Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) has to attend a Congressional hearing in Washingtown about the Kabletown-NBC deal. He seems to have won over most of the representatives in the Subcommittee on Baseball, Quiz Shows, Terrorism, and Media, with his vertical integration presentation until Rep. Regina Bookman (Queen Latifah) calls out NBC for being racist. Jack tries to point out that Sunday Night Football has many African-American players, and that Anthony Anderson stars in the long-running show Law & Order, which he did not realize had been canceled. Bookman manages to bring the whole room to their feet with her rambling grandstanding.

Back in New York, he asks Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) and Dot Com (Kevin Brown) to produce a program for the African-American community. Dot Com suggests a show called “Let’s Stay Together,” about an African-American family in the 70’s, but when Grizz (Grizz Chapman) suggests that a talking dog be added to the show, Tracy orders Dotcom to incorporate it into the rewrite, much to his dismay.

Meanwhile, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) is unhappy about the lack of respect she gets from her writing staff and storms into Jack Donaghy’s office to complain about it, to which Jack agrees. Jack later asks her if Toofer(Keith Powell) can be promoted to co-head writer in an effort to diversify NBC. Liz accepts, seeing this as an opportunity for someone else to get the lack of respect and complaints she does. She gets upset, though, when he gets a TV interview as head writer, and insists that she herself should also be there as she is co-head writer. On the talk show aimed toward African-American audiences, she gets upset when the host gives Toofer all of the credit she deserves, but is then escorted off the set by a white security guard.

Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) is back at NBC. He wants to reapply to the page program, but notes that it has become a pageant. When Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) hears this, she volunteers to help him win the pageant using her own pageant experience. Jenna treats Kenneth as her mother treated her during her pageant years. After a failed, over-the-top performance in front of Human Resources Rep. Jeffrey Weinerslav, Jenna vows to get Kenneth his job back when she realizes she has turned into her mother. She gets Jack to force Weinerslav to hire Kenneth back, which he does.

When Rep. Bookman visits the set in New York, Jack tries to show NBC’s commitment to diversity, but that is thwarted when Tracy and Lutz (John Lutz) fight over separation of food tables. Furthermore, she sees signs next to two bathrooms saying “Colored” and “White,” signs that were really intended for the just removed paper recycling bins, and Weinerslav informs Jack and Rep. Bookman that the minority slot in the page program has just been filled by Kenneth. Jack tries to improve the situation by giving “head writer” Toofer a medal for his work, but Regina sees right through this, and discovers that Liz Lemon is the only one that truly deserves her respect, and congratulates her with an “I Met a Congresswoman” sticker. After more grandstanding, Rep. Bookman tells Jack she will vote no on the deal unless he gives her reason not to.

The episode ends with a taping of the “Let’s Stay Together” rewrite, with the talking dog.

“Let’s Stay Together” is the third episode of the fifth season of the American television comedy series 30 Rock, and the 83rd overall episode of the series. It was directed by John Riggi, and written by Jack Burditt. The episode originally aired on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network in the United States on October 7, 2010.

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