30 Rock: Season 4

30 Rock: Season 4
NBC
October 15, 2009
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Yes, Season 4 starts here, as well as in a restaurant called Season 4.  (And Alan Alda once made a movie called Four Seasons.)  Jack wants Liz to cast someone that middle America can relate to better than they can to Tracy and Jenna.  So Liz and Pete sneak around to comedy clubs and eventually try lying that they're having an affair (or "intercoursing each other" as Liz puts it), so of course Pete's wife, Paula (Paula Pell again), walks in at that moment.  Meanwhile, Kenneth leads a pages' strike when he finds out what a big bonus Jack got when the company is supposed to be cutting corners.

Writer Eric Gurian's second onscreen role is as 30 Rockefeller Plaza Stranger, while writer Matt  Hubbard's only one is as a Payroll Guy.  Andrew Goldfarb would return as a nameless Page.  Frank Anello is typecast as a member of the Production Staff, and Sue is again played by Sue Galloway.  Lonny Ross makes his penultimate appearance as Josh Girard, with the script by Fey lampshading the neglect of this character and having him quit.

30 Rock: Mamma Mia

30 Rock: Mamma Mia
NBC
May 7, 2009
Sitcom
DVD
B

In this Ron-Weiner-written episode, Pete and Liz are suspicious of Tracy's supposed "love child" Donald (Michael Benjamin Washington in his first of two appearances), while Jack, at Liz's urging, finds out whose love child he is.  And meanwhile, Liz resents Jenna taking credit for the "dealbreaker" catchphrase, and the photo shoot shows that Jenna has learned from the Maxim debacle of the first season.  The title here is, as is made clear, a reference to the stageplay and film of that name, although in this case two of the three potential dads are immediately ruled out, leaving Jack to deal with the fact that his biological father is a liberal, secular humanist agnostic History professor from Vermont, perfectly cast with Alan Alda.

I'm omitting Friedlander and Powell from the overcrowded tags.  Frank Anello works hard at playing a member of the Production Staff.  And while Alda is of course going to walk away with the "Most Shows In My Collection" Award (if there was ever any doubt), the Longevity award will likely see Stuart Margolin pushing Ann B. Davis out of the way, since his role as Jack's potential-if-not-injured-in-the-war dad Fred comes a good 41 years after his first That Girl cameo.

30 Rock: The Natural Order

30 Rock: The Natural Order
NBC
April 30, 2009
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Liz scolds Tracy, so he brings in a gibbon as his stand-in, behaves professionally, and makes some muddled point about how Liz also wants special treatment because she doesn't like changing the water tank and going to strip clubs.  (Both of these done funnier on Ellen.)  Meanwhile, Jack deals with the 35th anniversary of his father's final abandonment, and finds out that the first abandonment coincided with Jack's conception! 

Dancer #1 Semar Ghebremichael would later be Dancer #2.  Frank Anello gives under-appreciated contributions as a member of the Production Staff.

30 Rock: Retreat to Move Forward

If Liz danced in every episode, I'd totally be OK with that.

30 Rock: Retreat to Move Forward
NBC
January 22, 2009
Sitcom
DVD
B-

The three threads in this episode written by Tami Sagher:

• Jack begs Liz to accompany him to a Six Sigma retreat but ditches her, yet she's still willing to humiliate herself to cover up his humiliation because she's a good friend;
• Jenna and Frank hook up but he's more embarrassed by it than she is;
• And Kenneth tries to get Tracy to look after himself because of diabetes.

Not the most memorable or funniest episode of the season, but there are definitely some good moments.  

Buscemi, who had already done a guest shot on the show, is the director here, for the first of two times.  Brian Berrebbi, Dave here, would be Reynolds later in the year.  Sue Galloway isn't listed as IMDB but she definitely appears as Sue.  Frank Anello, I should note, is a member of the Production Staff.  And welcome to the Obama era, we won't be here long.

30 Rock: The Collection

30 Rock: The Collection
NBC
October 18, 2007
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Matt Hubbard wrote this story where Jack hires a private investigator, Lenny Wosniak (Steve Buscemi, who'd play the role five times more), to find skeletons in his own closet, which leads to Jack reluctantly giving his cookie jar collection to Kenneth.  Meanwhile Kenneth tries to help Jenna regain the weight she's losing, which leads to her licking his face enough that he thinks that they'll now have to get married.  And Angie (Sherri Shepherd) tries to control too much of not only Tracy but of TGS, so Liz has to deal with her.

Frank Anello is a member of the, uh huh, Production Staff.  A lot of the regulars are absent, even Frank Rossitano.