Generalissimo (30 Rock)
Guest stars in "Generalissimo" include Jon Hamm, Salma Hayek, Patrick Heusinger, Matt Lauer, Doug Mand, Greg Tuculescu, and Teresa Yenque.
In the episode, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) begins receiving mail intended for her new neighbor, Dr. Drew Baird (Hamm), and after going through it she decides she would like to meet him.
Todd Holland received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for "Generalissimo".
To try and woo him, she follows the actions of an evil Spanish soap character called "The Generalissimo" from Los Amantes Clandestinos, despite the warnings of Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) and Elisa (Salma Hayek).
While this plan initially appears to work, things go wrong when Liz accidentally gives Drew Rohypnol and he finds some of his opened mail in her handbag.
Jack responds by airing a montage of pictures of Puerto Rican babies to the music of Tito Puente on The Today Show, much to the displeasure of Matt Lauer.
Meanwhile, NBC has hired recently laid off investment bankers (Patrick Heusinger, Greg Tuculescu, and Doug Mand) from Lehman Brothers as interns on TGS with Tracy Jordan.
Tracy refuses to allow this to happen, so he buys out Lehman Brothers and sends the interns back to their old jobs on Wall Street.
[2] Holland was hired to direct this episode on the recommendation of his agent, who also represents series creator, executive producer and lead actress Tina Fey.
"[12][13] In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fey said when the writing staff is developing a script, "We'll have an actor in mind and we'll keep referring to them.
[15] According to the Nielsen ratings system, "Generalissimo" was watched by 6.4 million households, the same as the previous week's episode "Retreat to Move Forward",[16] in its original American broadcast.
[19] This episode was submitted for consideration on the behalf of Alec Baldwin for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series at the same awards show.
[20] Bob Sassone of TV Squad admitted in his review that after seeing the promos for "Generalissimo" audibly groaned, and believed the story about a fictitious soap character resembling Baldwin's Jack would not work.
"[23] Writing for The Monterey County Herald Marc Cabrera noted Jack's interactions with Elisa's grandmother amongst his favorite moments of season 3.
[25] Staci Gold of North by Northwestern wrote that this episode was majorly improved by Baldwin's "hilarious imitation of a Spanish accent.
In his review, Sepinwall wrote that "Generalissimo" felt like the staff "came up with the cliches they wanted to mock – goofy/evil twins, a character spinning a ridiculous web of lies to land a new crush – and never moved to the next step.
