Canada jokes abound on NBC’s staggering comedy block. On “30 Rock,” Jack (Alec Baldwin) and Avery (Elizabeth Banks) find themselves north of the border when Avery feels stirrings of childbirth. Ever the stalwart patriot, Jack moves mountains to keep his offspring from being born anywhere but the home of the brave.

The snowy dominion also figures in a subplot on “Parks & Recreation” (8:30 p.m., NBC), Tom (Aziz Ansari) has to cut short his dalliance with Ron’s (Nick Offerman) ex-wife when she declares that she has to return home to care for her aging parents — and that her parents are, gasp, Canadian.

Canada jokes aside, you can’t say “Parks and Recreation” isn’t trying. Megan Mullally does her best as Ron’s ex wife, a sexually ravenous and deranged librarian. She does inspire the gruff and conservative Ron to have his hair done in cornrows, the episode’s funniest moment. Rob Lowe appears to be having fun as a slightly creepy type-A office drone. But the arrival of famous guests usually comes at a time when a sitcom has run out of creative gas. In the case of “Parks & Recreation,” I’m not sure the series ever had anything in the tank.

• “Ultimate Factories” (9 p.m., National Geographic) visits the facility in Turin, Italy, where they assemble Maserati convertibles, capable of hitting 170 mph. We’re also taken to Modena, Italy, where the car’s engines are made. It takes 22 days to craft the Maserati GranTurismo Convertible. So consider it a relative bargain at $135,000.

• Turner Classic Movies continues its thematic march toward Oscar night, celebrating Academy Award-nominated talents behind and in front of the camera. Tonight marks a festival of movies featuring art and set decoration by Cedric Gibbons, who won 11 Oscars and garnered 39 nominations for films including “Annie Get Your Gun” (7 p.m., TCM), “An American in Paris” (9 p.m.) and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1 a.m.).

Tonight’s other highlights

• Auditions conclude on “American Idol” (7 p.m., Fox).

• Jealousy abounds on “Perfect Couples” (7:30 p.m., NBC)

• A box of thrift-store donations includes a corpse on “CSI” (8 p.m., CBS).

• Michael gets too mushy for many on “The Office” (8 p.m., NBC).

• A BMX bike stunt goes very badly on “Bones” (8 p.m., Fox).

• A storm bears down on the Hamptons on “Royal Pains” (8 p.m., USA).

• Witness protection fails miserably on “The Mentalist” (9 p.m., CBS).

• Sarah attempts a mediation between a cable cooking-show host and the company releasing his namesake sauce on “Fairly Legal” ( 9 p.m., USA).

Cult choice

The winner of last year’s best director Oscar for “The Hurt Locker,” Kathryn Bigelow’s credits include the 1987 vampire western “Near Dark” (7 p.m., IFC) with a cast including Adrian Pasdar, Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton.