14 Best Moments From NBC’s ’30 Rock’

The life and times of Liz Lemon, Jack Donaghy and the rest of the crew trying to make television at 30 Rockefeller Center were a hilarious treat for TV viewers for seven wonderful seasons on NBC. Every episode crackled with joke after joke, an onslaught of humor that threatened to bust your gut if you were paying attention. Even if you weren’t paying attention you were likely to get some belly laughs, because the humor varied so drastically from incisive satire to eloquently crafted poop jokes. It was all good stuff, and while it’s impossible to choose the ultimate, here are some of the best moments from one of the best sitcoms in TV history.

1. Jack Collects Cookie Jars

When head honcho Jack Donaghy found himself in line to achieve his professional dream and take over as the CEO of GE, he hired PI Steve Buscemi to look into his past. Donaghy’s dark secret was even more delicious than viewers could have hoped. The typically conservative shark was a softy for cookie jars. He was touring the collectibles circuit making friends under the alias Victor Nightingale.

2. Liz is a Princess

It took a lot of poking and prodding to get Liz Lemon to admit she wanted a wedding, but when she finally relented, her friends pulled out all the stops, hiring Tony Bennett as her wedding singer. The best part, though, was Lemon’s wedding dress, her replica of Princess Leia’s dress from Star Wars. For just a brief few moments, even cynic Liz Lemon was able to cast aside her sarcasm and be a princess.

3. Dennis is a Pedophile

When you’re making a pro and con list as to whether you want to keep seeing a guy, having them end up on Dateline should go right to the top of the con list. As Dennis walked gleefully into a trap set by Dateline NBC, he maintained his innocence — “She said she was 16, but I could tell she was 22” — and was eventually exonerated, but even appearing on the show with balloons in hand was enough to end his relationship with Liz. And for good reason.

4. I Do It All The Different Ways

When Tracy is kicked out of his house for his repeated bad behavior, he decides that the only way to make amends is to offer his wife the opportunity to sleep with another man … well, if you count Kenneth the page as a man. His attempt to pick up Angie, followed by his even more disastrous attempt to woo her — “no more white boys throwing up in my damn foyer!” — is a classic moment in the show.

5. Liz Meets Oprah … Kind Of

When Liz is summoned back to Chicago for jury duty (she likes to vote in a swing state), she takes a first class flight back next to the most famous woman in the world. Or at least, that’s what she thinks; under Jack’s instruction, Liz has chased a pill called coma-nap-rosil with a glass of white wine. As a result, Oprah turns out to be a spunky tween named Pam. She does help Liz figure out the right bra size, though, so that’s good.

6. They Got Betty White

In Hollywood, there’s something called the Rule of 3s that dictates that when one star passes, two more will go shortly. When that begins to happen around Tracy, he’s worried that he’ll fall victim to the rule, so he calls Betty White and opens with “Boo!” Of course, the veteran actress isn’t fazed, pinpointing the motive right away and proclaiming, “I will be at your funeral, Tracy Jordan. I will bury you!”

7. Gavin Volure

Everybody wanted to be Gavin Volure. Then, the man developed a severe agoraphobia, withdrawing to his palatial mansion to host only rare dinner parties. Oh wait, all that is BS and his whole reputation is fraudulent and he’s being held in a mansion that he shares with five other white collar criminals. The best part, though, is when Volure escapes custody and runs to the set to try and woo Liz.

8. Hot Box With Avery Jessup

Okay, so they don’t end up together, but Avery was always Jack’s best lady, from the moment the two met on the set of her political talk show, Hot Box with Avery Jessup (pun intended). Elizabeth Banks’ whip smart delivery played off Jack’s decisive stoicism perfectly. It’s just too bad for the poor liberal they brought in that same day. “Just sit a couple out, Stein, gah.”

9. Matt Damon Goes Full Bourne

After almost a season dating, Liz Lemon and her pilot boyfriend Carol — played by Matt Damon — end up stuck on a runway on their way to Nagshead. As tensions rise between the passengers (who are getting hot and hungry) and the crew (who are just as stuck as the passengers), the relationship comes to a head as Liz refuses to admit she’s capable of error. The whole disaster spikes when Damon pulls a gun.

10. Tracy is Governor Dunston’s Twin

Even when Liz and Jack are trying to destroy NBC in the show’s final season, it’s impossible for them not to take advantage of the fact that the GOP’s Vice Presidential candidate is both a dolt and a dead ringer for the show’s star. When a man says stuff like, “When did old Bob Dunston swallow all this change?” you can’t possibly not toss a few jokes his way. And the viewers were ever so grateful.

11. Liz’s High School Reunion

From beginning to end, “Reunion” is a classic episode. As Liz and Jack find themselves in Whitehaven for Liz’s reunion, she’s forced to accept the revelation that she was a bully in high school — one girl asks, “Hey Liz, how’s your telescope?” to which Liz responds, “I don’t know, Kelsey, how’s your Mom’s pill addiction?” — while enduring the fact that Jack is more popular inside ten minutes than she ever was. And what better way to cap off a high school reunion than with someone getting Carrie’d.

12. Angie Is the Best at Saying ‘Ham’

Two of the series’ episodes took advantage of reality TV format to follow Tracy Jordan’s explosive wife on her own show-within-a-show, Queen of Jordan. While pretty much every moment in which Sherry Shepherd graces the screen is amazing, if you had to pinpoint her appeal in one single word it would be… well, you see it. As the national spokesman for the Ham Council, Angie always has an opportunity to drop the world’s best “Hay-um!”

13. Liz Lemon, You’re My Only Hope!

When she first appears on screen, Carrie Fisher just seems like a jaded veteran writer being hounded by superfan Liz Lemon. Of course, once she’s hired on the show as a guest writer, the dynamic changes so drastically that Liz Lemon ends up running out of Fisher’s Little Chechnya apartment to apologize to Jack for quitting abruptly. Then, Fisher does this amazing twist on her iconic line.

14. David Schwimmer is Greenzo

No matter how you felt about his work in the years since he stopped playing Ross on NBC’s Friends, you had to love how enthusiastically David Schwimmer threw himself into the role of Greenzo, a mostly failed actor who embodies the silly corporate mascot with such ferocity he ends up going off book, insulting Meredith Vierra (the nerve!), and setting (an) Earth on fire.