Why they call it `the idiot box'

Set in that strange world from which TV series emerge, Jake Kasdan's wickedly funny comedy follows the travails of a writer guiding his pet project through the Scylla and Charybdis of network television. An insider's guide to a process seemingly rigged to yield lowest-common-denominator programming, "The TV Set" will have you wondering how anything worthwhile ever makes it on the air -- and understand why the best stuff usually winds up on cable.

In general, the movie doesn't necessarily reveal anything we don't already know but delivers it in a personable, entertaining manner that places us inside the conference rooms and editing suites of Studio City (or Burbank or Century City or Culver City

A bearded David Duchovny plays Klein with a carefully modulated blend of intelligence, hope and skepticism. When his manager Alice (a dead-on Judy Greer) suggests that a hirsute actor (Simon Helberg) who is Mike's first choice to play the lead might be "too hip for the room," he asks if that's code for "too Jewish."

Attempting to avoid the wreckage of countless unproduced scripts and unaired pilots, Klein must proceed as diplomatically as possible. Sigourney Weaver costars as Mike's nemesis, a network executive named Lenny who proudly declares that "original scares me a little" and is beholden to the opinions of focus groups and her 14-year-old daughter.

Aglow with the success of the reality series "Slut Wars," Lenny is further emboldened to "tweak" "The Wexler Chronicles" into something barely resembling Klein's initial vision. From casting to the title and premise, the writer faces an uphill battle. With both Lenny and Zach Harper (Fran Kranz), the network's choice to play the lead in the pilot, Kasdan deftly walks that fine line between creating caricatures and nailing the type of person you've unfortunately dealt with in your own line of work.