Mirror Images

By James Poniewozik

A measure of great art is how it sheds light on the existential burdens shared by all humankind. For instance, the deep pain you suffer when someone swipes your reserved space in the studio parking lot. That this particular human tragedy surfaces in two new series--Showtime's Beggars and Choosers and Fox's forthcoming Action--is emblematic of Hollywood's new favorite subject: itself.

"Our business interests everyone," says Action executive producer Joel Silver. "Everyone has two businesses--their own and show." On that assumption, a slew of new, recent and planned programs is offering behind-the-scenes takes on TV (Beggars, ABC's Sports Night, and Kilroy, a sitcom George Clooney is developing for HBO) and the movies (Action, the WB's new Movie Stars and AMC's mini-series The Lot, premiering Aug. 19 and 20). In an ingenious stunt-casting move, ABC's It's Like, You Know... features former Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey as--former Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey.

If this is industry self-love, though, it's tough love. While TV has turned the camera on itself from The Dick Van Dyke Show to The Larry Sanders Show, the current mirror gazing is not just more insider-oriented but harsher. Rob Petrie's foibles were along the lines of tripping over the ottoman, not buying a $250,000 screenplay from "the wrong Jew" in a case of mistaken identity, as Jay Mohr's smarmily obnoxious producer, Peter Dragon, does in Action's pilot. Beggars, a sharp satire set at the fictional bottom-tier network LGT, updates Network for broadcast's era of decline. Action and Beggars compare show business, unfavorably, with prostitution and the Mob. Meanwhile, the clever but self-important Sports Night treats its topic with the laugh track-eschewing gravity of M*A*S*H--though one rarely bleeds to death on a sportscast. The one exception to this self-flagellating trend is the tepid family sitcom Movie Stars. It's Growing Pains with agents.

Narcissistic or not, the shows raise obvious Peoria-play questions. Movie Stars had a relatively strong start amid weak summer competition, while Beggars' ratings have not taken off, despite fairly positive reviews. Action, however, will prove a big test. It's got notice for bringing pay cable's profanity to broadcast, but another risky import is the deep-insider view that worked for Larry Sanders' select, limited audience. (Creator and executive producer Chris Thompson, who was executive producer of Sanders, originally intended Action for HBO.) While Action could be the best fall comedy in an anemic field, and Mohr plays Dragon with an intriguingly baby-faced venom, looming over the show is the ghost of the short-lived Buffalo Bill (1983-84), which also portrayed a loathsome media figure (Dabney Coleman as a TV talk-show host). But today's fans, who can spout weekend box-office grosses like football scores, fancy themselves insiders, fascinated with and cynical about media. Action, says Thompson, will appeal by "confirming America's worst fears that people in show business are the crass and venal destroyers of the culture and consumed by self-interest."

Which may be just what we want to hear. In essence, these shows say about the famous what soap operas say about the rich--that they're no better than we are, probably less happy, possibly less moral. Audiences today have a love-to-hate relationship with Hollywood and the media; we've supported Beavis and Butt-head's meta-media sarcasm and David Letterman's roasting of TV bigs. It's a short step from a late-night joke about CBS chief Les Moonves to the name dropping that has become easy punch-line fodder on even bland fare like Movie Stars ("Any movie where you throw Jeff Goldblum down a flight of stairs is a good movie"). These references flatter us by confirming that we're the sort of hipsters who would knowingly chuckle at them, that we're the quality audience for quality shows, unlike Hollywood's ordinary pap--an argument tailored to the upscale demographics that programmers covet. What's more, insiderism appeals to, well, insiders, which means attention from colleagues and critics. In its newfound introspection, Hollywood may be talking to itself. The question is whether the rest of us will listen.

--With reporting by Jeanne McDowell/Los Angeles

With reporting by Jeanne McDowell/Los Angeles