Jack the Writer (30 Rock episode)

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“Jack the Writer”
30 Rock episode
Kenneth gophers an illegal fish for Tracy.
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 4
Written by	Robert Carlock
Directed by	Gail Mancuso
Production no.	104
Original airdate	November 1, 2006
Episode chronology
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Episode chronology

"Jack the Writer", the fourth episode of 30 Rock, aired on November 1, 2006 in the U.S. It attracted 4.61 million viewers, making it 85th in Nielsen's prime-time television rankings.^[1]

1 Synopsis
2 Trivia
3 Guest starring
4 References

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

While the staff prepares to write sketches for TGS Starring Tracy Jordan, Liz finds that her attempts to keep everybody at bay is about to be distracted.

First up there's the assistant Cerie, whose sexual appearance has everyone's attention, and we do mean everyone! It appears that every time she shows up in outfits that bears explanation, the guys put everything down just to watch her move. This is not sitting well with Liz despite the guys like having her around for their sexual pleasure (after all they are grown men).

The second distraction is about to come from Jack, who decides to stop by and announces that he wants to be part of their inner circle. Jack explains that his reason for this was based on a program he went through at GE called Six Sigma^[2] , which encourages bosses to interact with their staff. He then tells them that he will be sitting in the writers' room every day as an observer. As days passed the staff find themselves seeing Jack as more of an interference than an observer as he gives them ideas for upcoming sketches that they see as less than flattering. This causes a major frustration for the staff, who, being the cowards that they are, volunteer Liz to talk to Jack, and this after taking up space in her office. So Liz does go to Jack's office, where he tell her that likes the interaction. But when she finally tells him that he is no longer welcome, Jack feels let down and tells Liz that he accepts their decision.

But that decision may have cost her in more ways than one. First Liz gets the cold shoulder by Jack, who refused to talk to her by pretending to be away when he was actually in his office. The second came from his secretary, who told her that Jack wants her to apologize by making it look like she was going to. As she does go to his office and does just that, Liz and Jack finally get off the right foot even though Jack thinks Liz and the staff doesn't like him, so he offers her tickets to a Chamillionaire concert as a friendly gesture, since Liz is a fan of the Houston rapper.

Having settled that situation, Liz also tries to correct another as she tries to talk to Cerie about her attire, despite the objections from the guys. As Liz attempts to convince her to wear something conservative by acting all motherly, Cerie in turn tells Liz that she would look great in something sexy herself. We see her later on walking down the hallway with a sexy dress that reads Dirty Diva, but it officially turns all the guys off. It appears that Cerie turned the tables on Liz with that outfit.

Turning the tables would also provide Jack a third reason to get back at Liz. While the staff enjoy their pizza, Jack shows off the staff to a couple of guests that he was entertaining. And when the guys mention that they would love to go outside to the same roof that is used for The Today Show, Liz tells them that she can make it happen now that she and Jack are friendly. But when she went to Jack to ask he acted more like the boss than a friend and then told her that the two guests were his bosses from GE and then criticized her and her staff. So much for that friendship. Even as he apologized to Liz, she didn't see it that way and told him that the friendship was over anyway.

Meanwhile Kenneth soon learns that working for Tracy may be more than he expected. First Tracy made him go to Yankee Stadium for nachos...And he does just that! Then he tells Kenneth to go pick up an important package, which turns out to be an illegal fish that Tracy wanted to put in his aquarium. But the biggest surprise that Tracy delegates to Kenneth is to get something for Mrs. Jordan, and later on in a fancy restaurant we see Kenneth giving her a gift as Mrs. Jordan looks on as if she is embarrassed that Tracy bailed out on her.

[edit] Trivia

This marks the second episode not to feature Jane Krakowski (Jenna Maroney).
Chamillionaire's "Grown & Sexy" is played twice in the episode.
The scene where Liz walking down the hall featured The Isley Brothers' song "Who's That Lady," but the closed captioning mistakes it as a Tom Jones recording.
This episode premiered a day earlier on CTV on October 31, 2006.
This episode has a couple of sly jabs at Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, first where someone is overheard talking about "airing the bloopers from 'United Nations'" the show that NBS just picked up in Studio 60. The second is when Liz and Pete are walking around the set then stop and ask one another why they are walking in a circle, they then call it a walk and talk.
When Liz heads up to Jack's office to apologize to him, Pete calls her "Captain Needa." Captain Needa (Michael Culver) was a character in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back who Darth Vader killed after he apologized for losing the Millennium Falcon.
In the seventh "Ask Tina" segment from NBC's 30 Rock website, Tina Fey revealed that Alec Baldwin improvised much of the scene where he asks Liz (Fey) whether she likes him and he comments on her "shark's eyes."