TVSquad

(S04E03) "I met JJ Abrams once, and I don't know what this means, but he said that the island was just Hurley's dream." - Jenna

In a typical 30 Rock episode, not all of the plots always work. While the A plot will be great, B and C will be lame. If A and B are great, then C will be lame. If A and C are great, B will be lame. Sometimes A is great and B is fair, but C will be really unnecessary and forced. Sometimes there will just be an A and it's great, and there will be dashes of B and C. I don't know where I'm going with this because I was terrible at algebra.

Oh yeah: tonight A, B, and C all clicked, and that made for a very good 30 Rock.

So ... will people from "real America" be angered at this episode because it depicted them to be just as mean, dirty, and insulting as "non-real America?" Or will they just laugh that people are alike all over the country and there's only one America, like Liz was saying (in her tortured way)? I bet there will be some that will say Tina Fey and company, in their attempt to portray everyone in America as the same, still managed to "insult" real America (in this case, the South).

I like how the show has a plot that is running throughout this whole season. I guess you could say season one had that too, with the show getting used to Tracy being hired and Jenna fighting for the spotlight on the show and all that. But this season's plot, finding another cast member to be a regular on TGS, makes a lot of sense, and Jack and Liz going to Kenneth's hometown to find "real" comics made sense, too. Though I wonder why Kenneth didn't go with them to show them around.

Of course, this was a Halloween episode, too, so we got Frank, Lutz (very funny), and Toofer being friendly to Jenna just so they can go to her gay friends' Halloween party where there will be hot chicks. Is this a real thing? I remember a Will & Grace episode that said gays throw the best Halloween parties.

More thoughts:

- The show did some stunt casting a year or so ago that was rather ill-advised, but when you have them in small cameos like tonight's episode, it's OK. Betty White was great in her short scene, and Jimmy Fallon ... well, he was on the show, too. His acting was horrible, but it was a nice tie-in with NBC, and he and Tracy Morgan got to act together again (and there was a nice jab at the quality of his guests). So Tracy was going to kill both Betty White and Jimmy Fallon? Good to know. (I thought Brian Williams was going to be in this episode, but maybe he's on a later episode when the auditions start in NYC.)

- One of the many things this show does well is refer to pop culture. I know, I know, that's not exactly a profound statement, but having a subplot that revolves around the "rule of three" when it comes to celebrity deaths is a clever choice, especially since 30 Rock fans are the type of fans who know and follow that sort of thing. But if you think about it, three celebrities die every single week, it's just that they're usually not major.

- I think we've had enough "Liz farting" jokes to last us the rest of the series. I don't want to think of Fey that way.

- First the show gave us the funcooker, now we have the chuckle hut.

- Jenna mentioned being "pushed aside" at her sister's funeral. Is this the same sister who urinated in her eye?

- For the record, like Liz, I didn't get Jack's joke to her at the beginning either.

Quotes:

"I asked you to find an actor from middle America, a real person. You're not going to find him in the People's Gaypublic of Drugafornia." - Jack, about San Francisco

"The American public doesn't want your elitist, east coast, alternative, intellectual, left wing..." - Jack
"Jack, just say Jewish, this is taking forever." - Liz

"At least he died doing what he loved most: blogging on the Huffington Post." - Kenneth, about a celebrity dying

"Mr. Donaghy, I wasn't sure if you were going to participate in this year's pumpkin carving contest or like last year I should go jump up my own ass." - Kenneth

"When the Parcells first came to America, they lived in a town called Sexcriminalboat." - Kenneth

"The usual, I suppose. Two hobos sharing a bean. Lady airline pilots." - Kenneth, on what he finds funny

"The folks who are teaching our kids, running our prisons, growing our cigarettes." - Jack, on small town America

"Good God, Lemon, your breath. When did you find time to eat a diaper you found on the beach?" - Jack

"And no making fun of me for using outdated pop culture references. Are we cowabunga on this?" - Jenna

"I believe that all anyone really wants in this life is to sit in peace and eat a sandwich." - Liz
"How surprising that your world view is food-based." - Jack

"Keep refreshing. Maybe Andy Dick has died in the last 20 seconds." - Tracy, to Kenneth on the computer

"Oh, don't look at me like I'm a football game." - Jenna, to her gay friend

"That's three! Tell my wife I went to Philadelphia on business!" - Tracy

"Down here we call it Sexcriminalboat." - Travis, about Manhattan

[Watch clips and episodes of 30 Rock and other shows at SlashControl.]