As it dawns on Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) that he’s no longer a part of GE and now works for Kabletown, he decides to conquer this new phase in his life just as he did before. After researching, he finds that the most watched reality programs of the past five years are celebrity benefits for natural disasters. Since all the networks air benefits at the same time, no one network has an advantage nor dominates in the ratings. To combat this, Jack decides to pre-tape a benefit to air on the night of the next natural disaster. When a disaster devastates an island called Mago, Jack is ecstatic until he finds out that the island is owned by the infamous troubled actor, Mel Gibson. Regardless, the event is a success.

Meanwhile, Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) pushes Liz Lemon’s (Tina Fey) buttons as usual by not showing up to rehearsals and leaving work to do something insane. However, Tracy’s demeanor instantly changes when a camera crew starts to follow him around for his wife’s new reality show. He starts to act responsible and respectful in front of the cameras, as not to ruin his chances of winning an Oscar. Liz has the idea to use Tracy’s fake good behavior to get him to do things he blew off in the past, knowing that he can’t refuse while taped.

This works until Tracy finds a loophole. When Liz tries to get Tracy to do more things, he refuses and insults Liz to the melody of “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel. Since the song is trademarked, any footage containing that song can’t be used. Therefore Tracy’s irresponsibility wouldn’t be aired on the show. Liz tries to outcrazy him with autotune, but she later realizes that she can’t match his insanity. They finally talk it out alone and each argue that the other person would have been a failure without their help. Cameras manage to film this nevertheless and Tracy and Liz refuse to make up. However, when the show edits their various confrontations and uses two look-alikes to create a make up scene along to the song “Secrets” by One Republic, both Liz and Tracy are moved to tears and make up for real.

“Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning” is the twelfth episode of the fifth season of the American television comedy series 30 Rock. It was written by executive producer Robert Carlock. The director of this episode was Beth McCarthy-Miller. It originally aired on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in the United States on January 27, 2010. Guest stars in this episode include Robert DeNiro, Lester Holt, Sherri Shepherd, and Dean Winters.

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