The Head and the Hair (30 Rock episode)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“The Head and the Hair”
30 Rock episode
"The Head," Liz, Jenna and "The Hair."
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 11
Written by	Tina Fey & John Riggi
Directed by	Gail Mancuso
Production no.	113
Original airdate	January 18, 2007
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"The Rural Juror"	"Black Tie"
Episode chronology

"The Head and the Hair" is the eleventh episode of the situation comedy series 30 Rock, which aired January 18, 2007.

1 Synopsis
2 Wikipedia reference
3 "Gold Case"
4 Trivia
5 References
6 Guest starring
7 Featuring

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Intrigued by two MSNBC guys - the cerebral nerd "The Head" and the gorgeous hunk "The Hair" - they keep running into inside 30 Rock, Liz and Jenna decide to get serious about their dating lives, but find themselves unexpectedly switching their typical roles when Liz admits she's clicking with - and falling for - "The Hair." However, after an excellent night out in which she felt comfortable with a guy, her dream date with "The Hair" turns into a nightmare when she discovers a picture of Liz's great-aunt in his swanky loft and learns that they're third cousins, thus ending the date for good.

Meanwhile, Jack and Kenneth also switch office roles for "Bottoms Up" day, with Jack donning the page jacket and Kenneth spending a day as a corporate bigwig. Jack would learn first hand what it is like in Kenneth's shoes and discovers that Kenneth likes his job regardless of what people say about him. But when Kenneth makes a speech about what he likes about being a page because he likes seeing how television really works, Jack sees lightbulbs go off when Kenneth mentioned a project called "Gold Case" (A Deal or No Deal with real gold bricks in briefcases). The idea is sold to network brass and Kenneth gets a raise and an alarm clock.

Additionally, Tracy realizes that his autobiography is due to a publisher tomorrow, and he convinces Frank and Toofer to write it for him. But after hours of writing the stuff for Tracy (even using Wikipedia), Frank and Toofer finishes the draft...until Tracy mentions that Random House was never interested in the project.

As for the game "Gold Case" (hosted by John McEnroe), it appears that the game itself is way too easy to win, since the models can be seen straining to support the heavy briefcases with the gold bricks (prompting Kenneth to say "Oh...gold's real heavy, isn't it?"), resulting in Jack shutting down the production as McEnroe walks off cussing about the idiot who came up the show in the first place.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Wikipedia reference

It's mentioned in this episode that, according to Wikipedia, Tracy was discovered doing stand-up comedy at the Apollo Theater in 1984, but Tracy says he has no memory of this. At the time this episode aired, Wikipedia's page on the fictional Tracy Jordan did indeed state that, despite it not being mentioned in any episode. The contributor who added it, "Jordanfan," only made two edits, both of them to the Tracy Jordan page on December 24, 2006.

This could have been vandalism that wasn't caught prior to the episode being aired, in which case the reference was an in-joke of sorts. However, the episode was likely written and filmed well before December 24 (according to Tina Fey on the "Ask Tina" segment of NBC's 30 Rock website, ten episodes had been filmed as of November 16), suggesting the reference may have been added by someone working on the show after the episode was filmed, but before it aired.

This was the first time Wikipedia had been used as a reference in a situation comedy.

[edit] "Gold Case"

Gold Case is a fictional game show, hosted by John McEnroe. It was created by Kenneth "Kenneth the Page" Potsdown, and is designed to be a cross between "Deal or No Deal" and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire".

The setting is simple: Ten models hold identical briefcases, one of them containing $1 Million in gold. The contestant must choose the case they think holds the gold. The show was cancelled (even before it aired) after several contestants tried their luck, when it was discovered that it was incredibly easy. The contestant could always immediately determine which case held the gold, due to the model's visible difficulty in holding the heavy briefcase.

Due to every contestant immediately picking the correct briefcase, it is not clear what would happen if the contestant chose incorrectly. If the gold or non-gold content of the briefcase were always revealed immediately upon the contestant making his or her selection, and the game ended at that point, each round of the game would last only a few minutes, like those that were shown.

[edit] Trivia

Liz reminded everyone in the staff office that "today" was January 17, 2007. Since January 17 fell on a Wednesday in 2007, this episode would have aired on that date instead of January 18, since 30 Rock itself used to air on Wednesdays.
At the end of the show, Kenneth's Gold Case show is a failure, because contestants can easily spot which case contains a million dollars worth of gold since the model has visible difficulty holding the case. In real life, a million dollars is equivalent to a little over one hundred and ten pounds of gold.^[1]
In this episode, Tracy Jordan says he was living with his mother in her house in 1979. This contradicts the pilot, in which he said he grew up in an apartment, where he was living in foster care.
Kenneth is cleaning graffiti off a wall in Brian Williams's office that says "KAT... COUR... SU..." It presumable says, "Katie Couric Sucks."
Peter Hermann is the third Law & Order: SVU actor to appear on the show.
Explicit or indirect NBC/MSNBC show references: Heroes, Hardball, NBC Nightly News
The episode marks another Star Wars reference, specifically the Death Star's tractor beam and the Millennium Falcon.
The "show about midgets" Liz mentions is a possible reference to the TLC reality series Little People, Big World.
The "Moonvest" character introduced in this episode inspired the name of 30 Rock fan site MOONVEST.COM.