Cutbacks (30 Rock)

Plot

The TGS with Tracy Jordan crew have finished taping their fiftieth episode and decide to celebrate. Their boss, Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming for General Electric, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), goes to the writers' room and tells the show's head writer, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), about how the whole company is undergoing cutbacks. After an unsuccessful presentation about TGS, Brad Halster (Roger Bart)—one of the consultants in charge of the cutbacks—informs Liz that she needs to cut her annual budget by 25 percent. Liz, anxious about her employees losing their jobs, decides to use sexual bartering to solve the problem and asks Brad on a date, which he accepts. Liz dresses in the trashiest outfit she can find, and goes on her date. The next day, she discovers that cutbacks are still taking place at TGS, and confronts Brad. Realizing that he was being used, Brad charges Liz with sexual harassment and she is suspended from work for two weeks. Jack tells Liz that the budget review process will start over again, this time under his supervision.

Meanwhile, NBC page Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) becomes Jack's office assistant, replacing his former assistant Jonathan (Maulik Pancholy). Kenneth asks Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) to feed his bird, as he is busy with two jobs now. Kenneth asks Tracy not to enter his bedroom, a request that makes Tracy curious. Believing Kenneth might be a serial killer, he tells Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) and they decide to investigate Kenneth's bedroom. At Kenneth's apartment, they discover a bug bomb in his room, and reaching the conclusion that Kenneth is trying to poison them and they run out of his apartment. They forget to close the door and the bug bomb ends up killing the bird. When they tell Kenneth about his bird, he is more upset by the fact that Tracy and Jenna did not trust him, than the death of his bird. Tracy and Jenna, feeling horrible about what they have done, arrange a surprise for Kenneth at his apartment. When Kenneth goes home, he finds an entire collection of birds.

Production

"Cutbacks" was written by series supervising producer Matt Hubbard, making it his seventh writing credit after "The Rural Juror", "Hard Ball", "The Collection", "MILF Island", "Reunion", and "Larry King". The episode was directed by Gail Mancuso, making it her sixth for the series. "Cutbacks" originally aired in the United States on April 9, 2009, on NBC as the seventeenth episode of the show's third season and the 53rd overall episode of the series.

This episode of 30 Rock featured a guest appearance from actor Roger Bart, who played a man from a consulting firm in charge of the cutbacks in the 30 Rock workplace. Television announcer Don Pardo guest starred as Sid, the TGS announcer. Pardo was the announcer on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL), a weekly sketch comedy series which airs on NBC in the United States. Series creator, executive producer and lead actress Tina Fey was the head writer on SNL from 1999 until 2006. Fey and Tracy Morgan have both been part of the main cast of SNL. This was actor Todd Buonopane's second appearance as the character Jeffrey Weinerslav, an NBC Human Resource mediator. In this episode, Jeffrey informs Liz that a sexual harassment lawsuit has been filed against her for sexual bartering. Buonopane appeared in "Believe in the Stars" and later in "Jackie Jormp-Jomp".

One filmed scene from "Cutbacks" was cut out from the airing. The scene was included on 30 Rock’s season three DVD as part of the deleted scenes bonus feature. In the scene, Kenneth is instructed by Jack to only interrupt his firing meetings if something important comes up. Kenneth believes that getting Showtime for three months from Time Warner Cable is something he should bring up to Jack, but Jack informs him that getting Showtime does not qualify as something important.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Cutbacks" was watched by 6.8 million households, according to the Nielsen ratings system. It received a 3.1 rating/8 share among viewers in the 18–49 demographic, meaning that 3.1 percent of all people in that group, and 8 percent of all people from that group watching television at the time, watched the episode. This was a decrease from the previous episode, "Apollo, Apollo", which was watched by 7.2 million American viewers.

IGN contributor Robert Canning opined that "Cutbacks" was "solid", as it "included all the major players in familiar roles and provided some great laughs." Canning complimented Roger Bart's performance noting that he played the part "very straight until the very end." In regards to the Tracy, Jenna, and Kenneth plot, he said that the overall ending was "a bit weak" but "the majority of the story worked well." In conclusion, Canning gave the episode an 8.3 out of 10 rating. Leonard Pierce of The A.V. Club noted that this episode was "broad as hell, with three incredibly whoopsie plot threads all driven by one of the most venerable office sitcom tropes (budget cuts), but it was redeemed not only by being funny as hell at its best, but by letting the unlikability of some of the main characters – sometimes inadvertent, sometimes not, provide some of the strongest laughs in 'Cutbacks'." Entertainment Weekly’s Margaret Lyons said that despite this episode not being "one of the show's most sophisticated [ones]" she still enjoyed it, citing that it had "some pretty fantastic lines – and some really cute moments between Liz and Jack."

Bob Sassone of AOL's TV Squad said that "Cutbacks" was a "funny episode", but stated that he disliked Liz's actions, explaining that what she did was "creepy." Sassone did not enjoy Tracy and Jenna believing that Kenneth was a murder "because of a wacky series of misunderstandings and assumptions" observing that this scenario has been played out "in every other sitcom since 1989." Television columnist Alan Sepinwall for The Star-Ledger reported that he was "very unsatisfied" with this episode, though, noted that he preferred Liz's plot over Tracy, Jenna, and Kenneth's. Overall, Sepinwall said that the episode was "meh".