text: believe in the stars " believe in the stars " is the second episode of the third season of the american television comedy series 30 rock , and the 38th overall episode of the series . it was written by executive producer robert carlock and directed by series producer don scardino . the episode originally aired on the national broadcasting company ( nbc ) network in the united states on november 6 , 2008 . guest stars in this episode include remy auberjonois , todd buonopane , raven goodwin , and oprah winfrey . the episode 's plot concerns a feud between tracy jordan ( tracy morgan ) and jenna maroney ( jane krakowski ) over royalties from tracy 's pornographic video game gorgasm : the legend of dong slayer . liz lemon ( tina fey ) attempts to settle the fight with the help of oprah winfrey , whom she meets on a return flight from chicago . meanwhile , nbc page kenneth parcell ( jack mcbrayer ) is stung by the revelation that most events from the 2008 summer olympics were staged to boost america 's image and nbc 's ratings . jack donaghy ( alec baldwin ) attempts to break kenneth of his moral absolutism . " believe in the stars " received generally positive reception from television critics , with neal justin of the star tribune concluding it was " the most brilliant episode in the series ' history " . according to the nielsen ratings system , the episode was watched by 8 . 0 million households during its original broadcast , and received a 3 . 9 rating / 9 share among viewers in the 18 – 49 demographic . plot the episode starts with liz lemon ( tina fey ) announcing to her boss , jack donaghy ( alec baldwin ) , that she needs to go to chicago for jury duty because she is still registered to vote there . jack gives liz a powerful sedative for the trip . later , nbc page kenneth parcell ( jack mcbrayer ) walks in on a meeting between jack and the american silver medalist in tetherball , tyler brody ( remy auberjonois ) . tyler is angry at jack for not selecting him as the gold medalist , and is threatening to go public with the revelation that there was no olympic tetherball competition during the 2008 summer olympics , as it was staged to boost nbc 's ratings . to keep him quiet , jack tells him that he can " be the voice of knight rider " in a film adaptation , which tyler considers . afterwards , kenneth tells jack that he " lost two heroes today " , as he looked up to both jack and tyler . as a result , jack wants to be in kenneth 's good side , but wants to break his moral absolutism , after kenneth did not hesitate to attempt to kill himself when he believed the air in a stalled elevator was about to run out . jack finally succeeds when he supplies kenneth with a big screen television , but no cable hookup . kenneth steals cable and later confesses to jack , asking if spongebob squarepants " is supposed to be terrifying " . meanwhile , jenna maroney ( jane krakowski ) demands compensation for her voice work in tracy jordan 's ( tracy morgan ) pornographic video game , gorgasm : the legend of dong slayer . the argument escalates and liz orders them to stop their bickering . after liz leaves for chicago , jenna and tracy decide to conduct a social experiment to see whether tracy can survive better as a white woman than jenna can as a black man , after arguing respectively that black men and white women have it harder in society . later , while on her flight , liz takes jack 's sedative . liz realizes that the woman sitting next to her is oprah winfrey . when liz arrives back at the 30 rock studios , tracy is dressed in female drag with his body covered in white makeup and soon after , jenna enters in blackface and male drag . jack worries that the situation has gone out of control , but liz assures him that oprah , who is coming to the studios , will be able to make them come to terms . as it turns out , her inflight conversation with oprah was a hallucination . the person who liz thought was oprah is actually a 12 - year - old girl named pam ( raven goodwin ) . even so , pam engages tracy and jenna in a heart - to - heart , and manages to settle their differences . production " believe in the stars " was written by executive producer robert carlock and directed by series producer don scardino . this episode was carlock 's ninth writing credit , and was scardino 's fifteenth directed episode . " believe in the stars " originally aired in the united states on november 6 , 2008 on nbc as the second episode of the show 's third season and the 38th overall episode of the series . in september 2008 , it was announced that television host oprah winfrey would guest star on the show . she filmed her appearance on september 13 , 2008 . when winfrey interviewed series creator tina fey on her show in november , fey revealed that they shot their scene together on a saturday , a day that the show normally does not film on . actress raven goodwin played pam , a 12 - year - old girl that , while hallucinating , liz lemon believed was oprah . actor remy auberjonois played olympic medalist tyler brody in this episode . this was actor todd buonopane 's debut as the character jeffrey weinerslav , an nbc human resource mediator . in " believe in the stars " , jeffrey tries to mediate the disagreement that jenna and tracy are having over the video game . buonopane later guest starred in the episodes " cutbacks " and " jackie jormp - jomp " . star wars is frequently referenced in 30 rock , beginning with the pilot episode in 2006 where tracy jordan is seen shouting that he is a jedi . liz admits to being a huge fan of star wars , saying that she had watched it many times with pete hornberger ( scott adsit ) , and dressed up as the star wars character princess leia during four recent halloweens , and in this episode while trying to get out of jury duty in chicago . star wars is also referenced when tracy takes on the identity of the character chewbacca . fey , a fan of star wars herself , said that the weekly star wars joke or reference " started happening organically " when the crew realized that they had a star wars reference " in almost every show " . she said that from then on " it became a thing where [ they ] tried to keep it going " , and that even though they could not include one in every episode , they still had a " pretty high batting average " . she attributed most of the references to carlock , whom she described as " the resident expert " . reception according to the nielsen ratings system , " believe in the stars " was watched by 8 . 0 million households in its original american broadcast . it earned a 3 . 9 rating / 9 share in the 18 – 49 demographic . this means that it was seen by 3 . 9 percent of all 18- to 49 - year - olds , and 9 percent of all 18- to 49 - year - olds watching television at the time of the broadcast . this was a decrease from the season premiere episode , " do - over " , which was watched by 8 . 7 million american viewers . nonetheless , this episode was the eighth highest - rated show on the nbc network during the week of november 3 – 9 , 2008 . since airing , " believe in the stars " has received positive reception from television critics . ign contributor robert canning praised the episode , saying that it was " an absolutely perfect episode with not a moment wasted [ and ] equally hilarious were the storylines between jack and kenneth , and tracy and jenna . the episode had everything that makes 30 rock great . " canning opined that liz 's admissions to oprah winfrey were " painfully funny " , and that tracy " was on fire " following his actions in this episode . in conclusion , canning gave it a 10 out of 10 rating . jeremy medina of paste was complimentary towards the episode , reporting that it had " madcap humor tirelessly delivered one joke after another at a lightning fast speed , adding up to one of the funniest episodes in the series . " medina enjoyed the social experiment between jenna and tracy , noting that it was " hilarious " . tv guide 's matt mitovich commented that the episode was " rock - solid " , while neal justin of the star tribune believed it was " the most brilliant episode in the series ' history " . television columnist alan sepinwall of the star - ledger wrote that " believe in the stars " belonged to tina fey " who has grown by leaps and bounds as an actress over the past few years . the princess leia voice , her drunken panic on the plane [ ... ] and the religious fervor at the knowledge that oprah would be coming to the studio were all hilarious , and played with the sort of confidence i don 't know that she would have had at the start of the series . " the a.v. club 's nathan rabin said that the jenna and tracy subplot was not the most inspired idea , but admitted it introduced one of his " favorite gags in 30 rock history " regarding two make - up artists giving tracy a monster claw to use as a white hand when they ran out of white powder . rabin called it a " brilliant gag . " he was less enthusiastic with winfrey in the episode , noting that her appearance " was treated as such a seismic cultural event that tonight 's episode couldn 't help but feel like a letdown . " bob sassone of aol 's tv squad wrote that " the least effective plot " in this episode was jenna and tracy 's .