Lee Marvin vs. Derek Jeter
In the episode, Liz Lemon (Fey) starts making an effort to date by attending singles events with her friend Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski).
At the same time, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) feels forced to choose between his high school sweetheart, Nancy Donovan (Moore), and news anchor Avery Jessup (Banks).
Meanwhile, a racist comment sparks an office-wide debate on affirmative action and leaves James "Toofer" Spurlock (Keith Powell) with a big decision to make regarding his future at the fictitious television series The Girlie Show with Tracy Jordan (TGS).
On the weekend of Jack Donaghy's (Alec Baldwin) 51st birthday, his advances with CNBC host Avery Jessup (Elizabeth Banks) are called into question when he learns that his high school sweetheart, Nancy Donovan (Julianne Moore), has finally been divorced from her husband.
Finally, James "Toofer" Spurlock (Keith Powell) learns he may have been hired as a writer on TGS with Tracy Jordan because of affirmative action and quits.
[7] In December 2009, it was confirmed that actress Elizabeth Banks would guest star,[8] and in the February 11, 2010, episode "Anna Howard Shaw Day" she made her debut as Avery Jessup, a CNBC correspondent.
[11] Keith Powell, who plays Toofer Spurlock, was asked about his reaction towards his storyline in the "Lee Marvin vs. Derek Jeter" script, in which he said "They kind of warned me about that one – I thought it was a really fun thing because Affirmative Action has permeated corporate culture.
In a scene, Pete reveals to Liz that the only reason The Girlie Show—before being renamed to TGS with Tracy Jordan—was green-lighted by NBC was due to criticism from women's groups after the network aired the action drama Bitch Hunter.
"[1] 30 Rock writer Jack Burditt and former co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios Ben Silverman are credited as executive producers of this show.
[13] Ferrell has appeared in the main cast of Saturday Night Live (SNL),[14] a weekly sketch comedy series which airs on NBC in the United States.
Nonetheless, "Lee Marvin vs. Derek Jeter" outperformed The CW's supernatural-fantasy horror program The Vampire Diaries, which drew 3.155 million viewers.
IGN contributor Robert Canning reported that "Lee Marvin vs. Derek Jeter" was a "stellar episode that was hitting all the right beats", and commented that "[e]ven the tired, formulaic structure of Jack's two women scenario was given some great new lines" from Fey and Cannon, who developed the script.
Club's Nathan Rabin said that he enjoyed "just about every minute" of this episode, and praised Liz's speech citing it as the "crowning moment" from "Lee Marvin vs. Derek Jeter".
Rabin also liked the Toofer quitting storyline writing that it "could easily have gone nowhere but the show made it both funny and surprisingly thoughtful by using it as a springboard to discuss Affirmative Action and our society's defiantly uneven playing field.
"[28] Will Ferrell's ten second cameo was well-received,[17][26][27] with Canning concluding, "...the cherry on the top was discovering that The Girlie Show was only picked up to offset the complaints raised by the series Bitch Hunter.
