not sure how popular this is but i also think that "Hero or Hate Crime?" is one of the very best episodes in the back half of the series. there's a whole long sequence that feels like the writers talking directly to the audience deconstructing what makes the gay Mac joke funny as well as wondering if the joke loses its humor at a certain point if they keep using it as the exact same punchline forever. the conversation the gang has is hilarious at face value, and also super interesting as a meta commentary. and they reach a perfect conclusion where the joke is still on Mac, but his character is set up to progress all the same. would highly recommend people rewatch if they've never thought too hard about this episode, it kind of made me think about the show in a new way the first time i paid attention to it
*stage goes black, a lone spotlight on Lewis*
Lewis: I don't know why I'm so mean... maybe it's because my parents didn't love me...
*another spotlight on Drew*
Drew: Maybe I can't read because I'm so-
Lewis: Stop stealing my plot device, Drew.
Drew: Sorry.
*spotlight on Drew goes off*
S.O.B.s - Arrested Development
It's basically an episode where the creators knew the show was getting cancelled and created an allegorical story of the Bluth family being about to lose their company and trying desperately to save it as a thinly veiled meta joke for the show's situation.
Michael: Wow, after all this I can't believe it's come down to just begging.
The narrator: ...Please tell your friends about this show.
Season 3 in general was really meta once they knew they were being cancelled and just went really on the nose with it.
Michael: So, what's going on with the fundraiser?
George Sr.: Well, I don't think the Home Builders Organization is gonna be supporting us.
Michael: Yeah, the HBO's not gonna want us. What do we do now?
George Sr.: Well, I think it's "Show Time." I think we have to have a show during dinner.
Community, there are countless examples but one of my favourites is Cooperative Calligraphy
> Gwynnifer? Hi. Yeah, it's me. I can't make it. Well, tell your disappointment to suck it. I'm doing a bottle episode
To add to this. I believe Gwynnifer was a real person who Dan Harmon was beefing with on Twitter, but in the show it’s Jeff’s code name for Britta (which the episode makes several minor references toward).
Years later, you really get to appreciate how unique and fun writing was on House, M.D. This show sure had some of the craziest stuff ever for regular medical drama.
Also 200 - Stargate SG-1
It's actually a shame we didn't get a 100th episode of Atlantis to see what fun thing they would have done. Worst thing is they stopped at 99, come on.
The Pilot and many other episodes in season 4 of Seinfeld were very meta about how the show itself came about. "show about nothing", Jerry can't act, Kramer wants to play himself, unable to write for a woman, etc
I think The Real J Peterman is, by far, the most meta Seinfeld episode, while the "show about nothing" is more just loosely based on Jerry's life, like the rest of the show.
This is surely the most extensive (since it was like almost half a season of episodes) and perhaps even the earliest instance of meta? Were there even shows in the 70s and 80s that had anything similar?
In the early 80s Barney Miller aired at 9pm Taxi at 930. On Barney Miller, Deitrich and Harris were assigned to stay in an apartment with a man who had info they needed, they were bored out of their minds. Barney knocks on the door of the apartment in the evening, they are watching TV. Theres some talk, Barney says "Ok , I have to go." Deitrich says "You dont want to stay? Taxi is on in ten minutes."
The Spectacular 138th of The Simpsons, a glorified clip show with '~20% of new material (not a legit source of entertainment)' you know you are in for some fun when Troy McClure is hosting.
Gumball's *The Money* and *The Signal*, and Chowder's *The Shopping Spree*
Also Close Enough's Halloween special, and I think that one Simpsons Halloween episode where Homer travels into the real world also counts
When I was a kid, I loved the episode of Growing Pains where Ben dreams he is an actor on a sitcom. He insists he is actually Ben Seaver, but everybody else tells him is is an actor playing Ben Seaver. Growing Pains always had the occasional meta joke (even though people still remembers it as an "everybody gets along" sitcom) but this episode had more meta jokes than usual; I remember the episode used the real life names of the actors.
Years later I watched the Twilight Zone episode "A World of Difference" in which an man is suddenly told he is an actor playing a character in a movie, and he insists he is actually the character. So this also counts as "what TV episode you never realized was a homage/ripoff/whole plot reference to another episode".
That GP storyline also happened on *Just the Ten of Us*. One of the daughters, played by Brooke Theiss, imagined she had her own TV show, and there was a scene of the whole cast doing a table read. In that scene, she was still playing her character Wendy Lubbock while the rest of the cast went by their real life names.
Xena had an episode where it was modern times and they were in a boardroom discussing the show. I don’t remember much beyond that but that was trippy.
All the office people were cast members on the show.
I remember that one, it was pretty wild.
Bruce Campbell played the show's creator, Ted Raimi played hack writer Alex Kurtzman... and they were struggling to make an episode after Hercules' actor disappeared.
There's also an episode of Hercules with the same premise except it turns out the actor Kevin Sorbo is really the 2500 year old Hercules and he keeps giving plot lines to the writers based around what really happened
I can't believe nobody mentioned the episode from Avatar: the Last Airbender where they watch a play based on the show. I think it's called the Ember Island Players
The final episode of Community where everyone imagines what “season 7” could look like, only to decide that it wouldn’t really make sense, and it’s time to move on.
The gang desperately tries to win an award.
I DONT NEED YOUR TROPHIES OR YOUR GOLD, I JUST WANNA TELL YOU ALL GO FUCK YOURRRRRRSSSSSEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLVVVVEEEEESSSSS
Black bars don’t win awards, I don’t know why they just don’t!
not sure how popular this is but i also think that "Hero or Hate Crime?" is one of the very best episodes in the back half of the series. there's a whole long sequence that feels like the writers talking directly to the audience deconstructing what makes the gay Mac joke funny as well as wondering if the joke loses its humor at a certain point if they keep using it as the exact same punchline forever. the conversation the gang has is hilarious at face value, and also super interesting as a meta commentary. and they reach a perfect conclusion where the joke is still on Mac, but his character is set up to progress all the same. would highly recommend people rewatch if they've never thought too hard about this episode, it kind of made me think about the show in a new way the first time i paid attention to it
The Drew Carey Show had a similar episode, being over the top melodramatic in every scene.
*stage goes black, a lone spotlight on Lewis* Lewis: I don't know why I'm so mean... maybe it's because my parents didn't love me... *another spotlight on Drew* Drew: Maybe I can't read because I'm so- Lewis: Stop stealing my plot device, Drew. Drew: Sorry. *spotlight on Drew goes off*
This is the better episode, but The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 7 is way more on the nose meta.
S.O.B.s - Arrested Development It's basically an episode where the creators knew the show was getting cancelled and created an allegorical story of the Bluth family being about to lose their company and trying desperately to save it as a thinly veiled meta joke for the show's situation. Michael: Wow, after all this I can't believe it's come down to just begging. The narrator: ...Please tell your friends about this show. Season 3 in general was really meta once they knew they were being cancelled and just went really on the nose with it.
Michael: So, what's going on with the fundraiser? George Sr.: Well, I don't think the Home Builders Organization is gonna be supporting us. Michael: Yeah, the HBO's not gonna want us. What do we do now? George Sr.: Well, I think it's "Show Time." I think we have to have a show during dinner.
And the whole schtick of “in 3D!” And “Presented Live!” And “One of these characters will die!”
Okay, we’ll just tell you now. She’s the one who dies
“Oh, Gob, you could charm the black off a telegram boy!”
Damn, I can't believe this one flew right over my head
Community, there are countless examples but one of my favourites is Cooperative Calligraphy > Gwynnifer? Hi. Yeah, it's me. I can't make it. Well, tell your disappointment to suck it. I'm doing a bottle episode
Really the entire series of Community is meta because of Abed.
To add to this. I believe Gwynnifer was a real person who Dan Harmon was beefing with on Twitter, but in the show it’s Jeff’s code name for Britta (which the episode makes several minor references toward).
He had a date to catch, or should I say, a catch to date.
House had that episode where he was convinced he was just dreaming because the scene edits from location to location were like time jumps for him.
Yeah that was trippy. And super sad.
Which episode was this?
Years later, you really get to appreciate how unique and fun writing was on House, M.D. This show sure had some of the craziest stuff ever for regular medical drama.
Some of my favorites have been mentioned, so let me add another one: Wormhole X-Treme! - Stargate SG-1.
Also 200 - Stargate SG-1 It's actually a shame we didn't get a 100th episode of Atlantis to see what fun thing they would have done. Worst thing is they stopped at 99, come on.
Damn that’s what I thought of
Also the 200th episode, titled "200". Their recreation of the movie using puppets is pure perfection...
My first thought.
Same!
‘It did very well in DVD sales.’
The X-Files - X-Cops
"I don't think it's live TV, Scully. She just said fuck."
Yeah, that was awesome!
The Pilot and many other episodes in season 4 of Seinfeld were very meta about how the show itself came about. "show about nothing", Jerry can't act, Kramer wants to play himself, unable to write for a woman, etc
I think The Real J Peterman is, by far, the most meta Seinfeld episode, while the "show about nothing" is more just loosely based on Jerry's life, like the rest of the show.
This is surely the most extensive (since it was like almost half a season of episodes) and perhaps even the earliest instance of meta? Were there even shows in the 70s and 80s that had anything similar?
The finale of Newhart aired three years earlier.
In the early 80s Barney Miller aired at 9pm Taxi at 930. On Barney Miller, Deitrich and Harris were assigned to stay in an apartment with a man who had info they needed, they were bored out of their minds. Barney knocks on the door of the apartment in the evening, they are watching TV. Theres some talk, Barney says "Ok , I have to go." Deitrich says "You dont want to stay? Taxi is on in ten minutes."
The Spectacular 138th of The Simpsons, a glorified clip show with '~20% of new material (not a legit source of entertainment)' you know you are in for some fun when Troy McClure is hosting.
Or the *Behind the Laughter* ‘documentary’ episode
Clerks the Animated Series did a clip show as the second episode and it's completely hilarious.
Dun… dun… dun… why are we walking like this?
"Trials and Tribble-ations," DS9. *Odo:* "Tell me: do they still sing songs of the Great Tribble Hunt?"
I don't think I've ever seen that episode in its entirety but I can still hear Rene Auberjonois's sarcastic delivery in my head.
“We do not discuss it with outsiders.”
Gumball's *The Money* and *The Signal*, and Chowder's *The Shopping Spree* Also Close Enough's Halloween special, and I think that one Simpsons Halloween episode where Homer travels into the real world also counts
Close enough getting cancelled and removed from streaming services is criminal.
SAME BUD, I'M STILL PISSED
Psych did episodes that were from the movie Clue and Twin Peaks
When I was a kid, I loved the episode of Growing Pains where Ben dreams he is an actor on a sitcom. He insists he is actually Ben Seaver, but everybody else tells him is is an actor playing Ben Seaver. Growing Pains always had the occasional meta joke (even though people still remembers it as an "everybody gets along" sitcom) but this episode had more meta jokes than usual; I remember the episode used the real life names of the actors. Years later I watched the Twilight Zone episode "A World of Difference" in which an man is suddenly told he is an actor playing a character in a movie, and he insists he is actually the character. So this also counts as "what TV episode you never realized was a homage/ripoff/whole plot reference to another episode".
That GP storyline also happened on *Just the Ten of Us*. One of the daughters, played by Brooke Theiss, imagined she had her own TV show, and there was a scene of the whole cast doing a table read. In that scene, she was still playing her character Wendy Lubbock while the rest of the cast went by their real life names.
I forgot all about that show, and I had to look it up. TIL the girl I crushed on on Just The Ten Of Us was Nancy from A Nightmare On Elm Street.
Duck Amuck.
Supernatural “The French Mistake” with a side of “The Monster At The End Of This Book”. You can end the thread now =)
I’ll also throw in Scoobynatural since it’s meta both in universe and out
The Supernatural is another good choice!
Could argue the entire show is meta since its revealed the writer is a character in the show.
Yeah that one immediately came to mind, I genuinely love that episode
Hollywood Babylon, too!
The first episode of Futurama after they re-aired because they got canceled.
You're going to have to be more specific.
Xena had an episode where it was modern times and they were in a boardroom discussing the show. I don’t remember much beyond that but that was trippy. All the office people were cast members on the show.
I remember that one, it was pretty wild. Bruce Campbell played the show's creator, Ted Raimi played hack writer Alex Kurtzman... and they were struggling to make an episode after Hercules' actor disappeared.
There's also an episode of Hercules with the same premise except it turns out the actor Kevin Sorbo is really the 2500 year old Hercules and he keeps giving plot lines to the writers based around what really happened
Star Trek Voyager - Season 4 Episode 23, "Living Witness"
Supernatural's episode Fan Fiction. The girls singing Carry On Wayward Son is just great.
Supernatural's the French Mistake. Where Sam and Dean are transported to a parallel universe where they are the stars of the show Supernatural.
I can't believe nobody mentioned the episode from Avatar: the Last Airbender where they watch a play based on the show. I think it's called the Ember Island Players
The final episode of Community where everyone imagines what “season 7” could look like, only to decide that it wouldn’t really make sense, and it’s time to move on.
I would like to know, what got you to watch Duck Tales? Haha. Blast from the past!
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1119405/?ref_=ttep_ep2
OOHHHH. A new Duck Tales. Ha. I was thinking of the one I watched as a kid. (I am 40)
No worries :) New are better imo and I am 35 and watched og ones back then and recently :)
Rick and Morty for sure. especially when they meet the super-villain Brett Kahn. His power? To ret-con anything as he see's fit.
The Self-Referential Six is so corny, I love it. It's *Connie TinuityError!*