30 Rock serves up a valentine’s day episode this week. In tow are previous guest stars Selma Hayek and John Hamm as Jack and Liz’s love interests. Even Kenneth the page gets in on the romance by meeting a beautiful blind girl. He’s so frightened to talk to her that Tracey steps in Cyrano-style to help him.

Have gotten another chance from her dream man, Liz is determined to have things go well. Ever the pitiful figure, things go horribly wrong. Liz exposes herself in more ways than one and Dr. Baird is confronted with the stark image of Liz on the toilet. After Dr. Baird is suddenly saddled with his daughter, the two vow to see the date through to the end in an effort to expose their negatives to each other in a huge bitter gulp. By the end,   the two seem to be happy. I hope desperately that this works out. Hamm is a great addition and Liz could sure use a man.

Not so for Kenneth. Kenneth spots a beautiful red haired blind woman working on the set. Ken just isn’t able to muster the courage to talk to her. Tracey leaps in talking in a crazy faux country accent in an attempt to woo her for Kenneth. Despite getting assistance from Tracey, Jenna and the crew Kenneth falls short when the blind girl feels his face to get an idea of his looks. Nice, a blind girl hung up on looks.

Jack and Elisa are going to church for Valentine’s day and then off to eat the most decadent dessert in the city.  Clearly out of his depth in church, Jack’s behavior in the confessional is so cynical and cold-hearted that the priest runs away in terror. Elisa is left mortified and shaken. I was certain this would be the end of Jack’s seemingly magical relationship with the insanely hot Elisa. In the end however a McFlurry coupon (thanks McDonalds) in the offering plate drives her back into Jack’s arms.

It makes sense now to talk about the changing relationship between advertising sponsors and 30 Rock. Fans will remember the Snapple jokes from earlier seasons. Essentially, companies are buying ad time inside the program. This has been going on with movies for some time, with mixed results. 30 Rock has handled these well simply by owning up to it and turning it into a joke. It works for them. It won’t work this well for most however and consumers of network TV are going to be bombarded with more cheap reality shows and McFlurry ads in the context of the programs. I can only imagine how poorly these will go over with mediocre TV writers.