While there was a large cast of zany characters on 30 Rock, the focus of the series was Liz Lemon and the seemingly endless cavalcade of horrible decisions she made. Work. Love. She managed to screw it all up week after week, which was an exceptionally impressive record. But more often than not, Liz was her own worst enemy.
Many of her bad decisions could have easily been avoided. Even worse, Liz was frequently petty and vindictive, particularly when it came to love and food. Those two things tend to cross over in Liz's world with some frequency.
Bought All The Hot Dogs At A Cart
The first episode of 30 Rock set everything in motion. It introduced Jack Donaghy and Tracy Jordan to the world of TGS. But many of the elements were already in place, including the pettiness of Liz Lemon.
When viewers met her, she was at a hot dog cart making a point about the rules by buying every hot dog there. It was an expensive point, particularly since most of the hot dogs were wasted.
Stayed Up All Night Watching Designing Women
This is an odd one because Liz was super petty by being super nice. Lutz said something awful about Liz, which she accidentally overheard. Instead of getting upset, Liz went the opposite direction by being a kinder version of herself.
She ended up staying up all night doing everyone else's work and watching a Designing Women marathon. She supposedly learned something from the marathon but she was too tired to verbalize it.
Put On Serious Game Face For Floyd
Liz's relationship with Floyd was one of the best she had in the entire series. They worked incredibly well together. Unfortunately, it all fell apart when he moved to Cleveland and she stayed in New York.
When he came back to New York on business, Liz faked doing well just make Floyd regret leaving her behind. Naturally, it worked at first, then the whole thing fell apart, revealing the real Liz Lemon.
Married Jack
When attending Jack and Avery's wedding over the break, a small error happened that resulted in Jack and Liz getting married. It was an idea that disgusted both of them to their cores.
But instead of getting it annulled like she was supposed, Liz used it as an opportunity to get back at Jack and manipulate him into getting what she wanted at work. It all led to them realizing how important their friendship was to each other.
Fired Floyd's Girlfriend
When Liz Lemon was first crushing on Floyd, he was dating an accountant named Liz Lemler. The similarities between their names led to some Valentine's Day fun, which is how Floyd and Lemon met in the first place.
When Lemon realized Lemler actually worked for her, she fired Lemler to get her out of the way of her relationship with Floyd. Jack stepped in, rehired Lemler and transferred her away, clearing the path for Lemon.
Played Chicken With Tracy
Tracy Jordan brought out the best and the worst in Liz Lemon. When Tracy's wife, Angie, was shooting her epic reality show Queen of Jordan at TGS, he and Liz ended up in an incredibly petty war.
The core of it was Liz trying to get Tracy to do his job, which was virtually impossible. But instead of taking the high road, Liz went low and sunk to Tracy's level. It wasn't a good look on her. Also, Tracy was way better at it.
Really Screwed Over Abby Flynn
When a website accused TGS of hating women, Liz hired a female comedian named Abby Flynn as a guest writer. Abby was attractive and flirted with both men and women constantly.
Liz, who was not jealous of the attention Abby was getting, hounded the young comedian to be different. What Liz didn't know was that Abby changed her identity to hide from her crazy ex-husband. Liz's petty attempts to undercut Abby actually endangered her life.
Almost Let Jenna Die
The longest standing relationship on TGS was between Jenna and Liz. They had been friends for years, working together to get their show on NBC. But their relationship was also tumultuous, due in no small part to Jenna's weird insecurities.
During one fight, Jenna was testing out a rig that would lift her off the ground as part of a sketch. Liz noticed it wasn't hooked up right but didn't say anything, letting her friend crash to the ground.
Let Floyd Eat Fish
Floyd returned to New York one more time, but with a new fiance in tow. They were appearing in a competition on The Today Show. Liz being Liz, she took the whole thing extremely poorly, and met Floyd for dinner.
He got the salmon with whiskey-based sauce, but ate it without knowing about it. A recovering alcoholic, he got drunk off the sauce quickly. Liz realized what was happening, let it continue and abandoned him at the restaurant.
Old Man Shield
Some of Liz's relationships ended because they needed to for the benefit everyone involved, like the one she had with Dennis Duffy. But none of her relationships ended in a more epic fashion than the one with Carol the airline pilot.
She ended up trapped on his plane with a full load of passengers. Both too stubborn to tap out of the fight, he pulled a gun on her and she used an old man as a shield. That was an obvious place to call it quits.