Checking in with Scott Adsit

By John Crook

30 Rock fans know him mainly for his hilarious work as harried producer Pete Hornberger, but these days Scott Adsit is focusing primarily on “Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole,” a macabre stop-motion animation comedy series airing Sundays in Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup.

The series, inspired by longtime Adsit collaborator Dino Stamatopoulos’ obsessive affection for the vintage Universal monster movies, was greenlit by Cartoon Network after the channel canceled the duo’s previous project, “Moral Orel,” after three seasons.

“Our concept is that Dr. Frankenstein is now immortal, because he had discovered the secrets of life and death,” Adsit explains, “and he is kind of bored, so he sets up these time portals, or Frankenholes, out on the lawn of the castle, so people from history can come to him and ask him for advice and help and general surgical things. For example, we have LBJ arriving on the castle doorsteps with the body of JFK in a bag, and he wants his brain put into JFK’s body so he can be a more attractive and effective leader - but mostly so he can (make love to) Marilyn Monroe. So our pop culture references aren’t going to be Tom Cruise as much as Ron Howard and Gandhi and Elke Sommer.”

Adsit first met his 30 Rock boss Tina Fey when they both were working at Chicago’s fabled Second City comedy troupe.

“Tina was quiet,” Adsit recalls. “I remember the first time I saw her, she was in this huge parka and big glasses and short hair, kind of mousy. She joined our cast and was polite and took it slow, but when she finally hit the ground, she was running, and she became a very creative force in that group of six actors. She was brilliant then, but you didn’t see it unless she chose to show it to you.”

Born: Nov. 26, 1965, in Northbrook, Ill.

Education: Attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., and Columbia College in Chicago.

Awards: Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the “30 Rock” ensemble cast; a Joseph Jefferson Award for best actor in a revue for the Second City production “Paradigm Lost”

Life imitates improv: Bored out of his skull during his one semester at DePauw, he pretended to be a Russian exchange student named Yuri. Only his small circle of personal friends knew the truth.

Film credits: Include For Your Consideration, The Bad News Bears, and Kicking & Screaming.