People in the TV industry, unsurprisingly, love TV. They don't just make it, they watch it, they talk about it and, occasionally, they even reference it.
Sometimes those references to other shows make total sense – Torchwood on Doctor Who, say – but some of them can get pretty weird – and occasionally insulting. Here are our favourite, reallyy odd ones.
1. Breaking Bad on The Walking Dead
Technically, this one makes sense. Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead are both AMC shows in the US, they're both aimed at adult audiences, and they both maintained their level of quality across all five seasons. (Wait, what do you mean there are more than five seasons of The Walking Dead? No there aren't!)
But this shared universe (which is mostly based on references Daryl makes to a familiar sounding drug dealer, "bitch!" ) has had some pretty weird consequences, escalating into some oddball fan theories that Walter White's weird meth was actually the catalyst for the zombie apocalypse.
2. Doctor Who on Community
Let's face it, every single entry on this list is nerdy in some way, but Community's Doctor Who tribute Inspector Spacetime took things to the next level: by never actually naming the show it's referencing. Instead, it deconstructs the key elements of Who, so that true fans will recognise the iconography even though none of it actually appears.
So, instead of a blue police box, we get a red phone box; instead of a 'companion' we get a 'constable'; and instead of a sonic screwdriver we get the 'quantum spanner'.
OK, so it's not the most subtle meta-comedy we've ever seen, but it's still pretty funny. Add in some deep cuts about the history of the show, and this is a real treat for Whovians, although probably baffling for everyone else.
3. The Simpsons on South Park
South Park, The Simpsons, Family Guy – they all reference each other so much they may as well be the same show. The Simpsons and Family Guy did eventually officially crossover, but South Park already (unofficially) did it – with an episode called 'Simpsons Already Did It'.
The meta-episode, which was probably parodying creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone's difficult mission to find original stories for a surreal cartoon series when The Simpsons exists, sees Butters, in his evil alter ego persona Professor Chaos, trying to come up with a plot to take down the town, only to be told, each time, that 'The Simpsons did it'.
What's especially weird about it is that it doesn't seem to be official, falling under the realms of 'parody' where it comes to copyright infringement.
Perhaps that's why, despite the fact it was a (relatively) respectful tribute on South Park, The Simpsons repaid the favour by having Bart and Milhouse watching an episode of the show that seemed to highlight the more juvenile elements of Parker and Stone's creation.
That's just mean.
Although probably not as mean as South Park's Seth MacFarlane takedown.
4. Star Trek on The West Wing
It vaguely makes sense that Star Trek would pop up on The West Wing – they both have progressive political messages, after all. What doesn't make as much sense is the specific reference involves Josh Lyman criticising die-hard Trekkers, saying they're not fans but fetishists.
It feels like a weird low-blow, especially when you factor in Star Trek: Voyager's West Wing reference (a commander J Bartlett is listed on a view-screen), which was a) loving and b) required a die-hard level of fandom to spot.
So much for the unified liberal elite, eh? Sad.
5. Fringe on Fox shows
This is probably the oddest entry on this list. When Fringe 'homaged' Marvel's concept of The Watchers with The Observers (see what they did there?!), we expected they'd pop up all over the place in the show, but what we didn't expect was to see them in other shows on the Fox Network – including shows that aren't even fictional.
Whether they were watching Major League baseball (see above) or popping up in a crowd of fans at a Twilight premiere, Fringe took the concept of other-show referencing to bizarre lengths, by weaving characters from their universe into ours.
It made narrative sense – The Observers travel through time and space to observe human evolution (we're sure the Twilight premiere was fascinating in that respect) – but still, it was pretty weird nonetheless.
Freelancer writer
Sam is an entertainment writer with NCTJ accreditation and a twenty-year career as a film journalist.
Starting out as a staff writer at Total Film, moving up to Deputy Online Editor, Sam was responsible for Total Film’s YouTube channel, where he revolutionised the magazine’s approach to video junkets, creating influential formats that spread to other outlets.
He’s interviewed a wide range of film icons, including directors such as David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Ridley Scott, Michael Bay and Sam Raimi, as well as actors such as Meryl Streep, Nic Cage, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Anne Hathaway, Margot Robbie, Natalie Portman, Kermit the Frog, all of the Avengers and many more.
Sam has also interviewed several comic creators, including Stan Lee, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and he has a zombie cameo in The Walking Dead comic.
In 2014, Sam went freelance, working directly for film studios including Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox and Disney, as well as covering red carpet events for film marketing company PMA Productions.
Sam is the co-host, producer and editor of the Arrow Video podcast, which has seen year-on-year growth since its creation in 2017, gaining over half a million listens in that time.
His byline has appeared in outlets such as Yahoo, MTV, Dazed, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Good Housekeeping among others.
In 2012, Sam made it to the final of the Leicester Square Theatre New Comedian of the Year competition, and went on to become a filmmaker himself, directing three features that have all played major festivals, and secured distribution – starring in two of them.
Jim Carrey once mistook Sam for Johnny Cash, and John Carpenter told him to ‘Keep up the good work.’ He promises to try his best.
