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30 Rock (2006)
8.3/10on IMDb
First aired
Liz Lemon’s job is to get an NBC sketch show on the air while managing a star who thinks the broadcast should work around him. Start here for the weekly churn of writing, rewrites, network notes, and fairly terrible ideas that get approved anyway.
More about 30 Rock2
The Larry Sanders Show (1992)
8.5/10on IMDb
First aired
The late-night staff has a needy host, an announcer angling for more attention, and a producer who knows which crisis can wait for the commercial. The jumps between the broadcast and Larry’s backstage decisions make the same joke look different from both sides.
More about The Larry Sanders Show3
UnREAL (2015)
7.8/10on IMDb
First aired
Watch producers arrange the conditions for a dating show contestant to break down, then work out which footage tells the story they wanted. The fictional Everlasting lays out its machinery with unusual clarity, though the workplace itself is frequently cruel.
More about UnREAL4
Episodes (2011)
7.8/10on IMDb
First aired
A British writing couple discover what happens when an American network buys their hit school comedy. Matt LeBlanc plays a version of himself cast in the remake, so changes to casting and script notes have uncomfortable consequences in the room.
More about Episodes5
The Newsroom (2012)
8.6/10on IMDb
First aired
Will McAvoy’s cable-news team rarely agrees about what ought to lead the nightly broadcast. Choose the American series when deadline calls and arguments about editorial judgment sound more interesting than the finished news segment.
More about The Newsroom6
The Morning Show (2019)
8.1/10on IMDb
First aired
A network morning show enters a public crisis when its longtime anchor is fired amid allegations of sexual misconduct. The on-air pair, control room and executive offices offer different views of who can keep a story off the front page.
More about The Morning Show7
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006)
8.3/10on IMDb
First aired
Open on a sketch show whose outgoing executive producer interrupts a live broadcast. His successors inherit airtime, a troubled roster and a network afraid of another spectacle. The comedy show is fictional, and the production story often plays as earnest drama.
More about Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip8
Sports Night (1998)
8.3/10on IMDb
First aired
A late-night sports desk has to fill airtime even when the news is upsetting and the staff are arguing. Casey and Dan do the broadcasting, and producer Dana Whitaker gives the show much of its fast pace from behind the scenes.
More about Sports Night9
The Comeback (2005)
7.9/10on IMDb
First aired
A sitcom veteran lets a reality camera follow her return to television. The camera records the jokes, notes and humiliations that Valerie Cherish would prefer to package differently. It’s the closest look here at how being filmed changes the work.
More about The Comeback10
The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970)
8.3/10on IMDb
First aired
Mary Richards takes a TV news job at WJM in Minneapolis and becomes the steady presence in a newsroom full of personalities. Ted Baxter’s confidence on camera is especially funny when you’ve just seen the work somebody else did to put the words there.
More about The Mary Tyler Moore Show11
Murphy Brown (1988)
7.0/10on IMDb
First aired
A veteran newsmagazine reporter comes back to FYI and immediately tests everybody’s ideas about how an anchor should behave. The original run is especially good on the contrast between an assured broadcast and the arguments that produce it.
More about Murphy Brown12
Great News (2017)
7.0/10on IMDb
First aired
Katie works on a cable news program called The Breakdown. When her mother Carol becomes an intern, the usual quarrels about guests and on-air talent pick up an extra layer of family meddling. Pick it for a fast control-room comedy.
More about Great News13
Julia (2022)
8.3/10on IMDb
First aired
Julia Child makes a case for a cooking show and then has to help produce one that can work at a public station. Pick it for the practical challenges of introducing an unfamiliar format and getting a meal cooked within a television segment.
More about Julia14
The Curse (2023)
7.1/10on IMDb
First aired
Whitney and Asher try to get a home-renovation show made while their producer Dougie looks for something more dramatic to film. The 2023 series is particularly uneasy about what happens when footage of a neighborhood has to fit the story the hosts want to tell.
More about The Curse15
Kidding (2018)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
Jeff Pickles hosts a children’s show whose willingness to discuss grief becomes a professional argument. Watch for the gap between an institution built around a reassuring presenter and the topics he wants to address when his own family changes.
More about Kidding16
Lessons in Chemistry (2023)
8.2/10on IMDb
First aired
Elizabeth Zott becomes the presenter of Supper at Six and brings a chemist’s approach to mainstream cooking television. Pick it for a presenter who uses an expected format to do something her audience and employers haven’t quite planned for.
More about Lessons in Chemistry17
Back to You (2007)
6.5/10on IMDb
First aired
A former Pittsburgh news anchor returns to share the desk with a colleague who would have been happy never to see him again. Watch the 2007 sitcom for a friction-filled local broadcast.
More about Back to You18
Being Mary Jane (2013)
7.6/10on IMDb
First aired
News anchor Mary Jane Paul has to keep a public authority that doesn’t give her any time off from her personal life. The workplace story becomes sharper when producers, viewers, and colleagues care about different things in the same broadcast.
More about Being Mary Jane19
The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961)
8.5/10on IMDb
First aired
Rob Petrie goes home to Laura and spends his workdays with Sally and Buddy writing for Alan Brady. It’s an early example of the television writers’ room as a workplace, even when the gag that starts there follows somebody home.
More about The Dick Van Dyke Show20
The Muppets (2015)
7.4/10on IMDb
First aired
Kermit produces Up Late with Miss Piggy while a camera crew records how the job gets done. The 2015 show uses familiar characters for the less glamorous business of booking guests and getting a late-night episode out the door.
More about The Muppets21
This Time with Alan Partridge (2019)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
Alan fills in as a presenter on a live television magazine. The show’s familiar mix of interviews and reports gives him a surprising number of ways to look unprepared, especially once the cameras move away from the desk.
More about This Time with Alan Partridge
