The Rural Juror (30 Rock episode)

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“The Rural Juror”
30 Rock episode
Jenna
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 10
Written by	Matt Hubbard
Directed by	Beth McCarthy
Production no.	110
Original airdate	January 11, 2007
Episode chronology
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"The Baby Show"	"The Head and the Hair"
Episode chronology

"The Rural Juror" is the tenth episode in the situation comedy series 30 Rock. It first aired in the U.S. on January 11, 2007, attracting 6.1 million viewers;^[1] it ranked third in its timeslot (behind a new episode of Grey's Anatomy and a CSI rerun),^[2] and 65th in Nielsen's prime-time television rankings for the week.^[1]

1 Synopsis
2 The Rural Juror
3 Trivia
4 Cast
5 References

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Jenna anticipates the opening of her new (and awkwardly-titled) film The Rural Juror. The film, based on a "Grisham novel" (one written by John Grisham's brother Kevin) has been a lifelong dream for her. She wants Liz to give her a honest opinion on the film.

Liz sees the film in private, and her reaction is not that good. She hesitates to tell Jenna (and via flashbacks) we find out Liz's opinions about Jenna's past performances are a cover-up. When Jenna finds out that Liz never really liked the film after sensing her body language, the two start fighting and accusing each other of not being truthful, resulting in the two not speaking to each other.

Meanwhile, ignoring Liz's warnings, Josh managed to break into Liz's office to nab the film and staff see the results. However, much to Liz's shock, the staff like the film.

As the argument between Liz and Jenna heats up, Jack intervenes and takes them into the office, where he convinces them to work things out. The intervention works and the two ladies make up.

Prior to the Liz/Jenna melee, Jack was on the phone with Maureen Dowd when Tracy shows up asking him for $100,000. Jack tells him that he has a better idea: use his celebrity to endorse a product. After Tracy agrees to it, he comes up with one..."The Tracy Jordan Meat Machine." Armed with a "endorsement" from Leo and hook-ups from Jack, the product is finally ready for sale via infomercial. But a series of product defects prompts Tracy to tell Jack that this idea to sell the product should be scrapped. However, Jack finds a way to make it work: by rebranding it as a Whoopi Goldberg-endorsed product targeted for Ukraine.

[edit] The Rural Juror

The episode is named after the title of a film-within-the-show. The fictional film stars Jenna as a Southern lawyer named "Constance Justice"; Tony Hawk plays a blind man. According to Jenna in "Tracy Does Conan", the film opens "December 18 in selected theatres." The film's title is used comedically as such a horrible title because it is difficult to pronounce, being called "The Roaring Junior" and "Oral Germ Whore". Even Maroney refers to it as "The Rurr Jurr" and the clapper loader insults the title before a take. The clapperboard shown in "Tracy Does Conan" lists C. Affleck (possibly Casey Affleck) as the director.

The film's limited release and the fact that Maroney is implied to have a failing acting career suggest that "The Rural Juror" is a low-budget film, likely an art film or an independent film. However, the entire writing staff, with the exception of Liz Lemon, claimed to enjoy the film and think Jenna was good in it. Jenna was upset by Liz's negative opinion of the film, but Liz eventually realized that she had wanted the film to be bad and apologized.

Due to Jenna's mispronunciation of the title, the staff of TGS were not able to learn the film's title until they were given a screener copy of the movie with the title on it.

[edit] Trivia

This episode sheds a light on Jenna and Liz's long time relationship, which dates back to 1996 when they were a team at Second City.
The GE corporate map that Jack shows Tracy features the logos of NBC and co-owned sisters Bravo! and Telemundo.
The "Tracy Jordan Meat Machine"--its infomercial, its tendency to harm its operator, and marketing it in another country after discovering how dangerous it is--is evocative of the Cornballer from the series Arrested Development. Whoopi Goldberg's appearance, earlier in the episode, in an exercise video makes her appearance in the Ukranian infomercial similar to Richard Simmons' appearance in the Mexican Cornballer infomerical.
This episode refers to Christmas coming up and it's stated that The Rural Juror will be released next week, despite the film being stated to have a December 18 release in "Tracy Does Conan." This refers to the fact that this episode would have aired on December 14 had two previous episodes not been bumped forward.
This is the second episode to feature the recurring joke of Jack Donaghy dating successful women who are powerful figures in the media. In this episode, he alludes to dating New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.