Today You Are a Man

"Today You Are a Man" is the fifth episode of the sixth season of the American television comedy series 30 Rock, and the 108th overall episode of the series. It was directed by Jeff Richmond, and written by co-executive producer Ron Weiner. The episode originally aired on NBC in the United States on February 2, 2012. Guest stars in this episode include Kristen Schaal, Nicholas Dayton, Josh Fadem, and Suze Orman. In the episode, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) goes head to head with Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) to negotiate over her contract, Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) considers quitting the page program after he discovers that nobody had missed him during his absence in the previous episode, and Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) are hired as the entertainment for a bar mitzvah. Plot Liz Lemon's (Tina Fey) old agent Simon Behrens (Josh Fadem) informs her that her contract is almost up and that Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) has sent her a new one. Annoyed that Jack would expect her to blindly sign a new contract, Liz decides to negotiate with him for better pay and conditions. She meets with Simon at the library and discovers a seminar tape Jack had recorded called Negotiating to Win. She starts using Jack's own techniques on him in the negotiation, which he recognizes and is pleased with, since it is now an even playing field between the pair. The two meet at an ice-cream shop, where it seems that Jack has won the negotiation, which prompts him to negotiate with himself in a mirror on Liz's behalf, where he accidentally wins for her. Meanwhile, Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) returns from his temporary firing, only to realize that no one noticed his absence. Hurt, he decides to switch to The Suze Orman Show and provides the TGS crew with an inadequate new page named Hazel Wassername (Kristen Schaal). Kenneth ends up speaking with Suze Orman. She tells Kenneth that the reason his TGS friends don't view him as an equal is because he doesn't earn as much as them.