Marc Spitz’s new one-act play, “The Name of This Play Is Talking Heads,” takes place in a purgatory familiar to anyone who has spent a weekend afternoon watching basic cable. The play is a satire of music-network shows such as “Best Week Ever,” “I Love the ’80s,” and “100 Most Wanted Bodies.”

Its name is taken from “The Name of This Band is Talking Heads,” an album by the Talking Heads. Mr. Spitz has said that he received permission from the band’s lead singer, David Byrne, to use the title.

Mr. Spitz, a senior writer at Spin magazine, says he once appeared on VH1’s “The Sleaziest Moments in Rock” in order to promote an article he had written for the magazine. Like his play’s protagonist, he soon realized: “It felt very showbizzy and not at all representative of what I was doing at Spin.”

The play’s hero, Pete (Brian Reilly), is an innocent young scribe at Headphones, a “pretty well-known glossy magazine.” He’s arrived at a television studio to film some quippy commentary for an upcoming special titled “Top 100 Most Rockatrocious Moments in Rock History.”

In the makeup room, he meets Frankie (Matt Higgins), a haggard comic – a living warning of what happens to those who live too long among the detritus of B-movies and cancelled sitcoms.

For a true VH1 show, a series of comedians, C-list celebrities, and the occasional writer (“for credibility”) appear on camera to make mildly amusing, utterly unsurprising jokes about the topic at hand.

In this netherworld, pop culture is king. Confusing Duane Wayne, a character played by Kadeem Hardison on the 1980s sitcom “A Different World,” with Duane Nelson, a character played by Haywood Nelson on the 1970s sitcom “What’s Happening!!” is a crime against the royal order. In Frankie’s opinion, a mix-up of this magnitude can lead to “mass layoffs, children going hungry,” and other ills.

Mr. Spitz says that some of the comedians who appear regularly on VH1 auditioned to play Frankie, though none of them were right for the role. New York’s downtown comedy scene is full of not-quite-celebrities who have made not-quite-names for themselves at VH1.The live shows include “Eating It,” “PSNBC,” “Welcome to Our Week,” and “The Rejection Show.” When asked if Frankie was modeled after a particular on-air personality, Mr. Spitz refuses to name names. But he doesn’t deny it, either.

In “Talking Heads,” Pete watches the desperately mugging Frankie riffing on Michael Jackson. When Pete takes his turn, the producer crouches off-camera and prompts him with leading questions, a practice Mr. Spitz maintains is routine.

Pete soon snaps, insisting that the show is vapid, a distraction from the world’s true problems that amounts to “pop-culture fascism.”

“I’m a writer!” he proclaims. “I’ve been to college and grad school. I’ve been to Europe and Mexico!” He’s better than all this! Pete lashes out at Frankie, comparing him to the joke-writer and “Hollywood Squares” regular Bruce Vilanch.

Mr. Spitz concedes that he still watches the television programs he’s lampooning. “I didn’t have to do anything to prepare to write the show,” he says. Yet he’s still uncomfortable with the facile nature of the commentary, and calls the programs “a machine that’s erecting these quasi-celebrities.” “You used to have to do something to be famous,” he laments, “not just be snarky.” So far, the programs are not going anywhere. This Saturday and Sunday, VH1 is scheduled to air more than 17 hours of “talking heads” shows. If Mr. Spitz’s play is a hit, perhaps it will even appear someday on “I Love 2005.”

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