30 Rock, "Kidney Now!": Steve Earle, Steve Earle, please write a song for me

Spoilers for the "30 Rock" season finale coming up just as soon as I say "opposite"...

"We sure had quite a year." -Liz
"What are you talking about? It's May." -Jack

Seems appropriate that a season of "30 Rock" that was dominated -- and too often overwhelmed -- by guest stars would conclude with an episode featuring not only more Alan Alda, but an all-star cast of musicians (NBC has a list here, which includes a few odd omissions, like Clay Aiken) performing a tribute song for Alda's character.

Fortunately, Sheryl Crow and company didn't dominate "Kidney Now!" to the point where the episode didn't work. It wasn't a classic, but it was funny enough -- which, I suppose, also makes it an appropriate finale for this uneven season.

Alda and Alec Baldwin continue to be a great team. It was great to see a normal, outside person having to deal with Dr. Spaceman's special brand of obliviousness, and I love that Alda was willing to deliver that meta joke about the "M*A*S*H" series finale, where Milton complained to Tracy, "A guy crying about a chicken and a baby? I thought this was a comedy show!"

Even better, though, was the sequence of Liz on "The Vontella Show" turning into the real version of Jenna's relationship guru character. Where the actual catchphrase from "TGS" is deliberately lame (and NBC's real-life attempts to make the catchphrase happen are even lamer), hearing Liz fire off intuitive explanations for why these women should dump their boyfriends ("You have sexually transmitted crazy-mouth" or "Sir, have you ever kissed a gentleman?"), followed by her simply shouting "Dealbreaker," was hilarious, and a fine demonstration of how much confidence Tina Fey has gained as an actress over the years.

The Tracy subplot with his honorary high school diploma didn't have a strong enough payoff, but at least it featured a number of suitably weird moments, like Tracy and the entourage somehow being able to hear Kenneth's voiceover about college, or Kenneth talking about his "science class," which was all Bible stories. Again, like much of the season as a whole, it didn't entirely work, but was funny enough to be worthwhile.

Some other thoughts:

• Not only are Kenneth and Clay Aiken cousins, but Liz went to elementary school with Sheryl Crow, who remembers her as a loser.

• Of course Milton is writing a Jimmy Carter biography ("From Peanut to President")

• Of course Jack calls it "Rainstorm Katrina."

• Speaking of meta, I was intrigued by the frequent references to "TGS" having only two more years left in it, tops. "30 Rock" is considered one of NBC's prestige shows, but the ratings have never been that great, and I could certainly see a scenario where NBC, Fey and Baldwin all decide that five years (or even four) are enough.

• Is this the first Jenna/Mickey Rourke joke? I have a feeling we've heard references before to them trying to date.

• I like that Liz is so uncouth that her idea of a fancy, all-expenses-paid lunch is to find a "sit-down Quizno's."

What did everybody else think?