30 rock
tracy does conan (7/21)

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 tonight’s episode, Tracy is scheduled to appear on Conan O’Brien’s show but starts reacting strangely to some new medication, with the result that Liz’s resolution to break up with Dennis has to take a back seat.

As usual, Liz has already suffered quite a lot of hassle before she even gets to work at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Her loser boyfriend Dennis is irritating her and she has suffered the indignation of receiving romance advice from a stranger. Telling the nurse at a blood donation clinic that she wants to break up with Dennis, Liz is unimpressed to hear the sympathetic reply: “I don’t know, maybe it’s time to settle?”

Regardless, Liz’s love life is the least of her worries today. When she finally arrives at work, she finds Jenna in floods of tears. It emerges that Jack has elected to pull Jenna’s scheduled appearance on ‘Late Night with Conan O’Brien’ and replace her with Tracy, reasoning that the eccentric actor is a bigger star. “I don’t do these things just to drive you crazy,” Jack insists when Liz questions his decision. “I do them for the good of the show.”

The problem is that Tracy’s last appearance on the show climaxed with him announcing that he was a “stabbing robot” before rampaging across the stage towards his host. Conan O’Brien (here playing himself) is now understandably nervous about having Tracy back. “I don’t know, Jack,” says Conan warily. “He’s kind of a loose cannon – I like to surround myself with people who don’t try to stab me.”

Aware that he needs to step up his game a little, Tracy wants to ensure that he comes across well on the show as he sees it as a chance to redeem himself with mainstream America. But during a writers’ meeting to come up with ideas, Tracy starts acting strangely, complaining about nonexistent phones ringing and shouting at a “blue dude” in the corner. When Liz arrives at the meeting, Frank informs her that Tracy has gone “old-school bananas” –but in a very different way from his usual oddness: “Like Conan-should-beafraid different.”

Liz soon realises that Frank is right when she finds Tracy ‘on the phone’ to his own shoe. She calls the spaced-out star’s doctor, who admits to putting his patient on some “wildly experimental treatments”. “He should be fine as long as you keep him away from bright lights, loud music and crowds,” he says, promising to send a prescription to calm the star down. Liz dispatches Kenneth to pick up the prescription, but with the clock ticking relentlessly towards the beginning of the show, will the drugs reach Tracy in time to avoid another on-air meltdown?

Also this week, Liz’s attempts to sort out the Tracy crisis are constantly interrupted by Jack’s requests for a ‘zinger’ with which to open a charity dinner speech; Pete is offended when Jack asks him to wear a wig for a week and Jenna arrives at a dramatic decision.