TVSquad

The ongoing plot this season on 30 Rock is the search for a new cast member for TGS. A certain NBC personality guest stars on tonight's episode to audition for Liz, which brings back memories of when she auditioned for commercials years earlier.

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

(S04E01) "We'll trick those race-car loving wide-loads into watching your lefty homoerotic propaganda hour yet!" - Jack

One of the many, many reasons 30 Rock is one of my favorite shows is because it's well aware of its own world. For example, one of the running jokes tonight was about Josh (Lonny Ross). I spent most of the last two seasons wondering where Josh was. He'd make a cameo here and there, but he's been pretty much missing since the first season. Liz and Jack talked about this tonight when Jack revealed that TGS needed a new cast member and Liz wondered about Josh's popularity on the show. Jack said "Oh, that's right, Josh. I forgot about that guy. You think that's a good sign?"

For the record, Josh was indeed in this episode, for a few seconds. He quit and then attempted to tip over the table when he found out a new person was coming on to the show.

(S03E20) "It's the biggest regret of my life, Lemon. And I once made love to Kathy Hilton." - Jack, about not confronting his dad

Oh, come on. There's no way that Liz Lemon would be that incompetent when it comes to replacing a water bottle. It was like she was a mixture of Steve Urkel and Barney Fife, dropping the bottle, getting herself soaked. I mean, she could have at least known that you take the empty jug off before you attempt to put the new one on. That whole scene was odd. It went on a lot longer and was more slapstick-oriented than most 30 Rock gags.

I've seen this promo half a dozen times and I didn't realize that NBC calls Tina Fey "Tina" and not by her character named "Liz."

Now, I'm not posting this because I think NBC made a mistake (I'm sure they actually did mean to say Tina), nor do I think it's important. I'm posting it because it illustrates how things have changed, how the lines between a character and an actor are now a lot more blurred than they used to be. Or maybe NBC just isn't secure in calling Tina by her character name because there's not much recognition, but everyone knows and loves Tina Fey so they say "Tina?" Regardless, can you imagine an X-Files promo ten years ago where they called David Duchovny's character "David" instead of "Mulder?" Or a Golden Girls promo twenty years ago where they called Bea Arthur "Bea" instead of "Dorothy?"

(S03E01) "It's not at all erotic and fun, like when men do it to women." - Jack, about being sexually harassed by Kathy

Jason asked earlier today if Governor Sarah Palin would help 30 Rock finally get out of the ratings doldrums and become the hit it deserves to be. I don't know if that will happen. It seems more like a weird little show that just so happens to be on a big network on a big night with big stars (I think NBC will stick with the show no matter what the ratings are, at least for a few more seasons), but fans of great comedy should definitely tune in. It's the best comedy on TV right now, not just Emmy-wise but also funny-wise, and tonight's third season opener shows that it's still running on all cylinders.

Last week we mentioned that a lot of people were wondering where the season premiere of 30 Rock was? Fans thought that NBC might want to take advantage of Tina Fey's Emmy wins/Sarah Palin work and air the first episode of the new season a littler earlier than October 30, but that's not going to happen. But the network has put it online a week early, and we have it after the jump!

I'll have a full review next Thursday night, but let's just say you won't be disappointed. The show is just like it has always been: funny, unpredictable, and really clever. We even find out how a few plot points from the past actually turned out. The guest star in the first episode is Will and Grace's Megan Mullally, who plays an adoption agency rep who has to check out Liz's workplace to see if she's a suitable candidate to raise a child. Will Arnett also appears, as Jack tries to get his job back.

(S02E15) "I'm just gonna be a kick-ass single mom. Like Erin Brokovich, or Sarah Connor." - Liz

30 Rock fans looking for laughs, plot twists, and a cliffhanger in the finale are probably happy. You got all that, plus a guest star (more than one, actually) that I didn't even know was going to be in the episode. And if you're one of the people who was wondering "what the heck does the episode title 'Cooter' even mean?," well, he's the secret to that (and Tina Fey has been using the term for a while now).

But some 30 Rock fans - I would go out on a limb and say most of you - weren't happy to find out who the father of Liz's maybe-baby might be.

(S02E11) "When you Google 'class A moron', my name comes up first now...so step aside Randy Quaid." - Jack

Is this a happy day or what? No more writers strike, no more hiatus, no more repeats, no more Thursday nights spent crying, wrapped up in a blanket on the couch, eating tons of chocolate, depressed that new NBC Thursday comedies are nowhere on the horizon. Sorry, I may have just told you a little too much information there.

Anyway, 30 Rock is back! It's almost as if this was the season opener, but it's actually the 11th episode of the season (four more new episodes to follow this season), and it features a call back to a joke in an episode from earlier this season.

(S02E09) "That's not a Christmas tree. It's a way to lure tourists into the basement for $20 salads." - Kenneth, about the Rockefeller Center tree

I'm a sucker for Christmas episodes. The plots, the lessons learned, the music. And it doesn't matter if it's a corny, traditional type of holiday episode or a modern, irreverent look at the holiday. This 30 Rock episode is more the latter, but it doesn't mean that there isn't some crazy traditional aspects to it too. These characters - even the ones who get on each others nerves - care about each other in their own way. When Jenna sings "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" and you see a montage of people arguing and Guatemalan kids destroying their Christmas gifts, that's a nice mix of the old and the odd, and the capper of having Jack and his pain in the ass mom wish each other a Merry Christmas just fits so perfectly.

On the heels of the Saturday Night Live stage show, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York hosted a live reading by the cast of 30 Rock, with ticket proceeds going to show staffers who are out of work due to the writers strike.

According to accounts of the show -- most notably, from Rachel Sklar at the Huffington Post and Dan Hopper at the Best Week Ever blog -- every major member of the cast, including Alec Baldwin, was at the reading. An upcoming episode was read for the audience, and Tina Fey asked that the audience members not divulge the plot of that episode because "this show is like Heroes and we don't want to ruin it for everyone else."

(S02E06) "We Parcells are neither wealthy nor circumcised, but we are proud!" - Kenneth, trying to find money to replace Jack's missing pants

This show is less than a half hour long but I have a harder time reviewing it than I do two-hour season finales. How do you review a show that has 25 awesome one liners and a bunch of great comedy bits and scenes without simply repeating everything that just happened to people who have already seen the episode? How do you even pick one funny quote from those 25 lines and put it at the top of the review? The one above might be the funniest, it might not be, who knows. It just stands out to me.

(S02E05) "Saving The Environment While Maintaining Profitability." - Greenzo's slogan for NBC's Green Week

I really don't know how I feel about all of these guest stars this season. On the one hand, they've all worked. It was natural to have Jerry Seinfeld on the season opener (even if he was on just to plug that damn movie) because he was an old NBC star. Carrie Fisher worked because she wasn't hyping anything and is a great character actress. And now in this episode we have both David Schwimmer and Al Gore. They were OK too, mostly because the show around them was so strong, but I can really see this show tipping too far over the line with needless celeb cameos. I really hope that doesn't happen.

(S02E04) Notice I don't have a quote above like I usually do? More on that after the jump.

This week we discover what happens when one of the NBC page jackets is damaged, why Tracy shouldn't be involved in dogfighting, and what might happen to Liz in 20 or 30 years if she doesn't start saving money.

(S02E03) "I could never pay an English-speaking woman that little - they'd starve!" - Jack, about his household staff

This year many of us here at TV Squad have been featuring our favorite quotes at the start of each review. Most of the time it's pretty easy to pick out the best line (on a show like Bionic Woman they stand out), but it's not the easiest thing to do on a comedy like 30 Rock. There's always at least six laugh out loud lines and about 5 lines that aren't hysterical but are bizarrely clever. That was true of tonight's episode too, and I hope you agree the above comment was one of the better ones.

(S02E01) Seinfeld: "What if I just buy NBC and turn it into the biggest Lane Bryant in midtown?"
Jack: "Ha! You're going to buy NBC? Oh, right, like you have $4 million just lying around..."

The above bit of dialogue is one of the many reasons I love this show. They could have gone for the easy joke, which would have been to play off of the vast wealth that Jerry Seinfeld has and just say a figure like $4 billion or $20 billion or whatever real amount it would take to buy NBC. But they go one step further, cleverly saying $4 million, thereby insulting NBC, the very network this show runs on. That's great stuff. No wonder NBC renewed this show. Besides being a new classic, then get to look self-deprecating while having what amounts to a half hour infomercial for the network every Thursday night!