Do TV shows ever directly reference unrelated shows?

Do TV shows ever directly reference unrelated shows? - Man Holding Remote Control

I was watching S4E2 of Shakespeare & Hathaway the other day and the plot involved something that I'd never heard of (see spoiler, below) until it featured as the major plot element of an episode of the Brokenwood Mysteries.

The plots of Brokenwood and S&H both referred to a tontine - a group financial instrument. In Brokenwood the whole case hinged on the tontine, in S&H it appeared to, but in the end didn't.

When one of the characters described the nature of this thing to another character, it was assumed (and stated) that the character in question was looking at his 'phone (held just out of view) and reading a description he's looked up on-line. This made me think it would have been quite amusing for the character to deny looking it up and say he'd got his information from an episode of Brokenwood. This led me to wonder: has any TV show ever directly named, as a plot point, another, completely unrelated TV show?

I know there are crossover shows that reference each other as though they were part of the same real-life universe (Warehouse 13 and Eureka, for example), but I was looking for a TV show that made reference to another show as a TV show, like a character in, say, Holby City (medical soap/procedural) saving a life and saying "I learnt how to do that from an episode of Casualty".

If it just doesn't happen, is there an established reason? Something like trademark infringement or something?



Best Answer

Absolutely. It's not uncommon for a TV character to reference another show as a means of fleshing out that character's tastes and personality. As an example, on The Office (US), the character Dwight mentions his love of Battlestar Galactica multiple times, and also discusses his enjoyment of Game of Thrones, leading to a plotline in which he teaches a co-worker how to speak a fictional language developed for that show. Other characters reference their favorite shows at various points, including Grey's Anatomy, Queer as Folk, SNL, The Apprentice, and Lost. These references can help to make characters feel more realistic and grounded in the same reality as us, rather than fictional people in an entirely fictional world.




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What is it called when a show has a different story each episode?

An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short.

What is it called when two TV shows combine?

A crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story.

What are episodic shows called?

Serial is when a plot continues over a long time, like your example of BSG. Episodic is what it is called when the plot wraps up each episode, like Law and Order. 114.

Does every episode have a plot?

A show which has episodes that stand more-or-less independently are called episodic. Important plot points do not carry over from episode to episode. Although the show may reuse settings, characters, etc., you can pretty well watch the episodes independently and fully understand what's going on.



10 TV Shows That Cleverly Foreshadow What Happens




More answers regarding do TV shows ever directly reference unrelated shows?

Answer 2

It's quite common.

The "Stargate" franchise frequently referenced Star Trek, for example. It was common enough that Star Trek has a rather extensive page on the Stargate fandom wiki: https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek

Shows like Family Guy and The Big Bang Theory would probably only have enough screen time to fill one or two seasons without references to other shows.

Here's a supercut of references from "The Office" -

"Billions" is pretty well known for this, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ShoutOut/Billions

There are also many examples where fictional shows cross over to real life ones.

There is an episode of Cheers where Cliff goes on Jeopardy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is..._Cliff_Clavin%3F), an episode of HIMYM where Barney goes on the Price is Right (https://how-i-met-your-mother.fandom.com/wiki/Showdown), and many others.

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