For 31 years, writers have stepped in and out of "Saturday Night Live," often unnoticed. The exception is Tina Fey. Her own show, "30 Rock," debuts Wednesday; that follows nine "SNL" years.

Lorne Michaels, the producer of both shows, says the first thing he noticed was "how intelligent and how strong she is."

That "strong" part can be a mixed blessing, Fey said.

"I do have a habit of asserting myself ... that makes my husband very uncomfortable. He always gets upset that I'm the 'policer of justice' in stores and stuff."

In "30 Rock's" pilot, she makes a fuss when someone cuts in line at a hot-dog stand. This is classic Fey, who tends to tackle a lot.

"She's very well-organized, incredibly disciplined," Michaels said.

She'll have to be. Fey, 36, went directly from being head writer and news anchor of "SNL" to being producer, writer and star of "30 Rock." During the hiatus, she worked on a movie script and communed with her 1-year-old daughter.

How will she handle the pace?

"I'm going to go nuts," she said.

One of the "30 Rock" characters has already done that.

The series has Fey heading a sketch-comedy show a lot like "SNL." A network executive (Alec Baldwin) orders her to hire a specific comedy actor who's had a nervous breakdown, walking through traffic in his underwear.

That's a lot like a real-life incident involving Martin Lawrence. Still, actor Tracy Morgan insists he's not portraying Lawrence.

"Martin didn't corner the market on meltdowns," Morgan said. "My cousin Rick (did the same and) didn't have no drawers on."

Jane Krakowski plays the star of the variety show, with Scott Adsit as the producer and Jack McBrayer as a page. There are some strong roles that could overshadow Fey's.

"I realized this problem doing 'Mean Girls,' " Fey said. "I kept forgetting to write my part. If you ever see it, I'm not really in it."

She gets noticed at times in that 2004 movie, a box-office success that stars Lindsay Lohan. Still, Fey knows what it's like to feel overshadowed.

Joining the "SNL" writing staff in 1997, she felt (at 5-feet-4) a foot shorter than the others. It was virtually an all-male staff then.

Fey grew up near Philadelphia, describing herself as a "super-nerd." She graduated from the University of Virginia, then studied and worked for the Second City comedy troupe in Chicago. That's where she met her husband, Jeff Richmond, now 46.

About four years ago, Fey says, she pitched a comedy set at a cable news network. NBC programmer Kevin Reilly "encouraged me to go back and make it a little more in the world that I already knew."

So she wrote about a sketch-comedy show. Then she was surprised that NBC was getting a show ("Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip") with the same setting.

Reilly insists that's no problem. "They are the hour show and they have a '60' in it," Michaels said. "We're the half-hour show and we have a '30' in it. So I think the people will be able to clearly distinguish which is which."