• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Real TV shows mentioned within a fictional context

B

bpatrick

The thread about integrating commercials into the show got me
to thinking about times when a real TV show has been mentioned
within the context of a fictional episode. Off-hand, two come to
mind (and I don't include satires such as "Boulder's Rule" or "The
Prize Is Priced" from "The Flintstones"):

On "The Andy Griffith Show" episode "Citizen's Arrest," Barney has
decided to do jail time rather than pay the fine. Otis comes in and
is shocked to see Barney in jail. He gets the idea that the cell structure
has been reversed because he's the one who should be locked up. Seeing
he's on the outside and Barney's on the inside, he says, "I'm in the twilight
zone!"

On "Leave It To Beaver"'s last season, Eddie Haskell, in one of his putdowns
of the Beav, asks him, "Who are you, Dickens or Fenster?" ("I'm Dickens, He's
Fenster" with John Astin and Marty Ingels, was airing Friday nights on ABC in
1962-63).

On "I Love Lucy" Ethel mentions that her mother was Queen For A Day once.
(This is an early episode, when "Queen" was being seen only on the West
Coast; for the rest of the country it was still strictly a radio show.)

Others?
 
Big Bang Theory includes frequent references to Star Trek in all its incarnations, and to other sci-fi series. Wil Wheaton, Levar Burton, Brent Spiner and George Takei (off the top of my head) have made guest appearances.

An early episode also included a reference to the girl on Blossom before Mayim Bialik joined the show.

In a shameless piece of promotion, On Make Room For Daddy, Danny suggests watching the new Dick Van Dyke Show (I hear it's great). Danny Thomas' production company produced the Van Dyke Show.

Jerry Seinfeld once made a disparaging reference to people who watch Mad About You. Later in an episode of Mad About You, it's recounted that Paul Buchman had sublet his apartment to Kramer when he and Jamie moved in together (Buchman asks about the comedian across the hall, although the told-in-reverse episode of Seinfeld says Kramer was in that apartment before Jerry moved in).

On Cheers, Woody talks about meeting Robert Urich, who is in Boston filming scenes for Spencer for Hire. Cliff appears as a contestant on Jeopardy and writes a joke for the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson (with Cliff, Norm and Cliff's mother in the audience).

On All In The Family, Archie watches the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkie ("Pinko Cronkite") and Cronkite visits the newsroom on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

In an early episode of Newhart, Dick is shown watching his "favorite TV show." He unplugs his headset and the theme from The Bob Newhart Show is playing (this is before we learn Newhart was Bob Hartley's dream).
 
...on The Jack Benny Program, there were at least one time Jack appeared on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life within the context of that week's storyline; another time, after Jack appeared on actual $64,000 Question, Hal March showed up on Jack's show and put him through another round of the game...

...and, of course, there were the times on The Odd Couple that Felix and Oscar showed up on faux productions of Password, Let's Make a Deal and Monday Night Football...
 
...somewhere on YouTube, there's an episode of Fernwood 2 Night on which Barth Gimble takes umbrage with something allegedly said by Tom Snyder on Tomorrow...
 
In the episode "Anatomy of a Tonsil" of The Partridge Family, Danny watched Marcus Welby, M.D.

St. Elsewhere mentioned other shows constantly. There was an episode where a male patient thought he was Mary Richards and at the end of the episode he ledt the hospital and threw his beret in the air. St. Elsewhere was produced by MTM.
 
The all time champ has to be the "Green Acres" episode where the Hooterville Players staged a production of "The Beverly Hillbillies".


There was an episode of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" where Rob was in court for some reason, and Sally said the whole experience was "like watching 'The Defenders' without a TV set".

I can also remember Andy (I think) mentioning longtime Cincinnati news anchor Al Schotttelkotte once on "WKRP".
 
bpatrick said:
On "Leave It To Beaver"'s last season, Eddie Haskell, in one of his putdowns
of the Beav, asks him, "Who are you, Dickens or Fenster?" ("I'm Dickens, He's
Fenster" with John Astin and Marty Ingels, was airing Friday nights on ABC in
1962-63).

Others?
Click to expand...

"Leave It to Beaver" also mentioned "McHale's Navy," "Route 66," and "The Twilight Zone."
 
Also on "Beaver" in the 2nd season, Beav & Larry were going through Larry's sister's stuff, and they come across a photo of Edd "Kookie" Byrnes. Larry says something like "Oh, that's Kookie from that TV show." ("77 Sunset Strip" was not mentioned by name---maybe studio issues?)

Eddie's line "Who are you, Dickens or Fenster?" in the OP would go WAY above everyone's head now!

Good thread here!

cd
 
Ultimajock said:
...on The Jack Benny Program, there were at least one time Jack appeared on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life within the context of that week's storyline; another time, after Jack appeared on actual $64,000 Question, Hal March showed up on Jack's show and put him through another round of the game...

...and, of course, there were the times on The Odd Couple that Felix and Oscar showed up on faux productions of Password, Let's Make a Deal and Monday Night Football...
Click to expand...

Actually, it wasn't Monday Night Football. It was a local broadcast of a Jets pre-season game. The episode showed Howard Cosell (not Mr. Kathie Lee) doing play by play - something he never did on Monday Night Football.

The all time champ has to be the "Green Acres" episode where the Hooterville Players staged a production of "The Beverly Hillbillies".
Click to expand...

Maybe this should be a separate category - continuity shifts. In this episode, the Hillbillies are a TV show. In later cross-over episodes, the Hillbillies are in the same fictional universe as "Hootersville" and are real.
 
Batman and The Green Hornet were both produced by the same company. In one episode, Bruce and Dick are watching Hornet in Bruce's study, while on an episode of GH, a hood is told to quit watching Batman and get going.
 
In the "Beaver" episode Don Juan Beaver, Beaver mentioned "Ben Casey" as well.

cd
 
On an episode of All in the Family, Edith is describing an episode of Perry Mason where Raymond Burr jumps up to object. She then adds, "He don't jump up no more"--Burr was starring as wheelchair-bound Ironside at the time.

On the early 80's CBS series, "Nurse," which starred a post-Waltons Michael Learned, the producers were obviously Three Stooges fans since one scene had the hospital PA bellowing "Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard."
 
an Episode of Emergency! focused on John Gage getting hung up on a season 4 Episode of Adam-12. the funny thing is both Gage and Desoto would appear the next season in a episode of Adam-12 and the the officers of Adam-12 appeared in the Pilot of Emergency!
 
On the Brady Bunch, Bobby once mentioned watching a lot of Mission: Impossible and Alice mentioned Owen Marshall and I think another show that I can't recall.
 
By coincidence, I just saw a Cozi-TV promo for Magnum PI. In the clip, Magnum asks an Asian kid why he talks hippie slang (in the 80s). The kid says he grew up watching The Mod Squad, Welcome Back Kotter and Shindig.
 
"Mister Ed" (currently on Hallmark Movie Channel on weekend mornings) is full of references to other shows. Perry Mason, Twilight Zone, etc. My favorite, though, is several references to Huntley-Brinkley, which aired on NBC, ofcourse. Surprised they got away with that as Mister Ed was a CBS show.
 
glc said:
"Mister Ed" (currently on Hallmark Movie Channel on weekend mornings) is full of references to other shows. Perry Mason, Twilight Zone, etc. My favorite, though, is several references to Huntley-Brinkley, which aired on NBC, ofcourse. Surprised they got away with that as Mister Ed was a CBS show.
Click to expand...

Maybe this was first season when Ed was in first-run syndication.

The most ridiculous thing about Ed. Not that a horse talked. That any guy who had Carol in the house would spend time in the barn talking to the horse.
 
On "The Munsters", Herman once remarked "How would Fred McMurray handle this on "My Three Sons"?

Gunsmoke was mentioned on several episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show". The first appearance of Cousin Goober, Gomer asked Andy if he has seen Goober walk like Chester on "Gunsmoke". In another episode, when Aunt Bea got mixed up with the Elixer saleman, she refered to Andy and Barney as Marshall Dillon and Chester.

On the "Beverly Hillbillies", a movie producer told Jethro they weren't auditioning for replacements for "Captain Kangaroo".
 
While not mentioned specifically by name, "The Bob Newhart Show"
was a source of jokes on subsequent shows. On an episode of "St.
Elsewhere" Jack Riley (Elliot Carlin) plays a character who blames his
insanity on "some quack in Chicago," and repeats the bit on an episode
of "Newhart." In the latter, Dick, who goes to a marriage counselor, thinks
Riley's character looks familiar, resulting in an insult from Riley. The counselor
apologizes, saying that she's trying to undo the damage caused by "a quack
in Chicago." (On "St. Elsewhere," Oliver Clark, who had played Mr. Herd on
"The Bob Newhart Show," is referred to as John Doe Number Six--a reference
to "The Prisoner," perhaps?)

On "The Bob Newhart 19th Anniversary Show," the cast is trying to figure out
Bob's famous dream when Howard (Bill Daily) says. "I had a dream like that once.
I dreamed I was an astronaut in Florida for five years." (Daily, of course, played
Roger Healy on "I Dream Of Jeannie.") And on "Saturday Night Live" Bob and Suzanne
Pleshette replayed the dream; this time Bob wakes up and says he dreamed he was
on "Saturday Night Live." Suzanne: "That's not still on, is it?"

And once, on "Murphy Brown," Bob tries to get Carol (Marcia Wallace) to give up her
job as Murphy's secretary and come back to work for him.
 
glc said:
"Mister Ed" (currently on Hallmark Movie Channel on weekend mornings) is full of references to other shows. Perry Mason, Twilight Zone, etc. My favorite, though, is several references to Huntley-Brinkley, which aired on NBC, ofcourse. Surprised they got away with that as Mister Ed was a CBS show.
Click to expand...
Could also be a reference for stations in the 1960s who Carried both NBC and CBS programs first-run. At that time, there was a lot of stations in smaller markets that carried both Mister Ed and Huntley-Brinkley.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom