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This is the kind of episode of 30 Rock that defines what the show is widely considered to be: smart and funny. That usually means bad ratings. Not tonight. Because tonight they released THE OPRAH.
Lemon is off to Chicago to report for jury duty. She never changed her address because she wanted to vote in a swing state, making me wonder: “If this is a 1984 flashback episode why doesn’t Lemon’s shirt have shoulder pads?" Jack bumps her up to first class and gives her pills that will relax her on the plane. [And possibly cause sleep crimes and sexual nightmares. - Zach] His story thread begins rather inventively, with a potential Olympic scandal. NBC created fake sporting events in order for more Americans to win medals, thereby boosting network ratings, and now the silver medalist in tetherball is threatening to go to the public and reveal the entire charade. The final story thread is all politics. Jenna and Tracy are suing and countersuing each other over her compensation for doing a voice in his porno video game. Lemon convinces them to sit down with a HR mediator, but it quickly devolves into what sounds like dumb people trying to argue for Hillary vs. Obama during the Democratic primary. Jenna thinks it’s easier being black and Tracy thinks it’s easier being a white woman, and they both cite Adrian Brody planting an unsolicited kiss on Halle Berry during the Oscars as their example.
Kenneth, who went to the Beijing Olympics if you remember, is a big fan of the tetherball medalist, and so he's shocked and disillusioned when he discovers that the tetherball competition was just a big sham. Jack tells him that white men (well, rich white men) have to make tough decisions, and Kenneth lectures Jack that “there’s always a right thing to do. Just sometimes it’s not the easy thing to do.” Jack takes his words to heart and spends the entire rest of the episode trying to convince Kenneth that the world is too complicated for just a right and a wrong answer (of course sometimes the answer is easy). He wants to test Kenneth, who reminds Jack that he never strays off the path of righteousness even when it comes to stealing cable at home. It doesn’t deter Jack, who tests Kenneth by trapping him in an elevator with a gun then convincing him that in order to survive one of the other people on board has to die for sake of oxygen. Kenneth tries to shoot himself instead, but the gun is unloaded. Jack gives up: "Kenneth Parcel, you are one Latina fantastica." He offers his admiration of Kenneth’s forthrightness, but when Kenneth gets home from work, there is a brand new flat screen television waiting in his living room, courtesy of ol' Jack Attack. Behind the television is an illegal cable wire just waiting to be plugged in. The day, Kenneth tells Jack "he’s glad he’s not a white man" meaning he watched a whole lot of illegal cable last night.
Lemon worms her way out of jury duty by showing up to the courtroom dressed as Princess Leia. On her way back on the plane, both Tracy and Jenna call her to complain about how unfairly the other is treating them because of race/gender. Tracy yells in the phone: "You can’t fix this, Liz Lemon! It’s about race. It’s about being a woman. It’s about money. It’s about being on TV, and no one understands all that!" Enter OPRAH. She sits down to Lemon, who is so crazy on pills she unloads on Oprah all of the problems in her life, including the bad blood between Jenna and Tracy. OPRAH rather graciously agrees to stop by 30 Rock while she’s in New York to help her handle the dispute. So Lemon gathers Jenna and Tracy in Jack’s office when she gets back, and they wait for OPRAH. OPRAH arrives, only it’s not OPRAH. It’s a 12-year-old middle school student named Pam. PAM! She is black but she’s also a tween and definitely not the queen of television. She’s also funny, and for all the Oprah -- excuse me -- OPRAH hoopla, it’s her that steals the show. Suffice it to say, those pills Lemon was popping played a few tricks on her mind.
The episode was very good, and it proved that all this talk lately about 30 Rock having too many guest stars doesn’t really hold water when you let them actually tell the story. Even when the guest spot is clearly just for a ratings grab like Oprah, or Seinfeld last year, the jokes stay funny and on-time. Plus, this isn’t soap-opera comedy; its absurdist lampooning at its finest. So lay off, pre-backlash.
Discuss this episode in our forums, then see if TGS is really a good place to work. And check back Tuesday for the full weecap!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!I was meant to recap this episode. "Believe in the Stars" was in the stars for me not only because I once worked at 30 Rock (the building) but because I also worked at O, The Oprah magazine. It's like the last two years of my resume gave birth to a television episode. Little inside baseball for you, much better cafeteria at the Oprah gig but not a lot of Lorne Michaels sightings. It's a tradeoff.
External. The offices of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Internal. Jonathan leaves Jack's office. Jack is on the phone TCB'ing as Lemon enters. Lemon is off to Chicago to report for jury duty. She never changed her address because she wanted to vote in a swing state, making me wonder: "if this is a 1984 flashback episode why doesn't Lemon's shirt have shoulder pads?" Jack bumps her up to first class and gives her pills that will relax her on the plane. The pills' only side effects are "may cause dizziness, sexual nightmares and sleep crime." Jonathan announces a call to Jack's office from Tyler Brody. "Tyler Brody, the dude from the Olympics?" asks Lemon. Jack shuts the door and lets her in on a tiny secret about the Olympics. NBC made up fake sporting events and let Americans win medals thereby boosting network ratings. Now the silver medalist in tetherball is threatening to go to the public and reveal the entire charade.
Jenna stops Lemon in the hallway without so much as a hello. She's kinda pissed because Tracy is kinda countersuing her for defamation of character after she sued him for lack of compensation for his uncanny valley video game. Lemon refuses to take sides even when Tracy joins them in the hallway to defend himself. She tells them she's calling human resources to set up a mediation between the two. Tracy leaves and Jenna points out to Lemon that while she's gotten zero payment for her work Tracy bought Grizz and DotCom a boat. Lemon concedes that she's being taken advantage of because of her gender. "Men think they can get away with anything. It's like when Adrian Brody kissed Halle Berry at the Oscars." Lemon full on empathizes with her, citing how women have it tougher in this country than anyone else. "It turns out we can't be President," she laments. I'm guessing this episode was written sometime in the summer, oh say when Obama clinched the Democratic nomination. It's the only overt reference to the Primary race between Clinton and Obama and it sets up a "who suffered more" storyline angle between Jenna and Tracy.
Fake Olympic medalist Tyler Brody paces inside of Jack's office. He's on the verge of spilling the beans about the rigged tetherball event to the news. "There's no such thing as Olympic tetherball or synchronized running or octuples tennis. It's all a lie." He storms out but is stopped by Kenneth in the doorway. He tells Kenneth the sad truth that there is no such thing as Olympic tetherball and Kenneth is left utterly deflated. Jonathan yanks him away. Jack coaxes Tyler from his perch of self-righteousness. "You can be the voice of Knight Rider. The film." "I'm listening," is his sly reply.
Tracy and Jenna sit in mediation with a very warm and somewhat rotund fellow. He asks them to explain the dispute. "Tracy thinks he can treat me unfairly because I'm a woman." "What? Please. We are here because white folks think they can do whatever they want to do to black folks. It's like when Adrian Brody kissed Halle Berry at the Oscars." The argument escalates. The only thing that could make this fight more contentious is if one of them was also Jewish. Wait. The rapidly frustrated mediator has something to say: "Do you have any idea how hard it is to be an overweight transgender in this country?" Meeting dismissed.
Lemon is completely delirious from the pills Jack gave her for the plane. She snores in first class. Back at 30 Rock Jack finds Kenneth sulking over the horrible revelation about Tyler Brody. "Believe in the stars. It's like it doesn't even mean anything any more." Jack attempts to talk him down by explaining that life is never as simple as right vs. wrong but Kenneth is unmoved. He always does the right thing even when it's hard.
Tracy and Jenna have it out in front of Toofer, Grizz, and DotCom. They make an important decision. The only way to resolve which group has it harder -- black men or white women -- they must pull some ole' Freaky Friday shiznit and trade places. You know, like . The movie? Except that was a white guy black guy thing. This is more ... how do I put this? Romantic. Of course I'm somewhat biased in this debate seeing as I am a black male. I'm pretty convinced black men have it harder in this country and I always try to tell white women that right before I ask them out on dates. Some people call that "playing the race card" but I think it's more "going on too many Nerve.com dates." Jenna and Tracy decide to trade places for a day to the objection of everyone. DotCom is especially concerned: "Where is Liz Lemon?"
Actually she's dressed as Princess Lela for jury duty. "I don't think it's fair for me to be on a jury because I can read thoughts." "Dismissed." Lemon takes the flight back from Chicago to New York and enjoys a glass of wine and a Jack pill before takeoff. Jack calls her to let her know that Tyler Brody will be appearing on The Girlie Show starring Tracy Jordan in order to prevent him from alerting the media to the tetherball scandal. He's also still hung up on Kenneth's sudden loss of respect for him. Then Tracy and Jenna both call her separately to complain about how unfairly the other is treating them because of race/gender. Tracy yells in the phone: "You can't fix this, Liz Lemon! It's about race. It's about being a woman. It's about money. It's about being on TV, and no one understands all that." Enter OPRAH. She sits down to Lemon. Lemon smells her. She tries to make small talk with OPRAH but is so crazy on pills she unloads all of her problems within a second, including the bad blood between Jenna and Tracy. OPRAH tells her to control her decisions. She's letting Jenna and Tracy fill the role of children in her life as she seeks adoption. Then OPRAH offers her salt-water taffy from Rhode Island. It's one of her favorite things along with sweater capes and calypso music. I'm writing all this down, making my own O List and checking it twice. OPRAH offers to help Lemon with her Tracy/Jenna problem by coming into 30 Rock and settling the dispute. "You are the best person in the whole world," says Lemon. Then she falls asleep in OPRAH'S lap.
Jack has Kenneth up to his office for a lecture on civics. Jack deals in moral shades of grey but for Kenneth it's purely black and white. He does the right thing even when tempted to do the opposite. For instance, Kenneth can't afford cable but refuses to steal it even though he loves TV and there is an illegal cable wire hanging by his window.
Tracy is dressed up like a white chick, and when I say white chick I mean White Chick. Toofer and Frank look terrified as Tracy asks about doing brunch and blurts out the non sequitur "lipstick." Lemon arrives back at 30 Rock and talks to Jack who is still upset about Kenneth's unrealistic moral fortitude. She is shocked when she sees Tracy walk up dressed as a white girl with a monster's claw. Lemon asks the best setup question of the season thus far: "Wait, what is Jenna doing?" CUT TO: Jenna bopping down the hallway wearing a suit, black hair wig, and blackface while singing "Ease on Down the Road" from The Wiz. All three run over to her and Jack complains to Lemon "this is worse than when you wore your shorts to work." Toofer objects strenuously and Jenna defends herself by pointing out the social experiment she and Tracy are engaged in. Who has it harder in America, women or black men? Jack points out no one has it tougher than white men because they make the tough calls and live with the consequences. "Men like me have to clean up messes like this." Lemon corrects him. He doesn't. Someone else is coming to fix all of their problems. THE OPRAH!
Jack tests Kenneth by trapping him in an elevator with a group of people and a gun. He tricks Kenneth into believing that in order to survive, one of the other people on board has to die for the sake of oxygen. Kenneth tries to shoot himself instead. The gun is unloaded. Jack gives up: "Kenneth Parcel, you are one Latina fantastica." He offers his admiration of Kenneth's forthrightness but when Kenneth gets home from work there is a brand new flat screen television waiting in his living room, courtesy of ole Jack attack. Behind the television is an illegal cable wire just waiting to be plugged in. The day Kenneth tells Jack "he's glad he's not a white man," the implication being that Kenneth watched a whole lot of Lost on G4 last night.
Lemon regales the women at the office with tales about OPRAH, like how she smells like rosewater and warm laundry. Jenna asks "did she touch you?" and Lemon extends her hand. Jenna kneels before it like an Elf being knighted in a Tolkien musical. Lemon gathers Jenna and Tracy in Jack's office when she gets back and they wait for OPRAH. OPRAH arrives, only it's not OPRAH. It's a twelve-year-old middle school student named Pam. PAM! She is black but she's also a tween and definitely not the queen of television. She's also funny and for all the Oprah -- excuse me -- OPRAH hoopla it's her who steals the show. Suffice it to say those pills Lemon was popping played a few tricks on her mind. She flashes back to the plane ride and remembers Oprah saying questionable things like "My boyfriend's in ninth grade." Still, despite her not being OPRAH Pam does surprisingly well in mediating Tracy and Jenna's conflict. They both hold up their "emotion drawings" for a critique. Jack shows up but forgives Lemon the screw up. "In-flight medication is how I met M. Night Shyamalan until it turned out to be," and he nudges in the direction of Jonathan. Jenna and Tracy announce they've worked out their differences and Pam makes a grand exit. "Good job Lemon," says Jack. "Good job Pam. Really." "Be a white man, take credit," is his retort. In so many ways Baldwin is the rock of this show. You better be wrong about him Goldenfiddle.
Joke-quake!!!
Valid point
Jenna: "How can you defame someone who's been arrested in three different Chuck E. Cheeses?"
Madge of the Varicose
Lemon: "No one has it harder in this country today than women. It turns out we can't be President. We can't be network news anchors. Madonna's arms look crazy."
Which one do you kick a ball?
Kenneth: Was any of it real, Mr. Donaghy? Beer-pong? Jazzercise? Women's soccer?
I thought Marlon Brando was dead
Jack: "How would you like to host a Deal or No Deal in the privacy of your own home?"
Silent Comedy Award
Synchronized running
"White people stole..." sort of like "Black people used to..."
Tracy: "White people stole jazz, rock n' roll, Will Smith, and heart disease."
A repost if I may
Jenna: "Liz says these days in America it's harder to be a White woman than a Black man."
Tracy: "Liz Lemon. That chick is dumb."
One of those ruby red states they yapped about on MSNBC
Tracy: "Do you know it's still illegal to be Black in Arizona?"
I'll assume it if you'll just give me the opportunity
Jenna: "Women are the oppressed ones and it's even harder being a beautiful woman. Everyone assumes I don't try in bed. It's discrimination."
I'm pretty sure that's somebody
Jack: "We're talking about nobody. A hillbilly nobody who doesn't know anything."
Biker shorts perhaps?
Lemon: "I saw the show about following a fear and it inspired me to wear shorts to work. It didn't go great."
Where did you go to camp, a Japanese horror remake?
Lemon: "One time in summer camp I kissed a girl on a dare but then she drowned."
Ah, the Palin wing of the party platform
Kenneth: "I don't believe in hypothetical situations, Mr. Donaghy. That's like lying to your brain."
Ah, the Palin wing of the party platform pt. deux
Jack: "Kenneth, I'm familiar with the 10 Commandments."
Kenneth: "Ten?"
How the Democrats won the election
Kenneth: "I am also a white man--"
Jack: "No you are not. Socio-economically speaking you are more like an inner-city Latina."
No-prize Award
There was some strong competition this week what with Jenna and Tracy's stereotype send-ups and Lemon's Oprah confessional but I give this week's no-prize to Kenneth for making me still laugh at one of the oldest jokes in the book.
Jack: "There isn't always a right answer. Say you're in a lifeboat..."