Wanted: Viewers for 30 Rock ... It's back and it's worth it

By TIM GOODMAN
TELEVISION WRITER

The opening scene in the Season 4 premiere episode of television's funniest series, 30 Rock, finds Alec Baldwin's character, Jack, seemingly addressing the audience and welcoming them to Season 4. Except the camera pulls back to reveal he's talking about an Asian restaurant of the same name serving up what Americans really love to eat -- hot dogs slathered in cheese and apparently fried in what looks to be a sagging pigs-in-a-blanket styled bun.
The lesson that Jack is imparting? NBC -- and the fictional TGS show that Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) oversees -- has lost touch with middle America and, because of the economy, everybody needs to reconnect with what that audience wants. Then he says, "We'll trick those race-car loving wide-loads into watching your lefty homoerotic propaganda hour yet!"

It's classic Jack -- and now classic 30 Rock -- to spoof NBC, attitudes about the show, people having said attitudes and whimsical, fear-based network television programming decisions. And doing it all with comedic brilliance. Oh, and allowing more call-backs to the original joke (as when Jack says GE is renaming its new mammogram machine "the Get-'Er-Done 2000" to better identify with regular Americans).

Welcome back, 30 Rock. Even in a season of wonderful sitcoms -- trend story alert! -- you get it done.