How best to describe Nobody’s Watching? Created in part by Bill Lawrence (mastermind behind Scrubs and Clone High), it was originally filmed as a pilot for the WB, who passed on it. The show stars Taran Killam (Mad TV) as Derrick and Paul Campbell (Battlestar Galactica) as Will, best buds from Ohio who love television, but are so disappointed by the current sitcom offerings that they film a rant and send it to the WB. The WB flies them out to LA ostensibly to create their own sitcom, but in fact to be the unknowing stars of a reality show about creating a sitcom. So we have a show about a show about the creation of a show, with various levels of parody and self-referentiality, starring actors portraying characters who are reality TV stars.

The series was not picked up because, according to the WB, test audiences were confused by the premise. However, last summer, the pilot showed up on YouTube, where it became hugely popular (it’s still up, in three parts: Part I, Part II, and Part III). So popular, in fact, that NBC decided to give it a shot. Sort of.

You see, there’s a website, but it features the two actors as their characters, creating web-based videos for NBC. Supposedly, they’re waiting to hear whether NBC will in fact order more episodes or not. Meanwhile, it’s kind of being used as an attempt to virally kickstart the show. As if that isn’t strange enough, the two actors have been showing up as background extras in various shows, such as CBS’s How I Met Your Mother and Days of Our Lives—they’ve even showed up at the Emmys, posing as fake valets—tomorrow night they’re due to be on Scrubs.

Whatever the case, several of their videos are worth watching: their tribute to Lost (spoilers if you haven’t seen through season 2); their parody of 24, and perhaps my new favorite, their generic sitcom opening (filmed on the set for J.D. and Turk’s apartment on Scrubs). If you’re going to watch one, watch that one.

At this point, I can’t quite decide if there’s a show here, and if so, whether it’s a “straight” sitcom or a parody, but by this point the characters have become, well, endearing. I’m not sure that the premise of the original pilot will hold, and yet in some ways any future show with these characters would really need to build on that somehow. Regardless, I’m fascinated by this new intersection of television, the web, reality, and parody. Although, sometimes it makes my head hurt.