In The Office (US version) it is revealed that the mockumentary the viewer watches does in fact exist inside the universe. Dunder-Mifflin crew is even interviewed as stars of the show and Pam has a thing for the boom mic operator who worked on the set.
Netflix’ Tick tick boom is based on an eponymous theatre play, which told the background story of the shows creative process. Its main character is a fictional version of the creator, Jonathan Larson.
Season 4 of the Arrested Development revolves around Michael getting release rights from his family members to create a show based on their story from seasons 1-3. He even hires a fictitious version of Ron Howard, who is the real show’s director.
Marvel’s She-Hulk ends with the main character discussing the corners cut during production with a fictionalised version of Kevin Feige.
These are for examples that I could come up with from the top of my head. Can you think of any other?
Spike Jonzes’s Adaptation shows Charlie Kaufman writing the screenplay for the movie in itself.
And Kaufman’s twin brother writing an arguably better screenplay.
The race of horse versus bike!
Didn’t Stargate have a show inside the show called Wormhole Extreme or something like that? And Peter DeLuise who directed Stargate was the director on the fake show as well.
Seinfeld has an arc where Seinfeld writes a show about his own life, aka the show we’re watching. clip
The Japanese film One Cut of the Dead: I don’t want to explain too much, but if you want a movie that takes this concept to the furthest degree then you should check it out.
Not exactly what you asked for, but Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog had a director’s commentary track that was also a musical.
One Cut of the Dead is one that comes to mind, you can watch the zombie movie at the start, and then the rest of the movie is the crazy things that went on in the background to make the movie. It’s a lot of fun.
Episodes (starring Matt LeBlanc as himself) is very much up this alley. It’s a show about two British TV writers adapting their big BBC hit for American TV. It’s also one of the more underrated shows out there, I don’t see a lot of people talking about it and frankly it’s excellent.
How many seasons was the British show?
Four.
How many episodes per season?
Six.
Great, so we can do your entire run in season 1. What’re we doing for season 2?
Fantastic show
Astroid city by wes anderson is very meta. The lead talks to the director in the movie asking about his motivation etc.
The entire Muppet Movie is about going to Hollywood to make The Muppet Movie.
And of course, the ending of Holy Mountain.
Or best of all, Troll 2, and its explanation movie « Best Worst Movie ».
Synecdoche, New York
maybe? A movie about a theatre piece explaining the life of the author making this show.
The Muppet Movie is all about the Muppets meeting and trying to get to Hollywood to become movie stars. At the beginning and end you see the Muppets in a theater watching their own movie.
Actually a lot of other Muppet content is similarly meta.
Oh, also the Human Centipede trilogy. I haven’t seen it, but my understanding is
spoiler
the second film has the first one in its universe, then the third one includes the second film and immediately leads up to the first one again
The third one also includes the director of the series, Tom Hopper, being invited to see the “real life” human centipede, only to be horrified by what his movies inspired in “real life.”
Funeral Parade of Roses is intercut with interviews with the actors.
Clerks 3 is about Kevin Smith’s heart attack and then making of a movie very similar to Clerks.
