What I’m Watching: 30 Rock

30 Rock: Season 4, Episode 20 “The Moms” (B+)

After a lengthy hiatus and a few lackluster installments since then, it’s nice to see an episode of this show that exemplifies its best qualities. The setup of a Mother’s Day special bringing together the mothers of all of the cast and crew members is a lot of fun, and it’s quite a bunch. Liz’s mom paying for the food, throwing out her computer, and talking about how she used to have a job at Sterling-Cooper was pretty hilarious, as was her detailing her almost-relationship with a famous astronaut. Buzz Aldrin’s appearance was fantastic, and it was great that he had no door (“I don’t believe in barriers because I always break them”). Even more entertaining was his yelling at the moon because it’s coming out in daytime (“I walked on your face!”) and Liz delighting in joining in with him. Back to the mothers: Colleen’s reappearance was expectedly fun, and her meddling in Jack’s love life was a nice treat. “Bring my son one of everything so that he doesn’t have to choose” was a great line, as was the quick reference to Our Lady of Reluctant Integration Church in Waltham. Making Kenneth forget his own name was absolutely terrific. Jenna’s mom doesn’t do much for me, but Tracy’s search for his mother was superb. The fact that his only information was that her name might be Cheryl and she was wearing a red shirt in 1984 was a great start, and him suggesting the younger Serena Williams as a candidate to play her was great. Danny not realizing he was adopted even though his mother is Asian was also just the right degree of wacky for this show. Another excellent moment: Jack apologizing to Avery for trying to lie to her only because his tactics have worked on stupider women.