Just as the “TGS” crew celebrates its 50th episode, Jack shares some bad news: the  parent company Sheinhardt Wigs is announcing losses for the first time in its history since the Civil War, and that means everyone’s got to face cutbacks. One of the first victims: Jack’s assistant, Jonathan.

The Entertainment Division will come under particular scrutiny. A consultant has been hired to “trim the fat,” and Liz will have to present and justify her budget to him. Can Liz live up the to task? Not to worry. Sure enough, she’s got some Trix up her sleeve.

Like her “outside of the box thinking.” When the consultant Brad Halster arrives (played by Roger Bart), Liz goes into full-on Steve Jobs mode, in black turtleneck, New Balance sneakers and MacWorld Conference-style PowerPoint. It’s sleek, colorful and has impact. Are you getting it? Yeah.

But from where and how is Liz going to cut 25% of the budget? How about the straw budget? It could work, if the NBC mice didn’t use the craft services table as a bathroom.

But Liz is not as fiscally creative as Bernie Madoff, and the food budget and a lot of other stuff gets cut, too. Everyone turns to her. She’s their only hope. That’s when Liz decides to woo Brad Halster: “Halster, you look hot in those trousers. How about we grab drinks tonight.”

What could go wrong with this strategy? Liz has the wardrobe department and the slutty make-up artist at hand, and she’s planning on wearing triple Spanx. Her offer to Halster is this: “We go upstairs, 20 minutes, open-mouth, and I will work your ears.” Later she puts her top-front into play, and Halster gets to have a taste of the Lemon.

Alas, things don’t turn out with the outcome Liz intended. Halster has filed a complaint against Liz with Human Resources: “Specifically, his claim suggests that you tried to barter sex in exchange for professional consideration. In the Human Resource world, we refer to that as being a filthy prostitute.”

With Jonathan gone, Jack recruits Kenneth to do double-duty: his page duties and fill in as his assistant. Jack reassures Kenneth that he’ll do just fine:

Jack: “This is a very difficult time, Kenneth. I’ll be counting on you. You’ll do fine as along as you follow my three Ds: discretion, docility, and don’t use my bathroom.

Having two sets of responsibilities has Kenneth overworked and worried about his pet bird, Sonny Crockett. Tracy reluctantly offers to help and is handed a set of keys, with a stern warning. He cannot enter Kenneth’s bedroom.

This triggers a whole series of wild imaginings in Tracy’s head. Even the pet bird warns him about the bedroom. What could be going on behind that door? When Tracy consults with Jenna, she offers her expertise in serial killers, which learned from role in the Lifetime original movie, “Hushed Drapings.” As they investigate Kenneth’s serial killer life together, they confirm that Jonathan is no longer around and that Kenneth uses a towel to block his bedroom door. So creepy! But it turns out that the secret that Kenneth was hiding behind the door was just a bug bomb, not dead bodies. Poor Sonny Crockett gets gassed and, even worse, Tracy and Jenna betray Kenneth’s trust.

Later, a lecture from Kenneth in his bar voice results in an apology, as well as a whole bunch of new birds awaitng him at the apartment.

Some great lines from the episode:

Jack: “Kenneth, as you may have heard, Jonathan no longer works here.”

Kenneth: “Yes, the assistants talked about it last night at Finnegan’s, the bar we all go to after work, in my dreams.”

Liz: “They’re all TGS. Now, I can stand here, Brad, and I can bore you with numbers. I call tell you that we’re the No. 1 late night show among men 9-13, and the morbidly obese. I could tell you that we’re in final negotiations to create exclusive content for America’s jails. But I’m not one being judged here.”

Jack: “Matthew, I know this isn’t easy but the company is facing cutbacks and you’re boombox division is a little bit behind the times.”

Matthew: “We’re not behind the times, we’re groovy.”

This article was posted on Sunday, April 12th, 2009 at 10:32 am by Sakura and is filed under the category Cast News, Episodes, Quotes. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS 2.0 feed.