Sun Tea (30 Rock)

Plot

Liz Lemon learns her apartment building is being converted into condominiums and is told she must buy her apartment or face a rent increase. She decides to purchase her apartment and the one above it to create a dream home, but her upstairs neighbor Brian refuses to be bribed out. Liz moves in with him, hoping to drive him away with her behavior. At work, she is disgusted by Frank Rossitano peeing in bottles to stop global warming, but adopts the practice to force Brian to leave, and succeeds.

Meanwhile, Tracy Jordan tells Jack Donaghy about the negative impact of fatherhood, and they both decide to get vasectomies from Dr. Leo Spaceman. While waiting, Jack gains respect for Tracy's son, Tracy Jr. After being put under anesthetic, Tracy realizes his life is horrible because he does not have a daughter, and Jack stops the procedure. Kenneth Parcell is put in charge of reducing TGS's carbon footprint and gets advice from Al Gore, who tells him to recycle everything including jokes before declaring a whale is in trouble and running off.

Production

"Sun Tea" was written by show co-producers Dylan Morgan and Josh Siegal, marking the first writing credit for both, and directed by Gail Mancuso, her eighth directed episode of 30 Rock. Morgan, Siegal, and series producer Paula Pell later collaborated on the episode "Argus," which aired in the show's fourth season on April 29, 2010. The episode originally aired on November 19, 2009, on NBC as the sixth episode of the fourth season. It aired as part of Green Week, an NBC initiative introduced by CEO Jeff Zucker requiring every primetime program between November 15 and November 22, 2009, to include a positive environmental theme.

Jack McBrayer commented on the environmental theme, saying it is relatable and that people need reminders of things that can be done. The episode was filmed on October 23 and November 10, 2009. In October 2009, Nate Corddry was confirmed to guest star as Liz's upstairs neighbor.

Al Gore made his second guest appearance on the show, playing himself, having first appeared in the season two episode "Greenzo. Marceline Hugot reprised her role as Kathy Geiss for the eighth time. Chris Parnell played Dr. Leo Spaceman; Parnell had appeared in the main cast of Saturday Night Live, where series creator Tina Fey was head writer from 1999 to 2006. Bobb'e J. Thompson made his third appearance as Tracy Jr., having first guest starred in the episodes "Gavin Volure" and "The Bubble."

Cultural references

In one scene, Jack Donaghy reveals that Don Geiss's son Bertram is suing his half-sister Kathy for control of the Geiss family trust fund. Kathy, interviewed by news media outside court, is represented by Teddy Ruxpin, an animatronic talking bear dressed in a suit. When Liz learns about Green Week, she asks if NBC will do something or just put a green peacock in the corner of the screen, referencing the NBC peacock logo turning green during Green Week; Kenneth then breaks the fourth wall by glancing at the logo. Tracy, under anesthetic, dreams he is playing Bill Cosby's character Cliff Huxtable with Tracy Jr. as Theo Huxtable from The Cosby Show.

Jenna Maroney admits to Kenneth that she once took a low-volume shower with actor Ed Begley Jr., referencing Begley's environmental activism. At the end, Al Gore repeats a line from the season two episode "Greenzo": "Quiet! A whale is in trouble. I have to go!"

Reception

According to Nielsen ratings, "Sun Tea" was watched by 5.858 million households and earned a 2.9 rating/7 share in the 18–49 demographic, a three percent drop from the previous week's episode "The Problem Solvers." It ranked third in its 9:30 p.m. time slot, behind CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (15.064 million households) and ABC's Grey's Anatomy (14.300 million households). Television columnist Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger wrote that the episode brought the evening to a fine close and that he was left happy, though he would have given it his stamp of approval if it had given more time to Kathy being represented by Teddy Ruxpin. Nick Catucci of New York magazine called the episode chockablock with great mini-sketches and enjoyed Tracy's Cosby dream.

Steven Hyden of The A.V. Club wrote that it was one of the funniest and most enjoyable episodes of the season. Sean Gandert of Paste magazine said it had some pretty great moments and was glad Chris Parnell returned as Dr. Spaceman, but was not complimentary toward NBC shoehorning its Green Week into the episode. James Poniewozik of Time noted that the best bits included Teddy Ruxpin the lawyer and the show's treatment of the Green Is Universal mandate.