Tonight on NBC one of the wittiest television shows of the past decade is coming to an end. "30 Rock" revived the career of Alec Baldwin and made Tina Fey a star outside of her "Saturday Night Live" bubble. It made audiences fall in love with the off-beat Liz Lemon and her quest to find fulfillment outside of her work life. In preparation for the impending hole in the Thursday night television schedule, I've compiled a list of the top episodes of "30 Rock." Watch them today to refresh your memory about how awesome the past seven seasons have been, or save them to watch later when you're missing the quirky repartee between Jack and Liz.
"Tracy Does Conan"
Jenna is bumped from her appearance on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and Tracy is brought in to fill her place. Jenna is furious and threatens to leave the show, but Liz has bigger things on her plate. As the taping draws closer, Tracy acts stranger and stranger and he begins to imagine that he is seeing an orb-like "blue dude" played by Rachel Dratch. In an attempt for Tracy to seem sane while on the show Liz and her producer Pete spend the entire day running around trying to control the situation.
"MILF Island"
Jack's reality show "MILF Island" about "25 super-hot moms, 50 eighth-grade boys and no rules" is a huge success, but he can't enjoy it. He begins a smoke-out of the "TGS with Tracy Jordan" staff after an unflattering piece about him appears in The New York Post, as he is convinced that one of the writers was behind the story. Later on we discover that it was actually Liz who accidentally spoke to the reporter, but mirroring the competitive winner of Jack's hit show, she refuses to tell Jack.
"Sandwich Day"
Liz's perfect ex-boyfriend Floyd returns to New York on business, and Liz attempts to show him how fantastic she's become since he left. At the same time, the Teamsters who work on "TGS" treat the staff to their annual gift of a mythical sandwich from an unknown deli. It's the episode that gave us such incredible lines as "I wolfed my Teamster sub for you," and "I'll cut your faces so bad you'll have a chin. ... You'll all have chins," which is obviously a reference to Kenneth the Page's lack of a prominent chin.
"The Bubble"
Liz notices that her new handsome doctor boyfriend Drew is floating through life without any difficulty. His handsomeness has put him in a bubble where people neglect to tell him when he's doing something incorrectly or when he can't have something immediately. Liz tries to break him out of the bubble, but Drew doesn't take it lightly. Meanwhile, Jack deals with Tracy Jordan's choice not to return to "TGS" after his video game becomes a major success. He uses Kenneth as a pawn to get him back.
"Sun Tea"
When Liz learns that the apartment building she's living in is being turned into condos, she has to purchase her apartment or face a rent increase. Realizing that she owns no property, she decided to purchase both her apartment and the one above for the family she might have in the future. All she has to do is drive the resident upstairs out of his apartment. Going beyond the boundary of human decency, she does so and rejoices in the end.
"Queen of Jordan"
A parody of another NBCUniversal hit, the "Real Housewives" franchise, this follows Tracy's wife Angie and her bizarre posse of friends like D'Fwan, Portia and Randi. Despite not fitting in with the rest of the series, it's a timely criticism of the state of television today.
This is by no means a complete list of the best of the best, but it's enough to induce the nostalgia of seasons past and get you ready for tonight's celebration of this incredible show.
Contact Courtney Cox at ccox3@nd.edu
