NBC's "30 Rock" made it's Season Four return last night, and while early ratings reports aren't exactly favorable (the premiere is reportedly down 27% from last season), the show still has every bit of the hilarious magic that caught our attention to begin with. 

Alec Baldwin's insufferable Jack Donaghy laid the groundwork for the show's premise in the opening moments of the show, as he was dining with Tracy, Jenna and Liz.  Their fantasy-SNL show "TGS" is struggling in the ratings, and serious efforts must be made to appeal to the “real America.”  Liz, reading between the lines, is skeptical, and with good reason once Jack helps clarify things: “We’ll trick those race car-loving wideloads into watching your lefty homoerotic propaganda hour yet.” 

The ever-annoying uber-narcissist Jenna decides to "go country," recording a cheesy anthem for NBC Sports that would likely be a smash among the Hank Williams Jr. Monday Night Football crowd... if it weren't on a network that only has rights to off-season tennis. Liz and Pete, meanwhile, are secretly on the hunt for a new cast member to widen the show’s limited appeal beyond the inhabitants of New York City. The result, of course, is that everybody's convinced that they're sleeping together.

Tracy's failed stand-up jokes about eating lobster in St. Bart’s convinces the comic that he needs to get back to his roots, so he tries to befriend a maintenance guy who lives in Brooklyn, but it goes wrong when he asks “My dear friend Moby just opened a tea house in Park Slope.  Do you know him?” Meanwhile, Kenneth Parcell takes the bold move to go on strike when he finds out that Jack is collecting a massive bonus ("Look at all those zeros!") while denying overtime to the pages. After an epic standoff that finds Jack attempting to intimidate Kenneth in his own apartment, he agrees to Kenneth’s extremely modest demands — writing “I am a big old liar” on a piece of paper. 

The overload of inside jokes and self-reflecting will undoubtedly leave those outside the “30 Rock” circle a bit confused, but for fans of the show (or even Tracy Morgan fans alone), it's clear why the show keeps raking in the Emmys: the chemistry is perfect, the writing is still consistently great and, of course, you can't go wrong with Tracy Morgan pretty much playing himself.

On a side note, did anyone else catch the Liberty Mutual “Responsibility Project” ad with Jack McBrayer? The fact that he seemed to be in character the whole time certainly contributed to the oddness of the fact that throughout the length of the episode there were no less than seven commercials for banks and investment firms. Are suckers with money/investment portfolios who never watch the news or keep up with the stock market the key demographic for "30 Rock"? My gut says no.

For those of you hungry for more, check out our "30 Rock" Season 4 preview., which includes unaired footage and hilarious behind-the-scenes antics.