30 rock
corporate crush (19/21);
cleveland (20/21)

Continuing tonight is the Golden Globe- and Emmy award-winning sitcom set behind the scenes of a late-night comedy sketch show. In the first episode of tonight’s double bill, Jack takes an unhealthy interest in Liz’s relationship with Floyd. In the second episode, Floyd asks Liz to move to Cleveland with him, while Tracy fears his career is being ruined by a group of powerful AfricanAmericans led by Bill Cosby.

Today, Liz manages to surprise and alarm her colleagues by arriving at work in a good mood. Her relationship with lawyer Floyd (‘Saturday Night Live’ regular Jason Sudeikis) is going exceptionally well. “He just gets me,” she says. Elsewhere, Jack is less sanguine, having received a visit from his boss, Don Geiss (Rip Torn, ‘The Larry Sanders Show’, ‘Men in Black’). Jack is still recovering from the fiasco of his Rockefeller Centre fireworks show, which was abandoned after being mistaken for a terrorist attack (see last week’s episode, ‘Fireworks’). “I just want you to know we all still have a lot of faith in you, Jack,” Geiss tells him. “But I’m taking the microwave division away from you.” Geiss also suggests that Jack consider getting married again. “Everyone in this division is married except you,” he points out.

Depressed by Geiss’s visit, Jack retreats to Christie’s auction rooms and ponders buying an equestrian painting from oddball auctioneer Phoebe (Emily Mortimer, ‘Match Point’). He summons Liz to join him and accuses her of leaving him in the lurch over the fireworks debacle. When he hears that she has been spending time with Floyd, he suggests having dinner with them. “I’d like to meet the man that made Liz Lemon shirk her responsibilities,” he says.

Over dinner, Floyd flatters Jack by talking about his book, “Jack Attack: The Art of Aggression in Business”. Before long, Jack and Floyd are spending every free moment together, prompting Liz to remark, “It’s kind of like you two are dating.” But when Jack starts to rule their personal lives, Liz is forced to put her foot down. “You can’t use Floyd to make you feel better about yourself!” she tells him.

Also in this episode, Tracy struggles to convince Don Geiss to finance his feature film based on the life of Thomas Jefferson. And Jack appears to take Geiss’s advice to heart when he rashly proposes marriage to Phoebe.

In tonight’s second episode, Floyd’s hopes of a promotion at NBC are dashed when his rival turns out to be both disabled and black. “You’re not gonna beat that,” Jack tells him. Floyd ponders moving back to his hometown of Cleveland, and manages to convince Liz to join him on a visit. Cleveland proves to a clean and friendly place far removed from the hassles of New York – but is Liz ready to start a new life?

Meanwhile, Jack is excited about his forthcoming nuptials with Phoebe and encourages Liz to get to know her better. Unfortunately, Liz finds the humourless Phoebe hard work and grows suspicious of her intentions when she sees her dining with another man. However, when she finally warns Jack not to marry her, he misreads her motives. “Phoebe was right,” he says. “You are infatuated with me!”

Also in this episode, Tracy’s plan for a series of comeback shows is derailed when Bill Cosby calls him “an embarrassment to African Americans” in an interview. With the negative publicity that ensues, Tracy suspects he is being targeted by the “Black Crusaders” –a cabal of influential African Americans headed by Cosby and Oprah Winfrey, who have the power to snuff out the careers of people they do not like. Tracy’s response is to quit the show and flee New York – but is his imagination running away with him?