Production
"Jack Meets Dennis" was written by co-executive producer Jack Burditt and directed by Juan J. Campanella. This was Burditt's first writing credit, and was Campanella's first directed episode. The episode originally aired on November 30, 2006 on NBC as the sixth episode of the show's first season and overall of the series.
Actor Dean Winters made his 30 Rock debut in this episode as the character Dennis Duffy, a former ex-boyfriend of Tina Fey's character, Liz Lemon. Comedian actor Brian Stack made his first appearance as Howard Jorgensen, a GE executive and associate of Jack Donaghy's in the episode. Stack would guest star in the episodes "Succession" and "Larry King". Rachel Dratch, longtime comedy partner and fellow Saturday Night Live (SNL) alumna of Fey, the latter who was the show's head writer from 1999 until 2006, was originally cast to portray Jenna Maroney. Dratch played the role in the show's original pilot, but in August 2006, actress Jane Krakowski was announced as Dratch's replacement. Executive producer Lorne Michaels announced that while Dratch would not be playing a series regular, she would appear in various episodes in a different role. In the pilot and "The C Word" episodes, Dratch played Greta Johansen, The Girlie Show's cat wrangler. In "The Aftermath", she played Maria the maid, who is found by Liz in a closet on a yacht. In this episode, Dratch played actress Liz Taylor. This was Dratch's third appearance on the show. Various other cast members of SNL have appeared on 30 Rock. These cast members include: Chris Parnell, Fred Armisen, Kristen Wiig, Will Forte, Jason Sudeikis and Molly Shannon. Fey and Tracy Morgan have both been part of the main cast of SNL.
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