Colleen Donaghy, 30 Rock

Colleen Donaghy (Elaine Stritch)

Colleen was Jack Donaghy’s acerbic mother. She was overbearing, demanding and sarcastic, and was constantly complaining about Jack’s attitude towards her. The show or characters never revealed she was a lesbian until after her death. In Season 7, episode 10, Jack and Liz traveled to Florida to settle Colleen’s estate and discovered her relationship with Martha, her “live-in nurse”. They found out she was happy and well-liked in the couple’s retirement community, where she was seen as kind and loving.

When Liz headed off into Colleen’s bedroom to investigate, she saw photos of Colleen and Martha and a painting of Colleen’s hands on Martha’s breasts. Liz recoiled, “Shmesbians!” she gasped. “They shared a Sleep Number bed set to two drastically different firmness numbers,” she said, “Only an insane person would do that if they were sleeping alone. Insane!”

It wasn’t until Martha escorted Jack and Liz into the guest room — full of woodworking tools and sculptures of lumpy flowers — that Jack finally acknowledged the truth.

Appearances:

• 9 episodes.

Female love interests:

• Martha (Lynda Gravatt, lesbian, guest, 1 episode)

Relationship story arc with a woman: No

Male love interests:

• Jim Donaghy (ex-husband, off-screen)
• Milton Greene (Alan Alda, guest, 3 episodes, Jack's father)
• Frederick August Otto Schwarz, III (off-screen)

Relationship story arc with a man: Yes

Male love interest after being identified as a lesbian? No

Filter Relationship Arc:

• Male (Guest)

Storyline during sweeps? No

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.