30 Rock: Black Tie

30 Rock: Black Tie
NBC
February 1, 2007
Sitcom
DVD
B

This is boosted by not only a funny script by Tina Fey and Kay Cannon (her first of forty-six), but two memorable cameos: Isabella Rossellini as Jack's ex-wife, Bianca, and the incomparable Paul Reubens as Prince Gerhardt, the feeble and inbred last member of the Hapsburg line.  Jack asks Liz on a not-date to Gerhardt's birthday party and he runs into Bianca, whom he's still hung up on.  Jenna crashes the party and has a "romance" with the prince.  Meanwhile, Pete has a chance to commit adultery, with Tracy and Kenneth as devil and angel, not on Pete's shoulders but in bathroom windows.  I would've gone with a B+, since this is arguably the best episode so far, but one, I don't like Tracy pressuring Pete about adultery (even if this would end up being ironic in retrospect) and  two, the episode does take awhile to get going.

Will Forte is Tomas here but would be Paul when he came back a few years later.  The writer characters are mostly absent on this episode, and we don't really see any behind-the-scenes stuff, unless you count Pete working late at his desk.