30 Rock Season 4 features Liz making a disastrous attempt to be a talk-show host, and searching for her soulmate and possibly finding him. Jack finds love with two different women, and ultimately chooses one. NBC gets a new parent company, and TGS gets a new cast member. Read on for the full 30 Rock Season 4 episode guide.
Episode 1
Title: “Season 4”
Original Airdate: October 15, 2009
Jack decides that TGS needs to be more in touch with the common people, so he orders Liz and Pete to recruit a new cast member, which they unsuccessfully try to do without alerting anyone on the staff. Jenna decides to get a country-music makeover, and Tracy tries to reconnect with average people, to disastrous results. When NBC cuts overtime for pages, Kenneth leads a strike, and even though Jack brings in inept private detective Lenny (Steve Buscemi) to break it up, Kenneth triumphs, and gets Jack to sign a paper declaring himself a liar.
Episode 2
Title: “Into the Crevasse”
Original Airdate: October 22, 2009
Liz’s Dealbreakers book creates problems for everyone’s relationships, including Tracy’s marriage, and he crashes at her place in retaliation. To resolve things, Jack gives Tracy Liz’s life rights, and Liz lets Tracy make a porn based on her life to appease him. Jack has to testify in front of a government committee run by Devon Banks, who promises to take down the whole company, and when Jack can’t come up with a great idea to save the GE microwave division, he agrees to a government bailout, making Devon the equivalent of his boss.
Episode 3
Title: “Stone Mountain”
Original Airdate: October 29, 2009
Jack and Liz head to Kenneth’s hometown of Stone Mountain, Georgia, to find a new cast member who will appeal to the “real” America. Jack wants to hire a ventriloquist (guest star Jeff Dunham), but ends up seeing that he’s no more “real” than anyone else. Jenna decides to buddy up to the writers so that she continues to get the best material when the new cast member shows up. At first they’re annoyed, but then they befriend her so they can get invited to a great Halloween party with hot girls. Tracy worries that he’s going to die because of the “rule of three” about celebrity deaths.
Episode 4
Title: “Audition Day”
Original Airdate: November 5, 2009
Liz and Pete try to rig the audition process so that their hand-picked choice will end up getting the job. Liz can’t resist Dot-Com’s requests to audition, though, and soon there are tons of people to compete with Liz and Pete’s chosen new cast member. It turns out that the jealous Jenna is actually right about the guy being crazy, though, and Liz panics that Jack will insist he be hired. Instead, Jack, who has become ostracized because he’s been infected with bedbugs, wants Liz to hire a street performer who treats Jack with compassion.
Episode 5
Title: “The Problem Solvers”
Original Airdate: November 12, 2009
Danny, the street performer Jack insisted on hiring, starts working at TGS, and shakes things up by refusing Kenneth’s help. Jack offers Liz a talk show based on her book Dealbreakers. Jenna and Tracy advise Liz to take other meetings before committing to the show with Jack, and it escalates into an all-out battle between Jack and Liz. Jack tries to hire Padma Lakshmi (guest-starring as herself) as the host of Dealbreakers, and Liz meets with a rival producer. But in the end they realize they only want to do business with each other.
Episode 6
Title: “Sun Tea”
Original Airdate: November 19, 2009
Liz’s apartment building is converting to condos, and she has to figure out whether to buy her place or move out. She tries to drive out her neighbor so she can buy his apartment and create her dream home, but nothing she does can make him leave until she adopts Frank’s habit of peeing in jars. Don Geiss’ son is suing Kathy Geiss for control of the company, and it makes Jack question whether he wants to have children. Kenneth gets assigned to reduce TGS’ carbon footprint.
Episode 7
Title: “Dealbreakers Talk Show No. 0001”
Original Airdate: December 3, 2009
Liz gets ready to tape the first episode of her Dealbreakers talk show, and Devon Banks threatens to pull NBC’s bailout funding if the show fails. Liz falls apart with insecurities over being on camera, and fails to get past the opening titles of the show. Left in charge while Liz is taping her show, Frank adopts all of Liz’s attitudes and mannerisms. Tracy tries to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony to prove to his wife that he’s responsible so she’ll agree to have another child, a daughter.
Episode 8
Title: “Secret Santa”
Original Airdate: December 10, 2009
Jack reconnects with his high-school crush (guest star Julianne Moore) online, and spends time with her when she visits New York, even though she’s married. Liz agonizes over what to get Jack for Christmas and finally figures out a way to get him more time with his crush. Pete tries to use new TGS co-star Danny to upstage Jenna, but Danny sabotages his own performance to keep from making trouble. Frank, Toofer and Lutz make up a fake religion to get out of Kenneth’s Secret Santa program, but end up getting their comeuppance and restoring Kenneth’s faith.
Episode 9
Title: “Klaus and Greta”
Original Airdate: January 14, 2010
Jack freaks out about a drunken message he left for high-school crush Nancy on New Year’s Eve, and recruits Kenneth to help him break into her house while she’s on vacation and erase it. They do, but in the process Jack realizes he and Nancy are meant to be together. Jenna starts a fake relationship with actor James Franco (playing himself) for publicity purposes, but thanks to Liz’s urging she breaks it off so she can find something real. Liz’s gay cousin comes to stay with her and forces her to go dancing, where she meets and hooks up with James Franco.
