The lights are bright, the pressure is on, and everyone’s watching, as the stakes for success have never been higher. Are we talking about a gripping sports show? A White House-set political drama? A heart-stopping medical series? The new season of The Bear? All good guesses, but this time, we’re tuning into TV shows about TV shows.

Yes, if the adage is “write what you know,” then TV scribes have a lot of dramatic fodder in their own industry, where Hollywood egos, writerly pretentiousness, ad dollars, and ratings warfare collide.

We had many to choose from, but the magnificently meta titles below are our picks for the best TV shows about TV shows — some are solemn, many are silly!