Popular parody

At this year's Emmy Awards ceremony, Tina Fey went out of her way to thank not only 30 Rock executive producer Lorne Michaels but also NBC for keeping her show on the air even though "we are so much more expensive than a talk-show". In case you missed it, that was a dig at the network's decision to forgo scripted drama and comedy in the last hour of prime time and run The Jay Leno Show five nights a week.

Both the gratitude and the Leno-baiting continue as 30 Rock begins its fourth season. When a show has swept the Emmys two years in a row, as 30 Rock has, there is the danger that the people involved will start to think they can somehow do something more, which so often winds up being less.

Yet even after two solid years of trooping up to receive various statuettes and having her face plastered on the cover of every magazine save Sports Illustrated, Fey has remained remarkably level headed. (OK, so last season she wrote in a romance between her character, Liz Lemon, and one played by Jon Hamm, but what's the point of ruling the universe if you can't have a little fun with it?)

In this season's first two episodes, the cast and crew prove that when you've got a good thing going, your best bet is to not mess with it. The wicked trick of 30 Rock is its ability to satirise not only television culture, but also its own place within it. So as the season opens, Jack (Alec Baldwin) chastises the cast of TGS With Tracy Jordan for becoming too enamoured of success, for relying on the praise of the urban elite and losing touch with "real America". Which is something that could be said of 30 Rock — for all its Emmy gold, it remains more a critics' pet than a ratings winner.

But at its best, the show tempers its inside jokes with wide-net humour. So Jack Donaghy becomes the symbol of cost-cutting hypocrisy. When Donaghy gets a huge bonus while the pages lose their overtime, Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) stages one of the more hilarious strikes in history ("What do we want?" "To get your sandwiches!" "When do we want it?" "Whenever would be convenient for you!"), which may or may not be a gentle parody of the 2008 writers strike.

Comradely wink

Tracy (Tracy Morgan) attempts to reacquaint himself with "real America" ("You want to hold hands with a black millionaire?"), and Jenna (Jane Krakowski) goes country. Oh, and Liz has to find another cast member, which leads to the rumour that she's sleeping with Pete (Scott Adsit).

So when Jack says, "Step into the light, Lemon. There's nothing wrong with being fun and popular and just giving people what they want. Ladies and gentlemen, Jay Leno," it's hard to see it so much as a dig as a comradely wink.

Like Liz Lemon, who can't seem to accept that she is no longer the homely misfit of her youth, 30 Rock can no longer claim underdog status. With all those Emmys, viewers expect a lot, and two episodes in, 30 Rock is prepared to deliver, serving up the self-conscious, fast-moving, quick-witted comedy it has all but trademarked.

Providing the irresistible drumbeat through it all is the relationship between Jack and Liz. They are, in their own warped way, TV's hottest couple, by turns ruthless and tender, the bickering parents of the overdiagnosed postmodern family.

Like every classic of the genre, 30 Rock is not something you watch, it's a place you visit. Where everybody knows your name. And your medical history. Where there's nothing wrong with being fun and popular and giving people what they want. Ladies and gentlemen, 30 Rock.