30 rock
the rural juror (10/21)

Continuing tonight is the Golden Globe- and Emmy award-winning sitcom following the fortunes of long-suffering TV comedy writer Liz Lemon (Tina Fey). In this episode, Jenna and Liz fall out when Liz reveals that she hates Jenna’s new movie, ‘The Rural Juror’; and, when Jack encourages a broke Tracy to endorse a product, Tracy invents the ‘Tracy Jordan Meat Machine’.

Today is a big day for Jenna: she has been booked to appear on ‘The View’ chat show to talk about her new movie, ‘The Rural Juror’. Liz and Pete are delighted for her, but are secretly panicked about the fact that they still have no idea what the movie is called – they can never understand Jenna when she mentions the movie’s tongue-twisting name. Jenna tells Liz that the film is an adaptation of a novel by Kevin Grisham. “John’s brother,” she explains, happily. “Did you know that before Kevin was a novelist he worked in a recycling centre?”

The title conundrum is solved when Jenna hands Liz a preview tape of the film –complete with label. Unfortunately, when Liz watches the film she realises that she absolutely hates it – especially the fact that Jenna is playing a Southern lawyer named Constance Justice. What can she do? “Same thing I’ve always done when she’s in something terrible,” Liz tells Pete. “Think of one thing nice to say and then hug her.”

Alas, Liz’s tried-and-tested technique fails her when Jenna realises that her friend did not like the film and demands an honest answer. “It’s kind of a train wreck,” admits Liz, warily. Jenna takes this criticism as an indication that Liz is jealous of her fame, and the two end up launching into a full-on slanging match in front of the crew –much to the delight of Frank, who videos the spat on his phone. But when Jack calls Jenna and Liz both up to his office to explain themselves, his intervention has surprising results.

Also this week, Tracy comes to Jack and informs him that he has run out of cash and needs $100,000. Jack’s solution to Tracy’s money crisis is to encourage the star to lend his name to a product, so Tracy invents the Tracy Jordan Meat Machine – a grill that eliminates the need for bread in a sandwich by melding three types of meat together: “Meat is the new bread!” Jack decides to market the machine and asks Tracy’s doctor, Leo Spaceman (pronounced Spa-CHAY-man) for a medical endorsement. “I’ve always said: Humans need more animal blood!” says Spaceman, agreeing to endorse the machine.

“It keeps the spine straight.” However, when the machines turn out to be defective, burning Kenneth while he tries to make a ‘food ball’, Tracy ends up having a crisis of conscience and tells Jack that he does not feel comfortable lending his name to a product that sends out “burning jets of grease”. But all is not lost: the enterprising Jack soon comes up with a solution involving Whoopi Goldberg (gueststarring as herself), a re-brand and a country with lax safety laws...