With all of the hoopla lately surrounding a certain voicemail heard 'round the world and Alec Baldwin's current issues, I was concerned that the Baldwin overload will overshadow this week's season finale of the brilliant and smartly comic 30 Rock.

However, I'm happy to report that I easily pushed the entirety of Baldwin's "parental alienation" issues right out of my mind and was able to focus on the fact that we now have several months of 30 Rock-less television ahead of us. Damn you, NBC, for getting me hooked on this series only to stop producing new episodes during some lame hiatus. Why can't Tina Fey and the rest of 30 Rock's talented cast and crew work year-round for our amusement?

Last night's season finale of 30 Rock ("Hiatus") neatly wrapped up several dangling storylines from the last few weeks, including Tracy's disappearance (the Black Crusaders are after him), Liz and Floyd's relationship, and Jack's impending nuptials to the gold-digging Phoebe (Emily Mortimer). It was so neatly tied with a bow that I actually felt really sad at the end of the episode, given that it finally hit me that this little show that could actually made it to the end of its first season. No mean feat for a comedy that few thought would outlast its original 13-episode order.

Guest stars. I said it about Arrested Development and I'll say it here: this show has the best freaking guest stars in the business. Between Isabella Rossellini, Rip Torn, Paul Reubens, Will Arnett, and last night's double-punch of Elaine Stritch and Sean Hayes, 30 Rock has proven itself adept at writing for guest stars each week without hitting us over the head with them (hello, Will & Grace!) Comedy legend Elaine Stritch was pitch perfect as Jack's tough-broad mother, Colleen, who takes an instant liking to one Liz Lemon (assuming that she's Jack's fiancee) and an immediate dislike to the hollow-boned Phoebe. Can you believe Stritch is 82 years old? I'm hoping she'll pop up again next season as the earthy Colleen; I completely believed that this was the woman from whose loins Jack Donaghy sprung.

Sean Hayes was also hysterical as Kenneth's redneck cousin Jesse, who took in the fugitive Tracy Jordan and hid him in Needmore, Pennsylvania, where he started a new life as nerdy, bespectacled Gordon Tremeshko. Sure, there were a few speed bumps ("Make me a smoothie, and let's go clubbing.") but Tracy soon manages to subvert his celebrity status, even when confronted by a pack of hot women desperate to do anything with famous people. The Needmore sequences were hysterical, recalling both Groundhog Day and Misery, and allowed Kenneth the Page to come to the rescue. Though I jumped in the air when Jesse came after Kenneth, Tracy, Dot Com, and Grizz with a shotgun. And I loved when Kenneth offered up my favorite new expression, "By the hammer of Thor!" in terms of reaction.

Is there any new sitcom character more naive and beloved than Kenneth the Page? What other character on TV today would take a bullet (or, at least, a fall down a steep set of stairs) in order to ensure that, thanks to a quick ambulance ride, his charge, spacey Girly Show actor Tracy Morgan, arrives at the set in time for taping? Sniffle. I'm gonna miss his serial-killer-in-training smile and "aw shucks" mannerisms until the fall.

Jack, meanwhile, ended up in the hospital under the care of Dr. Spaceman. I loved that Colleen realized Jack's heart monitor could be used as an impromptu polygraph and learned that he really did love her ... and Phoebe learned that he really didn't love her. (The fact that she refused to have sex with him at all anymore was also probably not a good sign.)

But it was Jack's scene with emergency contact Liz Lemon (assigned the role because she wouldn't hesitate from pulling the plug) that really summed up everything I love about the show. Liz admits that she's not going to Cleveland to visit long-distance boyfriend Floyd (Jason Sudeikis, who will be missed), after they realized that all Liz talks about is work. Jack admits that his whole life flashed before him (Hands Across America, "Me, personally coining the phrase 'What's the upside?'") and realizes that he does wish that he spent more time at work. These two workaholics are clearly meant for each other ... at least in a platonic way, anyway.

Jack and Liz finally do have a heart-to-heart, Tracy does show up in time for the last show of the season ("Take this, Black Crusaders! It's Cowboy Hey-hey!"), and The Girly Show -- and 30 Rock -- sails off into the sunset of the summer hiatus.

As for me, I'm gonna miss what was hands-down the best new comedy of the season. As one of 30 Rock's earliest fans, I've grown to love this surreal comedy series as much as some of my other favorites over the years, and I cannot wait to see what Season Two brings us this fall. Hopefully, it's with Jack Donaghy (and Alec Baldwin) firmly intact. But, if this season of 30 Rock has shown us anything, it's that the series can keep us laughing as much as it can keeping us guessing as to what's going to happen next.

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Jace is an LA-based television development and acquisitions junior exec who watches way too much television for his own good and would love a TiVo for every room in the house. (He’s halfway there.) His blog, Televisionary, can be found at televisionary.blogspot.com.

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