You can't move for meta-sitcoms these days, yet 2005's The Comeback, starring Friends' Lisa Kudrow, pre-dates them all. Perhaps it was too far ahead of its time

This scathing satire of the US TV industry stars Friends alumnus Lisa Kudrow as a washed-up sitcom star trying to resurrect her career – and being followed by reality show cameras en route. The Comeback was co-created in 2005 by Kudrow and Michael Patrick King, who had been head writer on Sex and the City. Despite three Emmy nominations and Entertainment Weekly naming it among their "10 best shows of the decade", it only lasted 13 episodes. You can't move for meta-sitcoms these days (Episodes, 30 Rock, Grandma's House), yet The Comeback pre-dates them all. Perhaps it was too far ahead of its time.

Kudrow's character Valerie Cherish found fame in a 90s sitcom – rather like Kudrow. Since the show, called I'm It!, got cancelled, she's been "resting". As we meet her, she's auditioning for Room & Bored, a pilot set in a beachfront flat shared by bikini-clad MTV types. Valerie assumes she'll be playing a sexy, older roommate. Actually, she's Aunt Sassy, the annoying neighbour who wears pastel shell-suits.

Kudrow is in every scene of The Comeback, giving an extraordinary ego-free performance. Much of the show's bittersweet comedy lies in the gap between Valerie's people-pleasing, perma-grinning wackiness and the small, sad, insecure self revealed when she thinks no one is watching. She's heartbreakingly brittle at times, recalling David Brent when his office door closes. She's no pushover, though. As the series progresses, she stands up for herself and triumphs (kind of).

The Comeback is knowingly playful about its own lack of originality. Valerie spots an issue of Entertainment Weekly with the coverline: "Is reality TV dying?" She looks as if she might cry. The film crew following Valerie run into other fly-on-the-wall shoots, including The Switcheroo ("a father/son Trading Places deal") and America's Next Great Porn Star ("your next challenge is to run up five flights of stairs with a mouthful of crème fraiche").

"Unless I have sex in a hot tub or eat a cow's testicle, nobody's going to be watching," Valerie laments. "It's all sex and stunts these days." That night, in desperation, she slips into a saucy nightie and seduces her long-suffering husband on camera – but only up to a watershed-friendly point. "I see," he sighs. "So you gave me blue balls for ratings?" That's showbiz.