verna

(S04E12) "It was perfect. Like a John Mayer song." - Jenna, on meeting with her mom

There's a 1984 episode of 'Kate & Allie' titled 'New Year's Eve' where Kate and Allie make a bet: Kate has to give up smoking and Allie has to give up eating chocolate (never mind that we never even saw Kate smoke before, but that's another story). Sound familiar? OK, so Liz had to stay away from all junk food and not just chocolate, but still, that was one of the plots of tonight's '30 Rock.' It's an old staple with sitcoms, of course, I just didn't think that '30 Rock' would necessarily go there.

I also don't want to see yet another character have to stay at Liz's apartment. Pete has stayed there, Tracy, and now Frank. Who's next, Jack? Kenneth? Luckily, even a couple of creaky plots can't completely hurt an episode of this show because there are so many great jokes flying at you from all directions.

This week we finally meet Jenna Maloney's mother, Verna, on '30 Rock.' Not that we've heard too much about her, I don't think, but it will be interesting to see where she came from (I'd also like to meet the sister who peed in Jenna's eye).

She's not in this clip below, but Verna is played by ex-'SNL' star Jan Hooks.