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Continuity Cavalcade / Western Animation

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Examples of Continuity Cavalcade in Western Animation.

  • The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius had this happen in the episode "Who Framed Jimmy Neutron?", where Sheen asks if several villains Jimmy encountered in previous episodes are the ones who framed him for stealing a million dollars. The real criminal turns out to be Jimmy's arresting officer, Buford Stormshuckle.
  • The Amazing World of Gumball: The song "Nobody's a Nobody", from "The Compilation", references many past episodes.
    • The chorus features a fish from "The Man", a bunny from "The Voice", a DVD from "The World", and a bird from "The Extras".
    • Miss Simian is in the same museum she went to in "The Apology", and in the exact same place, which has her dead dad's fossil exposed.
    • Idaho gets out of the earth like he did in "The Bumpkin".
    • William decreases his pupil and makes the lightless hallway tremble in the same way he did in "The Voice".
    • The Clown from "The Procrastinators" appears on the Wattersons' house's window again.
    • Granny Jojo and Louie are still Happily Married since "The Man".
    • Penny and Gumball are floating in space, like they did in "The Shell" after The Big Damn Kiss, and she references breaking her shell like she did in that episode.
    • Some ghosts from "Halloween" make a reappearance at the haunted house.
    • Ocho is seen at the arcade from "The Name".
    • The spoons and forks from "The Night" sing.
    • Leslie sings at a cafeteria table. His debut in "The Third" was in a cafeteria table too, but it's not the same one.
    • Gargaroth from "The Scam" is seen (though in the USA, "The Scam" premiered after "The Compilation", thus making it a Call-Forward).
    • The pig doctor from "The Saint" returns.
    • The Space Invaders Expy from "The Phone" sings, but without words and only in a tune.
    • Mike the News Reporter and Cam the Cameraman sit on the same bench they did in "The Oracle", before noticing something good to report.
  • In the Amphibia episode "A Day at the Aquarium", Anne and the Plantars decide to spend what they believe to be their last day together at the Newtopian Aquarium. To their horror, every exhibit and sea creature reminds them of their past adventures in Season 1.
  • In the Archer Season 5 premiere "White Elephant", after the characters in the main cast are all arrested for treason by the FBI, all of them—with the exception of Lana and Archer—immediately start blabbing to their interrogators in hopes of escaping prison time. Cue a long montage of everyone recounting past missions from about twenty previous episodes, to a gaggle of increasingly perplexed FBI agents.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • During the Invasion in "Day of Black Sun", several characters whom Team Avatar has worked with over the course of the show are there.
    • "The Ember Island Players" is one huge continuity nod, with a good dash of parody thrown in for good measure. As the last episode before the four-part finale, it served to recap the entire series up to that point.
    • The end of "Sozin's Comet Part 4: Avatar Aang" shows shots of the crowds cheering at Zuko's coronation, where fans see a smørgåsbord of minor characters from throughout the show in attendance.
  • Inverted in Batman: The Animated Series; the Batcave is full of nods to trophies that appear in its counterpart in the comics, and some episodes of this and other DCAU shows (such as the Two-Face segment on "Almost Got Him" and Superman fighting a robotic T-Rex in the pilot to Superman: The Animated Series) retroactively explain how they got there. Played straighter in Batman Beyond, where the Batcave will often display trophies from B:TAS such as Mr. Freeze' freeze gun or the uniforms of Bats' various sidekicks.
  • In Central Park, Season 1 "A Fish Called Snakehead", the song "Die Trying" is not only Reprise Medley that features songs from "Own It", "Weirdos Make Great Superheroes", "Momma's Got This", and "Central to My Heart", back also moments from previous episodes in Season One. The Tillermans skating with Glorious Gary, while Owen still struggles, and they're doing the "Side Slide" from "Skater's Park". The Tillerman are looking at the hot lips turtleheads and then later watch Brendan fly his kite at the same spot where Molly watches him while she draws from "Episode One". The Tillermans watching an owl in a tree from "Rival Busker". Zoom can be seen doing his sequel tour at Bethesda Fountain and later Elwood is seen holding a temporary house with his pet worm, Diane, inside from "Live It Up Tonight". And a Freeze-Frame Bonus shows a "SHART" tag on a tree from "Dog Spray Afternoon".
  • The ChalkZone music video segment "I Need a Song" at one point shows a list of musical numbers from previous episodes.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door:
    • Much of the scavenger hunt sequence of the finale was loaded with references to previous episodes.
    • In addition, this seems to be Mr. Boss's schtick. Any time he is the episode's antagonist, expect to see an entourage of at least a dozen previously-seen villains, if not more.
    • The season 1 episode "Operation QUIET" had reappearances of Toilenator, Lola, Lizzie, Wally's Numbuh 1 disguise, Professor Tripleextralarge (who had finally developed the ultimate snowcone), Stickybeard, and the Common Cold, as well as Lizzie mentioning how she wants to take Nigel to The Point.
    • "Operation IT" has appearances from every single KND operative, as well as every single treehouse seen to date.
  • Cool McCool: "College of Crooks" has McCool's foes banding together to eliminate him: the Owl, the Rattler, Jack-In-The-Box, Hurricane Harry, Dr. Madcap and Greta "Green Lips" Ghoul.
  • The Courage the Cowardly Dog episode "Ball of Revenge" had Eustace bring several villains from previous episodes (Katz, Le Quack, the Weremole, the Cajun Fox, the Clutching Foot, and the Queen of the Black Puddle) together to gain revenge on Courage.
  • The Dr. Zitbag's Transylvania Pet Shop episode "Word of Horror" has Dr. Zitbag put on trial for being nice. Several one-shot characters from previous episodes can be seen among the jury.
  • All the guests attending the wedding in the Duckman episode "Four Weddings Inconceivable".
  • "'Til Nephews Do Us Part", the finale to the first season of DuckTales (1987), featured appearances from just about every character that had appeared in the show to date at Scrooge's thankfully failed wedding to Millionara Vanderbucks, from supporting characters to one-shots.
    • Continuing the theme, Scrooge's treasure room in the pilot of DuckTales (2017) contains many items from the previous series, including Armstrong the robot and the lamp from the movie (although, this being a Continuity Reboot, these events could not have happened the same way).
  • In Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show, at the joke factory, Eddy pranks Ed by offering him a stick of electric gum. When Ed gets shocked, he flashes between several of the forms and outfits that he's had over the course of the series.
    • In the episode "The Good Ol' Ed", the Eds decide to create a time capsule and bring multiple objects from past scams and episodes.
  • The Family Guy episode "Yug Ylimaf", in which Brian and Stewie reverse time and several past events are recalled.
  • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends:
    • In "Setting a President", Bloo nominates himself as a candidate for the President of Foster's in the election against Frankie and Mr. Herriman. When Mac interviews Bloo, he reminds Bloo of all the bad things he did in the past, such as destroying Madame Foster's bust ("Busted"), opening the secret door that houses the Scribbles ("The Trouble With Scribbles"), uploading an embarrassing video of Mr. Herriman to the internet ("World Wide Wabbit"), sabotaging Frankie's date ("Frankie My Dear"), throwing a wild party against Madame Foster's wishes ("Partying is Such Sweet Soiree"), flooding the house ("Everyone Knows It's Bendy"), blowing the roof off the house ("Cookie Dough"), destroying a beloved elephant squeak toy ("Squeakerboxxx"), and ruining his reputation at school ("Bye Bye Nerdy").
    • The opening scene of "Better Off Ed" has scenes reminiscent of previous episodes, such as "Cookie Dough", "Bus the Two of Us", "The Sweet Stench of Success", and "Eddie Monster", but with Eduardo in Bloo's place and vice-versa, as Eduardo is telling the baby friends about how he went on the exciting adventures that Bloo really went on. As Frankie puts the baby friends to bed, one friend named Scrappy tells her about the times that Eduardo collected all the Coco cards and opened the secret door to the room that housed the Scribbles, referencing the respective events of "Cuckoo For Coco Cards" and "The Trouble With Scribbles".
    • The series finale, "Goodbye to Bloo" has several of these:
      • Throughout the episode, the background is full of occasionally-seen objects like the secret door the Scribbles used to be in, the door to the room the imaginary fleas stay in, and the Extremosaur pen.
      • Bloo tries to find something great to do with Mac, but all the things he lists are things they'd done already.
      • The episode ends with goodbye card for Mac, which is signed by every imaginary friend to have appeared on the show (and Craig McCracken). The inside of the card is only visible for a few seconds, so it's something of a Freeze-Frame Bonus.
  • Futurama:
    • The Robot Devil's wheel with the name of every robot ever seen on the show in the episode "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings".
    • During Fry's funeral in "The Sting", every character who had ever been romantically involved with him during the show appeared in one shot.note  Including an inanimate radiator.
    • The scene◊ from "Into the Wild Green Yonder"—it was planned to have literally every previously shown character in it, but to keep continuity with a line in script, it's instead every adult character.
    • In "The Late Phillip J. Fry", when Fry, the Professor and Bender jump through to the birth of a new universe, they quickly go through several Futurama events, including the two destructions of New York seen in "Space Pilot 3000".
  • The G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero episode "Not a Ghost of a Chance" has Hector Ramirez list several of the schemes Cobra attempted in previous episodes.
  • Glenn Martin, DDS: The beginning of "Life Swap" has several one-off characters from previous episodes come back for Glenn's celebration party. The plot also hinges on the reappearance of Vito, the titular mobster from the episode "We've Created a Mobster" in Season One.
  • Gravity Falls:
    • "The Time Traveler's Pig": we see numerous previous episode events both during the episode proper (when Dipper and Mabel are fighting over the time-travel device) and again during the credits (when the time traveler is assigned to clean up the messes Dipper and Mabel left!). The montage was set up by minor details in the episodes themselves.
    • The episode "Dreamscaperers" takes place in Stan's mind, so moments from previous episodes are scattered throughout. Plus, the episode makes references to some Noodle Incidents as well as some of the symbols seen in the book.
    • In "Into the Bunker", The Shapeshifter takes forms of previous antagonists of Season 1.
    • In "Sock Opera", Bill Cipher tries to persuade Dipper into making a deal with him that will affect Mabel's efforts, stating "What has she ever done to return the favor?" whilst showing flashbacks of his sacrifices in Season 1.
    • The three-part "Weirdmageddon" Grand Finale has almost every character and mythical creature/oddity encountered in the previous thirty-seven episodes appear to some degree.
  • In the Higglytown Heroes Grand Finale Calling All Heroes!, all of the previous Higglytown Heroes themselves returned.
  • Kaeloo: In Episode 105, Kaeloo, Quack Quack and Mr. Cat see multiple screens showing almost every time in the series so far where they made fun of or abused Stumpy.
  • The Series Fauxnale of King of the Hill has several side characters who appeared over the series returning for Luanne and Lucky's wedding. For emphasis, the episode even had a long, panning shot as Luanne walked down the aisle showing many of those characters.
  • The Legend of Korra:
    • "Beginnings" references almost every single thing known about the lore from the previous series surrounding the nature of the Avatar, and it also references important scenes from the series finale of The Last Airbender.
    • In "The Stakeout", Zaheer references Korra's separate encounters with President Raiko and the Earth Queen, the Air Nomad genocide done by the Fire Nation, the characters of Wan and Vaatu, the spirit portals, and Unalaq all in one sitting.
    • "Venom of the Red Lotus" has crystal caves similar to the ones found in the Book 2 finale of The Last Airbender, a battle setting reminiscent of the final battle also in the original series, the villains of the previous seasons making cameos, and there is an important Call-Back to a central weakness of the Avatar State.
  • In the Littlest Pet Shop (2012) episode "Blythe's Big Idea", most of the 42 passengers in the imaginary jet are animals previously seen in the series up to that point. Not including main characters, they include: Madame Pom, the storefront tortoise, and the storefront snake from "Eve of Destruction"; the snarky bluebird from "Summertime Blues"; Olive Shellstein from "Helicopter Dad"; Esteban from "Blythe's Crush"; the pug at Minka's art show, Oscar, and Genghis from "Bad Hair Day"; Mary Frances from "Russell Up Some Fun"; Scout from "Books & Covers"; Ollie from "Eight Arms to Hold You"; Tiger from "Gailbreak!"; two of Zoe's competitors from "Terriers & Tiaras"; the mother white tiger and her three cubs from "Lights, Camera, Mongoose!"; Digby from "Trading Places"; Wiggles McSunbask from "Alligators and Handbags"; Sugar Sprinkles from "Sweet (Truck) Ride"; and two of Pete's friends (but not Pete himself, oddly) from "What Did You Say?"
  • The Mega Babies episode "Balemtine's Day" brings back every surviving villain seen in the show to that point.
  • In the Molly of Denali episode "Midnight Sun Fun Run", the outfits everyone wears for the Fun Run are references to previous episodes. Kenji wears his leather jacket from "Hus-keys", Vera wears her basketball uniform (seen in "Turn on the Northern Lights" among many others), Layla wears her bathrobe from "Porcupine Slippers", Nina wears her crane outfit from "Crane Song", and Oscar and Midge both have their animal masks from "Eagle Tale".
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • The episode "Apple Family Reunion", as you might guess from the title, has an appearance from nearly every single Apple Family member from the first three seasons. There are even a few ponies at the reunion that weren't previously connected with the Apple family, such as recurring background ponies Cherry Berry, Golden Harvest, and Cloudchaser, as well as Hayseed Turnip Truck from "Sweet and Elite".
    • The episode "Magical Mystery Cure" features Princess Celestia showing Twilight how far she's come with floating clips from just about every previous episode. Also, when the members of the Mane Six are changed back to their true destinies, clips of them doing their jobs fly in rapid succession through their eyes.
    • In "Pinkie Pride", Pinkie looks through photos of parties she's thrown in past episodes, including her very first party shown in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", Twilight's welcoming celebration in the first episode, her pet alligator Gummy's birthday party in "Party of One", and the royal wedding ceremony in "A Canterlot Wedding".
    • "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" is an onslaught of callbacks to gags and plot points from previous episodes during the final dream sequence, from major ones like Flutterbat and the Power Ponies to incredibly minor ones like Beefcake Spike from his imagine spot from "A Dog and Pony Show" and even the classy lamp brought to life by Discord's sneeze in "Three's A Crowd".
    • "The Cutie Remark" features all the previous major villains (and the Flim Flam Brothers) as rulers of increasingly worse Bad Futures caused by Starlight Glimmer changing the past so that the Mane Six never became friends.
    • "The Beginning of the End" has all of Twilight's friends listing all the villains they've defeated without the help of Celestia and Luna.
    • "The Ending of the End" features many of the show's supporting, minor and even one-shot characters appearing during the final battle.
    • The show's Grand Finale "The Last Problem carries on from this, as it includes nearly all of the characters from the show's run being present at Twilight's coronation and/or during "The Magic of Friendship Grows".
  • The Penguins of Madagascar: Several episodes were concluded with the Monster of the Week being sent to Hoboken, so when the penguins end up there in "The Hoboken Surprise", they run into all their previous enemies (and Lulu, who was shipped there for different reasons).
    Skipper: What in the name of returning guest characters? It's villain-mageddon!
  • Phineas and Ferb's "Rollercoaster: The Musical" episode in its entirety, especially the last song, "Carpe Diem".
  • In the Ready Jet Go! episode My Fair Jet, one of the tasks that Jet has to do in order to be a regular Earth kid is to sort a bunch of pictures that Sunspot took in previous episodes, such as the butt picture from "Satellite Selfie", and the Great Red Spot Club group picture from "Sunspot and the Great Red Spot".
  • One of the last episodes of Regular Show, "Meet the Seer", has scenes from dozens of the show's previous episodes play on television monitors as the episode's titular seer describes the past adventures of the main characters to them in Leaning on the Fourth Wall terms.
    • Later in the season, the characters outright record their memories of the past eight seasons in a Blu-Ray boxset (that includes two bonus discs).
  • Rugrats (1991):
    • In "The Big Flush", the babies think the community pool is a giant toilet and try to flush it. The whole episode revolves around them trying to find the flusher, and eventually, they get lost. When Tommy asks Chuckie if he ever got them lost forever, Chuckie cites the time they went into the basement and he got stuck in a mattress ("Stu-Maker's Elves"), the time Tommy got them locked in the toy store ("Toy Palace"), the time they went through the mirror into Mirrorland ("Mirrorland"), the time they chased after a wedding cake ("Let Them Eat Cake"), the time they got lost in the museum ("No Bones About It"), and the time they snuck into his aunt's bedroom ("Aunt Miriam").
    • In "Opposites Attract", Tommy and Chuckie go their separate ways after a feud. While Tommy befriends a brave girl named Sam, Chuckie befriends a timid boy named Freddie. At one point, Chuckie and Freddie talk to each other about their fears, which include monsters living under their beds ("Under Chuckie's Bed"), dentists ("Tricycle Thief"), barbers ("Chuckie's First Haircut"), being sucked down the drain ("Down the Drain"), clowns ("The Trial") and the guy on the oatmeal box ("Angelica's In Love").
    • In "No Place Like Home", Susie has a dream that parodies The Wizard of Oz when she is being sedated for a tonsillectomy. When she meets Chuckie, who takes on the role of the Cowardly Lion, Chuckie tells her about his many fears, which include clowns ("The Trial"), jack-in-the-boxes ("The Mysterious Mr. Friend"), really tall slides ("The Slide"), the Sandman ("Beach Blanket Babies"), being turned into a watermelon ("Dil We Meet Again") strange potties ("Chuckie Vs. the Potty"), and the dark ("Let There Be Light").
    • The All Grown Up! spin-off made several callbacks to the original series in the episode "Curse of Reptar". While reminiscing on their fondest memories with Reptar, the gang bring up that Reptar was the subject of their first movie (a callback to the original series episode "At the Movies"), they once went to an ice show about Reptar (referencing "Reptar on Ice"), and that Reptar was indirectly responsible for Chuckie getting a new mother and sister (a reference to Rugrats in Paris).
  • Samurai Jack:
    • In the episode "The Aku Infection", the scene where Jack becomes motivated to fight Aku's influence when his parents remind him of his noble deeds features appearances by many of the allies Jack made and the people he helped out thus far, including the Scotsman, the Woolies, and the Triseraquins.
    • The 2017 revival does this in the sixth episode, where Ashi searches for Jack and on her journey encounters a lot of people Jack encountered in the original show, including the Woolies, Da Samurai, the three archers that were cursed by a wishing well, and Olivia.
  • Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated does this in the Season 2 episode "Wrath of the Krampus", where the ending reveals that the entire episode's Monster of the Week plot was actually a scam that the gang pulled off with the help of several of their previous adversaries to steal the three pieces of the Planespheric Disc from Mr. E's vault. The Krampus turns out to be Charlie the Robot (from the original series episode "Foul Play in Funland") remotely controlled by Jason Wyatt (from "Howl of the Fright-Hound"), who pretends to pursue Mary Anne Gleardan (from "The Song of Mystery") to distract Mr. E and his allies while Marcy "Hot Dog Water" Fleach (a recurring character who was the Monster of the Week in "Menace of the Manticore" and "Night on Haunted Mountain") burgles the vault (using the knowledge of Mr. E's headquarters that she obtained while serving as his operative in "House of the Nightmare Witch"), with the now-incarcerated Mayor Jones (not seen since "All Fear the Freak") safe-guarding the gang's Planespheric Disc pieces while they switch them out with a set of fake pieces. For bonus points: Grady and Greta Gator (from "The Creeping Creatures"), Alice May (from "The Legend of Alice May" and "Pawn of Shadows"), Grandma Moonbeam (from "When the Cicada Calls"), Dan Fluunk (from "Night Terrors") and Ernesto (from "The Shrieking Madness" and "The Siren's Song") can all be seen in the prison cafeteria, and the Green Ghosts (from the original series episode "A Night of Fright is No Delight") show up as enemies in an arcade game.
  • The Simpsons:
  • South Park:
    • The 200th episode, "200", which not only features a plot that was just a pastiche of a few previous episodes to feature the biggest continuity gag ever, it also features 200 celebrities the people of South Park have parodied (including some who had not previously been shown like Tim Burton), with an epic redux of Mecha-Streisand.
    • The following episode, "201", does it again, continuing the story while connecting it to just as many previous episodes' plots, culminating in Scott Tenorman from "Scott Tenorman Must Die" as The Man Behind the Man led by his army of ginger-haired people from "Ginger Kids".
  • SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • "Say Awww!" features a Human Ladder of over 100 characters, all from across the series' 22 year history. This includes ones who had only been in one scene.
    • In "Friendiversay, The Eye Recall sequence features a lot of memories from previous episodes.
  • The Tom Terrific episode "The Everlasting Birthday Party" has villains from previous episodes invited to Crabby Appleton's birthday party: Isotope Feeney, Captain Kidney Bean, Mr. Instant, and Sweet Tooth Sam.
  • The final season of Transformers: Robots in Disguise is basically a "greatest hits" collection for both the previous seasons and the other shows in the same continuity. Not only do numerous characters make return appearances or get mentioned, but various notable locations and gadgets are revisited. This culminates in the series finale, in which all the guest Autobots return to help thwart the Greater-Scope Villain.

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