20 great TV shows that make references to other great TV shows

One of the standout episodes of Friends was Ross’ wedding in London, and a particularly great moment was Joey getting homesick. While back in his hotel room, he gets super emotional when he catches an episode of Cheers and hears its iconic theme song: “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.”

Jake Peralta is a pop culture junkie who works it into lots of his conversations, much to the dismay of Captain Holt, so he expertly spends an entire episode trying to get everyone in his circle to laugh at his Everybody Loves Raymond jokes in reference to his squad leader. 

The Office routinely makes Battlestar Galactica references since it’s Dwight’s favorite show, but toward the end, the audience learns that he’s also, unsurprisingly, a Game of Thrones fan. Dwight spends an entire episode teaching Erin how to speak Dothraki. 

The Goldbergs is rife with pop culture references, and the kids are often seen watching something that seemingly everybody in the ‘80s and before was watching, too. In one of the earlier episodes, Adam tries to take dating cues from old sitcom characters, so he pops in tapes from The Brady Bunch and other famous series for some guidance. 

There is quite possibly no other show in the history of television that has made so many pop culture references than Gilmore Girls. It’s nearly impossible to pick up on all of them. The Bewitched reference is hard to miss, though, as Lorelei calls it out by name, comparing the 2005 movie adaptation to the original series. 

Not all TV shows make overt references to other series. In an episode of The Mindy Project, the eponymous character is seen stopping inside a Cloud 9 store, the chain of big box stores in the series Superstore. 

Every episode of Gossip Girl is named after a famous movie, but the TV references weren’t quite as common. In the series finale, though, the show makes a subtle reference to The O.C. by including Rachel Bilson, one of its stars, in a scene. Gossip Girl and The O.C. were created by the same guy, Josh Schwartz. 

Given that The Good Place and Parks and Recreation  share creator Michael Schur, it’s not surprising that the former is littered with references to the latter. Fans theorize that the shows take place in the same universe due to Easter eggs like advertisements for Parks and Rec characters’ businesses in magazines seen in The Good Place.

The Parks and Recreation city hall can be seen from the window of Sheldon Cooper’s apartment in The Big Bang Theory. This is probably more of a fluke than anything, but it’s comforting for TV lovers. 

Parks and Recreation wasn’t just referenced by other TV series; it also made plenty of references of its own. The episode “Live Ammo” has tons of The West Wing references as guest star Bradley Whitford and Parks and Rec star Rob Lowe co-starred on the political drama. 

Even fictional characters were watching Scandal when it was airing. On an episode of Parks and Recreation, Donna and Craig met for the first time and bonded over their love of Scandal and their least favorite character, Mellie. 

More fictional characters who loved Scandal! In an episode of Jane the Virgin , Jane and Michael watch the Shonda Rhimes show together. TV characters, they’re just like us. 

In an episode of 2 Broke Girls, a fellow waiter at the diner has the Sex and the City theme song set as his ringtone (this was back when people had custom ringtones). The waiter and Caroline both identify as Charlottes. 

Doctor Who has been referenced in TV shows across generations thanks to its popularity and longevity. In an episode of Community, Britta introduces Abed to a parody of Doctor Who called Inspector Spacetime. 

There’s an entire episode of South Park dedicated to parodying Scooby Doo. The Halloween episode “Korn’s Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery” takes jabs at just about everything iconic about Scooby Doo. 

The Simpsons has dedicated a large portion of its airtime to making pop culture references, and that’s part of what makes it so great. It’s made many references to The Flintstones, including meshing Homer Simpson’s and Fred Flintstone’s catchphrases as “Yabba dabba d’oh!” 

Playing off the fan theory that Dennis is a serial killer, the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia crew made an entire episode as an homage to the infamous Netflix documentary Making a Murderer. The episode is called “Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer.”

30 Rock references Frasier by parodying it with a show inside its universe called Black Frasier. Toofer, a writer for TGS, used to write for Black Frasier. 

If you blink or don’t listen carefully, you’ll miss the jokes and references in Arrested Development because of their sheer volume. In an episode of the sitcom, the ending credits of MASH are seen on a computer screen.  

TV shows have been making references to other TV shows for decades. The Golden Girls referenced I Love Lucy quite often during its run, including one episode where Rose mentions how much fun she had the night before, referring to staying up to watch the ‘50s sitcom.