When NBC's fall schedule was announced last month, two of its half-dozen new series stood out: the Tina Fey-starring comedy, "30 Rock," and the Aaron Sorkin drama, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."

Their common denominator? Each in its own way takes a look behind the scenes at a sketch-comedy show not unlike NBC's own long-running "Saturday Night Live." Jointly, "Studio 60" and "30 Rock" (one of whose executive producers is "SNL" boss Lorne Michaels) are reaching new heights in network narcissism: One-third of NBC's freshman slate is about NBC.

Shows about shows have been around forever, of course. Life not once but twice removed is a time-honored TV tradition that reaches back at least to Rob, Buddy and Sally churning out scripts for "The Alan Brady Show" on "The Dick Van Dyke Show."

Granted, that show-within-show was fictitious. Not quite so for "Studio 60" and "30 Rock."

But who's complaining? Even though the pilot for either series could still be revised and isn't yet approved for review, in their current versions both look very promising. Promising, and then some: Maybe they foreshadow a whole new age of media self-involvement.

"Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" is a richly filmed hour with a large ensemble cast on the order of "The West Wing," which Sorkin also created.

The pilot begins with a clash between a network censor and the executive producer of the show-within-the-show, "Studio 60" — a live late-night series that seems different from "SNL" principally in that it airs from Hollywood (not New York) on Fridays (not Saturdays) on the National Broadcasting System (not the National Broadcasting Company).

The producer loses his power play. Moments before airtime, the politically sensitive sketch he was fighting for is yanked.

He rails that "Studio 60," which in the past represented "cutting-edge political and social satire," has "gotten lobotomized by a candy-ass broadcast network."

"30 Rock" hits even closer to home. Literally. The title of this zany single-camera comedy refers, of course, to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the Manhattan address of NBC Universal and corporate parent General Electric — and, like the real-life "SNL," home to "The Girlie Show," a live sketch-comedy program whose head writer is Liz Lemon (played by Fey, herself an "SNL" veteran).