Shelton had spent two years in negotiations with the show's producers before she was hired to direct this episode. "Apollo, Apollo" originally aired in the United States on March 26, 2009, on NBC as the sixteenth episode of the show's third season and the 52nd overall episode of the series. In this episode of 30 Rock, actor Dean Winters reprised his role as Dennis Duffy, a former boyfriend of Liz Lemon, for the sixth time, having appeared in "Jack Meets Dennis", "Tracy Does Conan", "The Break-Up", "Subway Hero", and "Cooter". Actor Adam West played himself on the show, in which he introduces Jack Donaghy by the wrong name at Jack's fiftieth birthday party. Liz's phone sex line commercial, the full-length version, is featured on 30 Rock's season three DVD as part of the Bonus features. In a scene in "Apollo, Apollo", Jack wonders what it would be like to see the world through NBC page Kenneth Parcell's (Jack McBrayer) eyes, revealing that Kenneth sees everyone as Muppets. To accommodate this, Sesame Street puppeteers Joey Mazzarino, Carmen Osbahr, and Matt Vogel were brought in to do the Muppet versions of Jack, Liz, and Tracy Jordan. This angle would later be used again in the show's fourth season episode "Dealbreakers Talk Show" in which Kenneth appears as a muppet while walking by a high-definition camera. In addition, the program was parodied by Sesame Street, in the show's 39th season, entitled "30 Rocks". Star Wars is frequently referenced in 30 Rock, beginning with the pilot episode in 2006 where Tracy 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, and dressed up as the Star Wars character Princess Leia during four recent Halloweens, and 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. In "Apollo, Apollo", Tracy reveals to Liz and Jack that going into space has been a childhood dream of his, and that when he is there, he would like to kill the Ewok. Tina Fey, the series creator of 30 Rock, 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".