonight.

SEASON GRADE A