TV One's new show Best Bits, (Fridays 9pm) is the latest in a long line of TV shows about TV shows. Which makes it a bit like one of those mirrors that repeat off into infinity.
I've always loved shows on telly about telly, going back to my childhood memories of I Like That One Two, TV2's request show in which people wrote in to ask for their favorite moment from Little House on The Prairie or Chips. I was so taken by the fact that every single car that crashed on Jon and Ponch's patch would burst into flames, that when I experienced my first major prang - a head-on in Manukau road in which the Hillman Hunter I was travelling in came off second best to a Valiant - I was amazed when we weren't engulfed in flames. I realised then that TV had lied to me.
I even became obsessed with the slightly dour but eye-opening series The Fourth Estate, in which journalism lecturer Brian Priestley took the media to task in 11minute chunks on a Friday night. It was then that I learned that media sometimes lies to us too. Best Bits is more I Like That One Two, with jokes attached, and as such has more in common with the best of all the current TV shows about TV, E Channel's The Soup, which I reckon is one of the 6 best TV show's about TV of all time, so far. Cue the list.
6: The Soup. Nearly 10 years old now and way better since Joel McHale took the reigns. With the never-ending goldmine of American TV to trawl through and a razor sharp wit with added mean-spiritedness the show is a constant delight, but never watch it live, record it, because the E Channel has the longest and direst ad-breaks made up of never ending promos for their worst shows.
5: The Larry Sanders Show. The year was 1992 and this show changed everything and influenced so many of our most loved comedies. The part sitcom, part satire of Letterman-esque talk shows, is Garry Shandling's finest moment. Without it, Ricky Gervais or 30 Rock would probably not exist.
