In last week's episode of 30 Rock, they pulled in possibly the most well-known celebrity on the planet by snagging Oprah Winfrey for a guest spot. This week, they went to the almost opposite end of the spectrum to feature what essentially was the equivalent of an inside joke. One can almost imagine people in the show's writer room riffing on old episodes of Night Court and eventually thinking, "Heck, we're laughing...so will America!"

After a good-but-not-great season premiere last week, 30 Rock brought the brilliant crazy with its second episode. Oprah Winfrey, Tracy Morgan in frightening white-woman makeup, Olympic tetherball -- it's all here.

Tonight we raise a glass to 30 Rock, which six weeks and five Tina Fey-as-Sarah Palin Saturday Night Live sketches after its second straight Emmy win for best comedy, finally begins its third season. A sublime hour of Thursday comedy is now complete.

Back in January, when it looked like the writers' strike was ending 30 Rock's season early, the show ended on a goofy, out-of-left-field musical number. So I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that the real season finale ended with Kenneth staring at the barrel of a gun in Beijing.

Tonight's 30 Rock asked the question: Can you really have it all? Can you reel in the one who got away and enjoy a delicious, delicious sandwich?

There's a question that comes up pretty regularly in my household as the fiancee and I watch 30 Rock: Is Tracy Morgan a genius, a complete nutjob, or some combination of the two?

The writers of 30 Rock may still be shaking off the rust when it comes to plotting -- but then again, it had Alec Baldwin doing Richard Nixon.

You know what I missed about 30 Rock while it was away? I missed the weird. And if Thursday's episode -- the first of five post-strike shows that will finish the season -- wasn't as tightly plotted or as manically wacky as the show is when it's at its best, it brought a healthy dose of oddness back to television.

Of all the things I expected to happen on Thursday's 30 Rock, and even after Gladys Knight was name-checked several times during the course of the show, a "Midnight Train to Georgia" musical montage was not one of them.