30 Rock: Emanuelle Goes to Dinosaur Land

30 Rock: Emanuelle Goes to Dinosaur Land
NBC
May 13, 2010
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Matt Hubbard wrote this episode which is an unofficial first half of a two-parter.  (Well, it does end "To be continued.")  We see the beginning of the day that Liz has to be part of three wedding parties, starting with Floyd's wedding in a Catholic Church.  Jack and Nancy finally slept together the previous night, so he decides to tell her, during Liz's speech, about Avery.  Meanwhile, Dot Com and Kenneth convince Tracy to do a movie that may get him the Oscar in his EGOT goal.

Kristin McGee returns as Kaitlin and Seth Kirschner is back as Shawn.  John Anderson again plays Astronaut Mike Dexter.  Tuxedo Gala Guest Ali Khan would later be an Airline Passenger.  Frank Anello is consistent as a member of the Production Staff.  I'm omitting Judah Friedlander and Jane Krakowski from the very overcrowded tags.

30 Rock: Winter Madness

30 Rock: Winter Madness
NBC
January 21, 2010
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This is Vali Chandrasekaran's first of six 30 Rock scripts, and Tom Ceraulo's second of five.  It has the TGS cast and crew going to Boston, when Liz and Pete had hoped for Miami, simply so that Jack will have an excuse to see Nancy, who's ambivalent about both selling her house and getting a divorce.  I enjoyed the thread of Tracy learning about Boston history more than I expected.  (And, yes, that's Kevin Meaney as John Hancock.)

Sue Galloway is Sue and Cheyenne Jackson is Danny.

30 Rock: Secret Santa

30 Rock: Secret Santa
NBC
December 10, 2009
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Fey wrote this episode which introduces the marvelous Julianne Moore as Jack's old high school crush Nancy Donovan.  Baldwin and Moore have great chemistry together, and Moore is a hoot here with her Boston accent and down-to-earth attitude, so I'm very glad they brought her back.  (I'm less glad with what happened to her character, but that's down the road, and we're only one-third into this season.)  The other threads, with Liz trying to find the right gift for Jack, Pete trying to use the surprisingly great singer Danny (Cheyenne Jackson) for revenge against Jenna, and Tracy making the writers feel guilty for lying to Kenneth, don't work nearly as well, but this episode is definitely a step up from the previous ones.

Chris Fischer would again play a Policeman.  Subhas Ramsaywack returns as Subhas.  This is the last time that Teddy Coluca would be the Stage Manager.  It's also the 1100th B- I've given, as well as the show that closes out the Oughts.

30 Rock: Audition Day

Goodbye, Josh.  Sorry
things didn't work out.

30 Rock: Audition Day
NBC
November 5, 2009
Sitcom
DVD
B

Matt Hubbard wrote this story that has some trends that would be troublesome in the next two or three seasons but are still reasonably under control here, with enough wit and intelligence coming through.  Liz and Pete have finally selected a new cast member, but they have to stack the auditions for Jack, using "the Hornberger System."  Unfortunately, the audition is thrown wide open by Jack, who has a different perspective on life now that he's suffering from bedbugs.  Ironically, when Pete literally pulls in a guy off the street-- a robot mime-- that's who Jack likes best.  (The performer is played by a different actor than later, and as Liz observes, "I hope he can speak English.")  As for those trends, the already established Tracy and Jenna Act Like Vain Morons team is obvious here, where they feel threatened by the new cast person, especially since Jenna has baggage with Liz's choice, so they go out and try to find more talented people.  And Jack being humbled works OK here, but it would be an abused motif starting in Season Five.  Not to mention that Jack and Pete making fun of Liz's age feels odd when they're both older than her.

Crew Guy Joseph D'Onofrio previously had played Dave.  Old Janitor Stewart Steinberg would return five more times.  Angela Grovey is Kolandra here and would be Portia in 2011.  Brian Williams returns and is one of the people auditioning, as is Marceline Hugot as Kathy Geiss.

30 Rock: Señor Macho Solo

30 Rock: Señor Macho Solo
NBC
January 8, 2009
Sitcom
DVD
B

This episode written by Ron Weiner introduces the gorgeous and very funny Salma Hayek as Colleen's nurse and Jack's new love interest, Elisa Padriera, who'd appear six times more.  Jack is cynical about lasting love, to the point that he encourages Tracy, who's wasting his money very frivolously (see attached photo), to sign a post-nup with Angie (Sherri Shepherd).  And Liz's baby-craziness leads her to meet and then date a little person (Peter Dinklage, later of Game of Thrones).

Frank Anello obviously plays part of the Production Staff.  Nancy O'Dell would return later that year as herself, while her co-host Billy Bush wouldn't be back till 2012.

30 Rock: Reunion

30 Rock: Reunion
NBC
December 4, 2008
Sitcom
DVD
B

Matt Hubbard wrote this story where Jack ends up accompanying Liz to her 20-year high school reunion.  He's mistaken for a popular classmate, despite the age difference, but then "rich 50 is middle-class 38."  Liz, however, finds out that rather being the unpopular nerd she remembers, she was verbally abusive, which is believable given some of the times she's insulted her staff.  Meanwhile, Tracy and Jenna resent that Kenneth's cliched jokes in the elevator are more entertaining to the other riders than their own attempts to entertain.  And the episode kicks off with Don Geiss regaining consciousness and deciding to not yet retire.

Adam Smith, Jr. again plays the Propmaster.  Hotel Clerk Jeff Hiller would later play Stewart.  And Marceline Hugot appears briefly as Kathy Geiss.

30 Rock: Somebody to Love

30 Rock: Somebody to Love
NBC
November 15, 2007
Sitcom
DVD
B

In this Cannon & Fey story, Jack meets the title character, C.C., who turns out to be Congresswoman Celeste Cunningham (Edie Falco in the first of four appearances).  Unfortunately, she is, as the picture shows, a Democrat from Vermont, but Jack doesn't discover this till after their night of "doing it."  They are oppositely-attracted and Tracy urges Jack to go after her.  Meanwhile, Liz suspects her Middle Eastern neighbor, Raheem Haddad (Fred Armisen, who would return in three roles in one 2012 episode), of being a terrorist, despite the common sense of her still-roomie Pete.  And Kenneth does a bunch of humiliating dares in order to raise money to replace Jack's lost trousers.  Note that one of the funny MSNBC chyrons refers to the writer's strike, which would shorten the season for this and The Big Bang Theory.

30 Rock: Fireworks

30 Rock: Fireworks
NBC
April 5, 2007
Sitcom
DVD
B+

This episode introduces Will Arnett as one of my favorite recurring characters, Devon Banks.  But that's not the only reason why this is the first great episode of 30 Rock.  

• Arnett is awesome though, from his double-entendrous exchanges with his rival Jack to his flirtation with Kenneth, he is fun to watch;
• Banks come up with the 15-second sitcom, and we get to see an entire webisode;
• Jack believes that television shouldn't be smaller but should embrace the spectacle, so he offers live fireworks, not a good idea in midtown Manhattan only five and a half years after 9/11;
• For once the Tracy plot is good, with Tray finding out (from Dr. Spaceman, but no one questions this) that he's descended from Thomas Jefferson, who's played by Baldwin in Tracy's dream;
• Pete is staying at Liz's while his wife is mad at him, which leads to such funny moments as him dressing like Liz one morning;
• Liz pursues Floyd into an AA meeting and claims to be an alcoholic, but she does confess when she doesn't have to;
• And Tootsie jokes!

Frank Anello and Sue Galloway return as respectively a member of the Production Staff and Sue.  Matt Dickinson, who's Matt here, would return as Jack's Assistant (possibly the same character).  Dave Finkel, who plays the Husband in the Makin' It Happen episode, had previously played the 2nd AD and wrote two episodes, including this one (with Brett Baer), while Kay Cannon, who plays the Wife, would have two more roles and wrote the "Black Tie" episode and would do eleven more.  Al Roker would return as himself, but Maury Povich would not.  And Jenna is absent.

30 Rock: The Rural Juror

30 Rock: The Rural Juror
NBC
January 11, 2007
Sitcom
DVD
B-

After a couple episodes where the title of Jenna's movie was unclear, Liz and the others finally learn how to pronounce it.  Unfortunately, Liz doesn't like it and we see both Liz and Jenna's flashbacks on Liz's past reactions to Jenna's career.  Meanwhile, Tracy comes up with a meat machine, endorsed by Dr. Spaceman.  Note that Tracy is relatively broke despite fourteen successful movies, not for the last time.

Executive #1 Bob Wiltfong was last seen by us on The Daily Show.  Executive #2 Matt Oberg would be Edward in the last season.  This time Rachel Dratch is Barbara Walters, mangling the movie title further.  And Whoopi Goldberg plays herself.  This is the first of 17 30 Rock scripts by Matt Hubbard and the first of 23 episodes directed by Beth McCarthy.