NBC last night was a supersized funfest of cool greatness…or something like that.

The Office/30 Rock hiatus is over, and that’s all that matters, eloquence be danged.

I still need some time to recuperate, digest and share my feelings on The Office’s triumphant return. The guy at TV Squad who was underwhelmed by it is crazy of a different opinion than I am. (But I’ll still keep that site bookmarked, and so should you. There’s a few cool Office posts there today.) Not to worry, I’ll have plenty of Office analysis before long.

In the meantime, though, I’m working in reverse order on my three current favorite comedies, The Office, 30 Rock and Andy Barker, P.I., which happen to fall on the same night. That’s good: lots of laughs—and bad: so much to blog about, so little time.

Now that 30 Rock has been reupped for a second season—quite deservedly, I will add—we can sit back and enjoy the ride without the cancellation jitters. If you missed last night’s episode, click here to watch and then hurry back. Or watch the 2-minute video recap here.

At the opening of “Fireworks”, Liz and Floyd (Tina Fey and Jason Sudeikis) meet up at their favorite midtown hangouts, a hot dog cart for her and for him, apparently, a church.

Vendor: Church on a Tuesday? And he seemed so normal.

Liz: I know, right?

Will Arnett (whose stint at GOB Bluth on the tragically short-lived Arrested Development earns him lifetime residence in my TV Hall of Fame and who co-stars in the current number one movie Blades of Glory) appears as NBC West Coast exec Devin Banks.

Jack (Alec Baldwin) is giving Devin a tour of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in advance of a big network pow-wow when they meet up with Kenneth the page (Jack McBrayer). Devin is enamored with young Kenneth.

Meanwhile, Pete (Scott Asdit) is staying at Liz’s apartment while he and his wife are on the outs. He’s dressing like Liz too, and it’s hard to say if he looks more feminine than she looks masculine. Jack (Alec Baldwin) introduces Devin to Liz.

Devin: Look I gotta go. Thanks for the tour. You guys, you’re the real heroes.

Jack: They get younger every year, these punks looking to take down Jack Donaghy.

Liz: You’re worried about that guy?

Jack: Banks is in New York for a reason, and I intend to send him back to L.A.

Liz: Wow, if this turns into a showdown, you guys could settle it with a (making her voice all low and Clint Eastwood-y) “talking like this� contest.

But Banks is a boy genius, says Jack. He invented the 10-second Internet sit-com, which the show’s writers went to the trouble of producing an example of. Think Aaron “so-long Studio 60” Sorkin would have thought of that? Devin’s webisodes idea (That’s a knock on NBC?) is nothing compared to Jack’s fireworks plans.

Tracy (Tracy Morgan) enters the writers room wearing a ridiculous hat-and-glasses combination, so of course ridiculous-trucker-hat-and-horn-rimmed-glasses-wearing Frank (Judah Friedlander) has to comment. Tracy’s hiding because someone’s trying to slap him with a phony paternity suit. He knows it’s a scam because he remembers the girl, and he knows he never got out of his car and she never got out of her toll booth.

Next thing you know, one of the writers turns out to be the process server. How’d these guys not realize that?

While Liz is trying to talk Jack out of pitching his “spectacle of fireworks� idea to the network brass, Jack’s assistant reports back from his spying detail that Devin has eyes for the unsuspecting Kenneth.

Devin: So, what team do you play for?

Kenneth: Oh, it’s not really a team. It’s just a bunch of guys who like doing gymnastics.

Devin: I’m going to be in town for a little while. Maybe we can get together.

Kenneth: My you’re really friendly

Jack: Good god, Devin’s gay. He’s even more powerful than I thought.

So Jack puts Kenneth up to schmoozing Devin for information about his network proposals. But he doesn’t tell him why. A bottle of bronzer and tickets to A Chorus Line are involved.

Tracy, meanwhile, sees Dr. Spaceman (Chris Parnell) to have his DNA taken to disprove the paternity suit. To think such things were settled by dunking women in water until they recanted, Spaceman recalls fondly.

We get a nice glimpse of Liz and Pete at home in front of the TV. It’s platonic, but charming. Liz wishes you could know all the weird things about people at the start of a relationship, things like mid-week churchgoing. What if he’s born again? She doesn’t want to spend their Saturdays in Central Park trying to save gay Rollerbladers. Pete’s thoughts on love and relationships turn inevitably morose.

Up in a swank hotel room, Kenneth is pitching show ideas to Devin. One’s about a teacher named Art: Art School; another is about a Jewish ice cream parlor owner: Ice Cream Cohen; and there’s a third about cops named Cash and Carey, but a name for that one eludes him.

Devin offers him a drink while he slips into something comfortable: a short-short bathrobe. It seems Devin has a creepy liaison in mind, but it turns out he’s really only interested in finding out Jack’s plans.

Dr. Spaceman returns with Tracy’s DNA results. The kid isn’t his. That’s the good news.

Dr. Spaceman: However, according to my DNA database, you are a direct descendant of our third president.

Tracy: Joshua Buckleman?

Dr. Spaceman: No, Tracy our third president, Thomas Jefferson.

Toofer: Jefferson? Not possible.

Tracy: Yeah that’s a white dude.

Frank: Yeah, but that dude was into black chicks. I’m surprised I’m not a descendant.

The news is devastating to Tracy who has built his career on dissecting white-black differences, like the way they dial phones.
Up in Jack’s office, Devin’s waiting for the “talking-like-thisâ€? showdown. The gloves come off fast.

Devin: A little birdie in a page jacket told me you’ve got nothing. You’re going down.

Jack: No Devin. I don’t do that.

The hot dog vendor is cutting Liz off. He even printout out an article for her on sodium. Just then, Floyd walks into the church, so Liz trails him, figuring he’s going into a bible study meeting. He welcomes her in, goes to the podium and introduces himself as an alcoholic. Liz is outta there—until he starts pouring his heart out. So she sticks around for the show.

Later she tells Pete how great it was, like eavesdropping on someone’s therapy session. Pete tells her that’s not OK. She’s not hearing it though. Will she fake being an alcoholic? Maybe she’ll just take it one day at a time.

Jack admits he used Kenneth, but it was for television, which Kenneth accepts. It’s like when that dude used Rerun to bootleg a Doobie Brothers concert on What’s Happening! He’s glad to use his sexuality as a weapon, just like Alias’s Sidney Bristow.

Tracy’s all confused. He rejects a sketch that has him playing a criminal, a negative portrayal of white people he can’t accept. The white and black guys inside him are like the audience at a Bobby McFerrin concert, he says. Toofer doesn’t get it. Tracy says that’s because he just wants to be white. But Toofer pridefully counters that he’s a descendant of a high-ranking black Union officer, who Frank points out was actually a collaborating Confederate officer. Toofer doesn’t take the news well.

On the set, Floyd pulls Liz aside for skipping their latest “meeting.� He even offers to be there for her if she needs to talk to someone. Jackpot, eh Liz?

Tracy dreams that he’s on the Maury Povich show to find out who his dad is. Jack walks out in Thomas Jefferson clothing, flips off the angry crowd and tells Tracy that America is a place where we aren’t burdened by our pasts. Deep stuff for a crazy dream.

Liz is coming on to Floyd on their coffee date, but he pulls back. People in “meetings” together can’t date. It’s a rule. Liz can’t believe it. But Floyd did a man-on-the-street commercial for Tarzan on Ice the last time he drank. He needs rules.

Kenneth shows up back at Devin’s door again, Chap Stick in hand. He does a white-man’s shuffle for the exec, who soon realizes Kenneth is doing Jack’s bidding.

Devin will make the meeting, but Liz won’t. Her all-night Tootsie marathon with Floyd finds them on the couch together in the morning. He helps her walk off the pins and needles, and she’s feels the heat between him. When he makes to leave, she fesses up that she’s not an alcoholic at all but actually nutlog, Ann Heche crazy. He gets angry. After all, he poured out his heart at that meeting. She’s blown it worse than Tootsie did.

At the network meeting, Devin pitches celebrity snuff reality content exclusively for mobile phones: “MC-Lite just murdered Danny Bonaduce!â€? Jack counters with fireworks, the kind of spectacle that made them all fall in love with television. The “Rockefeller Center Salute to Fireworks”. (I missed that “toâ€? the first time. It does make it funnier.) The suits love the idea.

Frank digs up “Confederate Monster: The Tobias Spurlock Disaster,� a book about Toofer’s ancestor. But Tracy shares what Dream Jeff told him about embracing who you are. Frank counters with a second Star Wars reference (the first was Thomas Jefferson telling Tracy “May the force be with you.�), telling Toofer to give in to his heritage and kill Tracy. But Tracy’s got a movie idea Toofer can write about Thomas Jefferson, like Norbit with Tracy playing all the parts. It’s a drama.

Liz tries to make up to Floyd by revealing personal details about herself. And they are doozies.

She was sexually rejected by two guys who went on to attend clown college; vacuums make her nervous because her parents would turn theirs on when they fought; she’s eaten three donuts so far today; she once pooped herself at an all-you-can-eat buffet and stayed for anyway for the shrimp; she recently dated a cousin; she’ll probably tell her friends she’s voting for Barack Obama and then really vote for John McCain; and she has sexual issues relating to Gopher from The Love Boat. Oh and she really had five donuts.

Floyd suggests a Roomba. He’s got a gopher thing too, but it’s the one from Caddy Shack. They kiss, and 30 Rock makes a leap to near-Office proportions. I’m serious. Liz and Floyd make a great, funny, well-written couple. Nothing’s forced with them.

Plus, Sudeikis is an SNL regular, so it’s not likely he’s long for 30 Rock.That means less chance for drawn-out romantic drama (Are you listening Greg Daniels?)

Liz and Floyd settle back on the couch at her place with a pizza to watch Jack’s “Salute to Fireworks,� an unannounced, midtown fireworks extravaganza hosted by Al Roker.

Liz: Oh boy, that’s going to scare a lot of people.

The fireworks show doesn’t last nearly as long as Gold Case. Fortunately, 30 Rock will. And I couldn’t be happier about that.