Emanuelle Goes to Dinosaur Land

Plot

Liz Lemon faces the prospect of attending her ex-boyfriend Floyd DeBarber's wedding without a date, a situation she desperately wants to avoid. She tries reconnecting with former partners Drew Baird and Dennis Duffy, but both attempts end poorly. At a party, her assistant Cerie Xerox informs Liz that she will be seated beside Wesley Snipes, a man Liz cannot stand, at Cerie's upcoming wedding.

To solve her problem, Liz invites Wesley to Floyd's wedding. During the ceremony, Wesley confesses he has been fired and needs Liz to help him obtain permanent U.S. residency, then proposes marriage. After a fruitless talk with Floyd's friend Mike, Liz accepts the proposal.

Meanwhile, Jack Donaghy remains torn between CNBC anchor Avery Jessup and his old high school flame Nancy Donovan. Avery declines to accompany Jack to Cerie's wedding, telling him to use her absence to decide if he truly wants to be with her. The moment Avery leaves, Nancy arrives unannounced at the 30 Rock office and announces she will spend the weekend with Jack. Liz advises him against dating Nancy, but Jack initially resolves to keep things friendly.

Despite this, he ends up sleeping with Nancy. The next morning, Nancy reveals that their night together was significant because Jack is the first man she has been with since her divorce. At Floyd's wedding, Jack tells Nancy about Avery, prompting Nancy to vow she will leave him for good after the ceremony. While Liz is delivering a reading, Jack texts her to delay, causing her to recite inappropriate biblical passages in front of the guests.

Production

The twenty-first episode of 30 Rock’s fourth season, and the 79th overall, first aired on NBC on May 13, 2010. Matt Hubbard, the series’ supervising producer, wrote it—his tenth script for the show—while Beth McCarthy-Miller directed, marking her twelfth time in that role. Filming happened on March 10, 2010.

The wedding of Floyd and Kaitlin (Kristin McGee) took place at Saint Cecilia’s Catholic Church in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Julianne Moore appeared as Nancy Donovan for the fourth time, and Elizabeth Banks made her sixth guest appearance. Jason Sudeikis, who played Floyd DeBarber, returned for his eleventh episode; he is also known as a main cast member of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, where 30 Rock creator Tina Fey served as head writer from 1999 to 2006.

Michael Sheen showed up as Wesley Snipes for the third time. Jon Hamm and Dean Winters both reprised their roles as Liz Lemon’s ex-boyfriends, Drew Baird and Dennis Duffy. The episode also continued Tracy Jordan’s quest for an EGOT, a storyline that started in the December 3, 2009 episode “Dealbreakers Talk Show.” Here, Tracy decides to star in the film Hard To Watch, hoping it will earn him an Oscar.

Cultural references

Tracy will play the orange tabby cat Garfield in the upcoming movie Garfield 3: Feline Groovy. When Liz goes to see Drew, he mentions he was thinking of her after seeing a woman put glasses on her daughter’s Mrs. Potato Head.

Later, Liz finds Dennis in a park building a weird device; he explains he is attempting to replicate and improve the Balloon boy hoax from October 2009. At Floyd’s wedding, the Englishman Wesley tells Liz he refuses to return to England because he wants to avoid the 2012 London Olympics, adding, “Did you see the Beijing opening ceremonies? We don’t have control over our people like that.” The episode takes its name from the Emmanuelle series of erotic films.

Reception

According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was watched by 4.996 million households in its original American broadcast and earned a 2.5 rating/7 share in the 18–49 demographic. This was a decrease from the previous episode "The Moms", which was watched by 5.420 million American viewers. During its original broadcast, the episode ranked fourth in its 9:30 p.m. slot, behind ABC's Grey's Anatomy, CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Fox's Fringe. Jon Hamm received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards for his work in this episode, but lost to Neil Patrick Harris for his guest appearance on Glee.

The episode received generally positive reviews from television critics. Bob Sassone of AOL's TV Squad liked the episode for its non-stop one liners and great guest cameos, though he complained that the Jack, Nancy, and Avery love triangle should be over. IGN contributor Robert Canning said the episode had one of the best episode titles of any show that year and was favorable to the guest spots from Jon Hamm, Dean Winters, and Michael Sheen, giving the episode a 9 out of 10 rating. Linda Holmes for National Public Radio said the episode was very funny and commented that her favorite scene was when Liz visited Drew.