The male employees of TGS are angry with Liz for damage done to their personal relationships due to a relationship-advice book Liz wrote. Tracy's wife (Sherri Shepherd) kicks him out of the house over things she reads in Liz's book, and he moves in with Liz as revenge. Jack faces Congressional hearings on the microwave industry and is surprised to find Devon Banks (Will Arnett) has begun working for the government. Devon threatens to ruin Jack's career and Jack acts quickly to try and redesign the microwave to make the division profitable again.
Jack and Liz travel to Kenneth's home town of Stone Mountain, Georgia to find a new actor for TGS who will appeal to middle America. Jenna, worried that her position on the show will be lessened with the casting of a new actor, decides to befriend the TGS writers to ensure her continued success. Meanwhile, after two other celebrities die Tracy fears for his life when he hears that celebrities tend to die in groups of three.
Jack puts Kenneth in charge of reducing TGS's carbon footprint during NBC's annual Green Week. Meanwhile, Liz learns her apartment is becoming a condo and tries to kick out the resident above her (Nate Corddry) after deciding that she wants to buy her apartment and the one above her, and turn them into her dream home. Jack and Tracy reevaluate fatherhood with two deciding to get a vasectomy operation. The episode includes a special guest appearance of former Vice President Al Gore playing himself.
Liz starts her first day on her Dealbreakers talk show and appoints Frank as the head writer, who enjoys his new found status until he starts to act and dress more like Liz. Meanwhile, Tracy tries to achieve an EGOT by winning the four awards: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony with a song that gets featured on a television show, then a movie based on the television show, and then a musical based on that movie
Liz tries to find the best gift for Jack on Christmas until Jack decides to exchange gifts that do not cost money. At the same time, Jack reconnects with a Nancy Donovan (Julianne Moore), a former classmate and a woman Jack had feeling for while in high school. Pete tries to get back at Jenna for not contributing money to the cleaning ladies by giving Danny Jenna's solo, but instead Danny decides to share it with her. Meanwhile, the TGS writers come up with a fake religion to try and get out of Kenneth's "Secret Santa".
After a crazy New Year's Eve party, Jack leaves a message on Nancy's answering machine and decides to break into her home in Massachusetts with Kenneth, while she is on vacation. Jenna starts a fraudulent romance with actor James Franco in order to dismiss rumors that he is in love with a Japanese body pillow. Meanwhile, Liz accidentally outs her cousin (Jeffrey Self) at her New Year's Eve party, so he decides to live with her in New York.
Liz and Danny start up a romantic relationship much to Jack's dismay, and decides to break them apart so he can spend more time with Danny. Jenna auditions for a role on Gossip Girl as a college freshman when actually she is auditioning for the role of her mother. Meanwhile, so he can gain more learning experience with women, Tracy decides to add TGS writer Sue to his entourage.
Liz decides to take TGS on a road trip to Miami to cure their winter madness but instead Jack decides to take them to Boston so he can visit Nancy. While on the trip, the TGS staff blame Liz for all their problems so she comes up with a fake person named "Dale Snitterman" and tells them it is all his fault for all their misfortunes, unbeknownst to Liz that he is real and the crew decide to pay him a visit.
Frank moves in with Liz temporarily, and they both decide to make a pact to give up their bad habits: Frank's smoking and Liz's eating junk food. Meanwhile, Jenna's mother Verna (Jan Hooks) come to visit, and Jenna turns to Jack for help until she is convinced that her mother has changed, but Jack is convinced that Verna has an ulterior motive for making amends with Jenna.
Liz schedules a dentist appointment on Valentine's Day to avoid feeling lonely on the holiday. Meanwhile, Jack meets a successful and attractive CNBC host named Avery Jessup (Elizabeth Banks) and ponders the possibility of having a relationship with her. Elsewhere, Jenna is frustrated when her stalker (Horatio Sanz) loses interest in her.
Liz finds a mysterious number in her phone under the name "Future Husband" and decides to learn who he is. Jack learns that General Electric CEO Don Geiss (Rip Torn) has died and that NBC is about to be bought by cable company Kabletown. Tracy stages a one-man show in an attempt to win a Tony award as part of his EGOT quest.
Liz attempts to avoid Wesley Snipes (Michael Sheen) after they fail to hit it off n their first encounter in "Future Husband". Jack deals with the impending purchase of NBC by Kabletown. Tracy does damage control after his former nanny publishes a tell-all book about Tracy.
"In one scene from "Don Geiss, America and Hope", Liz discovers that Wesley's full name is Wesley Snipes, and Wesley says that he deserves the "Wesley Snipes" name than actor Wesley Snipes (pictured)."
In an August 2010 interview, Carlock noted that it is great for him and the writing staff to "do our version of 'ripped from the headlines,' which a lot of comedies don't get to do", in regards to the Comcast purchase of NBC Universal. In discussion of Kabletown just being a pornography distributor, Carlock said "We don't begin to imagine that the good people in Kabletown are chiefly purveyors of pornography, but we need to make some sort of observation about our fictional company."[1]
[Julianne Moore] A caucasian red haired woman in her late 40s, wears a black v-neck dress and looks directly to the camera and slightly smiles. She stands in front of a white background with black font.
In a July 2010 interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Hamm revealed that the reason he accepted the role of Drew was to work with Fey, and also to get the chance to "cut loose and be weird."[2]
[Matt Damon] A caucasian male in his late-30s with dark hair, looks into the camera. He wears a black suit and white shirt with a black bow-tie.
Jack comes across a line item that states that TGS star Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) wants a producer credit as a result of her contract obligations that were not set to start until the fifth season of TGS, however, Jack says that this title is driving up the budget.
Tina Fey told Access Hollywood the following month, when asked about working with Damon, "I knew from Saturday Night Live that Matt was funny and had great timing and really understood how to play stuff and so when he expressed interest in being on the show, we were all really excited."[3]
Damon currently has a role on the NBC situation comedy show 30 Rock as Carol, an airline pilot and love interest for Tina Fey's character Liz Lemon. In October 2010, he collaborated with Invictus director Clint Eastwood in the drama fantasy Hereafter. In the feature, Damon plays a man who is able to communicate with the dead.
Later, Liz tells Jack to ask Congress where they placed the USA Network as she has been looking for the comedy-drama Monk "for, like, three months." Monk was a former show on the USA Network, in which it led the network to increasing popularity, and the series ended in December 2009.
Gyllenhaal's performance won mixed reviews from critics. Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal, who was not impressed with her performance, said that Gyllenhaal was wrongly cast in Three Sisters "as she was in Uncle Vanya, and for much the same reason: Her demeanor and voice are so obviously contemporary as to jolt the eye and ear."[5] Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote "Ms. Gyllenhaal ... presents Masha as a woman for whom laughter and tears have become indistinguishable. She's steeped in a sort of resigned, existential gallows humor, yet there's enough youthful sensuality in her still to make her connect instinctively with Mr. Sarsgaard's deftly underplayed Vershinin."[18]
In another interview, Carlock was asked if the program would continue to make reference of the real-life acquisition of NBC Universal by cable company Comcast—which occurred in November 2009—to which Carlock replied that their version of the acquisition was in the "works".[6] Carlock noted that the NBC-Comcast deal would not change the show's "reason for existence", explaining that since the merger has occurred it has made things "even funnier" for the staff writers. "To us it's great, we've been able to do our version of 'ripped from the headlines,' which a lot of comedies don't get to do."[7] In "Mrs. Donaghy", Jack—an NBC executive—has been renting out space on TGS's floor in the 30 Rock building as budget cuts are needed in order for the sale of NBC to the fictional network company Kabletown to go through.
^Pennington, Gail (2010-07-25). "'Mad' man - St. Louis native Jon Hamm takes new fame in stride, insists stardom is nice and he is boring". St. Louis Post-Dispatch: D1.
