Follow TV Tropes

Following

Shout Out / Castle (2009)
aka: Castle

Go To

This show loves everyone so much it needs its own page.

  • A general reference: the police officer characters are based out of the 12th Precinct of the NYPD. This was the same precinct that the 1970s police sitcom Barney Miller was set in. (For good measure, the latter show had a two-part episode where they were made into a homicide-only unit.)
  • A great many to several of the actors' previous works. See ActorAllusion.Castle 2009.
  • A couple to Alfred Hitchcock.
    • The plot of "Double Down" is based on Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, with both the film and the novel by Patricia Highsmith getting a mention.
    • In "Tick, Tick, Tick," taxidermy is referred to as Norman Bates' favorite pastime.
    • "The Lives of Others" is a direct homage to Rear Window, a fact that is lampshaded by several characters in the episode (later, it turns out that the "killing" was staged and the whole thing really is a homage to the film, even in-universe).
    • A subtle nod to Hitchcock; the picture behind Castle's writing desk is a down-shot photo of a square spiral staircase, similar to the staircase shots from Vertigo.
  • "Little Girl Lost". Castle is asked why, with twenty-six bestsellers, he feels the need to shadow a cop. He points out that the ones on TV seem oddly fixated on their sunglasses.
  • When asked what they call perps, some of the names that the officers answer with are Skeksis and Sleestak.
  • In "Ghosts", they mention an old oil tanker bombing that crippled the captain. Who was the captain? Why, one Captain Pike. Many of the Castle crew are Star Trek alums.
  • In "Deep In Death", Beckett discusses how she sometimes visits Little Odessa (Brighton Beach, Brooklyn). When she was Hana Gitelman on Heroes, she tended to be in Odessa, Texas.
  • From the same episode, Castle grants Alexis permission to see Fame with her boyfriend "but I have dibs on A Christmas Carol." Alexis' actor, Molly Quinn, did voicework for the film.
  • In the season 2 premiere, Castle asks the coroner if she wants some music, because she's taking a fingerprint from the inside of a glove and he says that in CSI they do it to music.
  • Anyone who follows Nathan Fillion on Twitter probably squealed with pleasure when in "The Double Down", he slipped in his catch phrase "Bam, said the lady", and again when he made the puntacular offshoot "Blam, said the lady" in "Last Call".
  • "Vampire Weekend" is full of Actor Allusions. Check that page for a list.
    • Castle references Underworld (2003) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer when talking about the body.
    • The episode itself is named after a popular indie rock band.
    • There are, naturally, a lot of references to classic vampire literature, lore, and cosplay.
  • In "A Rose For Everafter," the name of Castle's New Old Flame is a Shout-Out to Casablanca (Kyra Blaine), as are the resolution of the Love Quadrangle and this quote:
    Kyra: Out of all the murders at all the weddings in all the cities in the world, you walk into mine.
  • Quite a few to Casablanca, actually. In one episode, Castle is considering starting up his own bar, and trying to think up a name. His mother suggests "Rick's Cafe Americain". Castle says "That's much better than my idea: 'Castle-blanca'."
  • In "Den of Thieves", upon walking on Castle's poker lesson for Alexis, Castle's mom references Casablanca with a similar joke:
    Martha: "I am shocked, shocked, to find gambling going on in this establishment! [Pause] Deal me in."
  • In "The Third Man" Esposito asks Castle and Beckett "why are you so obsessed with some motherfreaking snakes on a motherfreaking plane." Sound familiar?
    • Referenced again in "In Plane Sight" when Castle is flying to London, gets into the airliner's cargo hold, spots an albino boa constrictor in a terrarium and yelps a freaked-out "There's a snake on this mother-flying plane!"
  • Though probably not a shout-out per se, the baseball-themed episode "Suicide Squeeze" was written by Jose Molina...which happens to also be the name of a baseball player who most recently played for the New York Yankees.
  • In "Wrapped Up in Death", Castle finds a familiar looking brown fedora and whip, donning the fedora as he examines a sarcophagus. The episode title itself sounds like yet another murder mystery/bestseller reference, this time to the "In Death" series by J.D. Robb.
  • Three Scooby-Doo references: Castle compared Beckett to Daphne and tells the villain "This is the part where you say 'And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for You Meddling Kids!" and Beckett said the infamous "Ruh roh" towards the end of the episode after they find the killer.
  • You might notice a certain red hair talkshow host's Dwight Eisenhower mug in "The Late Shaft".
  • When Castle mentions a gun that shoots ice bullets, he's bringing up a very old trope in murder mystery. Most recently, used in Deception Point, a Dan Brown novel that involves this (at least in the first act).
  • In "A Deadly Affair", one of the suspects is called Xander Doyle. Later, apparently the scriptwriter for Nikki Heat is Spike Rosenberg. Someone's a Joss Whedon fan.
    • Both writer Jose Molina and actor Nathan Fillion, of course, are alums of Buffy (and, more importantly, Firefly). Allusions to these shows were frequent, especially in Season 2 when Molina was writing.
    • "A Deadly Affair" also shouts out to Breaking Bad - mentioned as "that cable show" about a high school chemistry teacher cooking meth, thought to be mirrored by the current case - and The Man with the Golden Gun, with Castle in the hall of mirrors in a pistol fight.
  • Castle gets to slip in a Double Rainbow reference while grilling Beckett over her lack of belief in psychics in "He's Dead, She's Dead".
  • It also makes references to the following famous time-travel works: The Time Machine, Back to the Future, and Time and Again.
  • Castle has a custom ringtone for calls from Beckett - an Ominous Pipe Organ; he likes to say "I Hear Dead People" whenever it sounds.
  • "Anatomy of a Murder" has plenty of pretty blatant Shout Outs to Grey's Anatomy. It's also the title of a court drama movie starring Jimmy Stewart, considered one of the finest examples of the genre ever!
  • In "Famous Last Words," the murder victim led a band called Blue Pill.
  • "Almost Famous" features a completely made-up businessman named Mandelay, a reference to Seinfeld's fictional "Art Vandelay".
    • The same episode also contains a Jersey Shore reference where the names Sammy, Ronnie and Pauly are mentioned by a rather fake-tanned woman with a poof...
  • "Close Encounters of the Murderous Kind" was just one long The X-Files reference, complete with Castle as an Agent Mulder referring to Beckett as Agent Scully.
    • "Head Case" apes lines from X-Files (Roland) almost verbatim, when an explanation of why only the head is necessary for cryogenic preservation.
  • He mentions his Twitter account with subscriber number which, while the official Richard Castle Twitter account isn't even close to matching, is actually lower than the one on Nathan Fillion's own Twitter account.
  • In "Nikki Heat" it is revealed that the Heat Wave screenplay was written by one Spike Rosenberg.
  • 3XK features a killer that has returned to his original hunting ground and has a name involving three, like the Trinity Killer from Dexter.
  • Two suspects in "Countdown" are named Evan Bauer and Jack Cochran. In addition to the obvious reference, Robert Cochran and Evan Katz helped write, create, and produce the series.
  • "A Deadly Game" guest stars Mitch Pileggi as a spy involved in a secret conspiracy except he's actually just LARP-ing, and pulls out the old Skinner classic of throwing someone (i.e. Castle) against a wall to menace them into doing what he says.
  • "One Life to Lose": One of Castle's theories is of a guy named Mikkos creating a Weather-Control Machine and hitting the city with a blizzard. Castle directly credits it to General Hospital.
  • In To Love and Die in LA, Castle and Beckett manage to recreate the "hesitating by the door" scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Which could be a coincidence, but the very next scene namecheck the Ark of the Covenant.
  • To Love and Die in LA also had an Open Sesame lock opened by taping the CEO's voice during a date, as seen in the movie Film/Sneakers.
  • In Pretty Dead, Beckett recalls that her beauty-pageant-contestant roommate made their apartment into their "own personal Vietnam." Castle responds with "I love the smell of hairspray in the morning. It smells like... victory."
  • "Heroes and Villains" is full of Shout Outs to comic-books including Spider-Man, Iron Man, Daredevil, and Deadpool. And William Shakespeare.
    • A Song of Ice and Fire gets one when Castle mentioned that the victim being cut in half was "so Game Of Thrones".
  • In "Kick the Ballistics" the scene where Esposito distracts the bodyguard in the library is based on this scene from Beverly Hills Cop.
  • In "Once Upon a Crime," they discover that the victims were being blackmailed over a car accident they caused years ago. Castle immediately references I Know What You Did Last Summer.
  • "Final Frontier", it is set at a sci-fi convention and cold-opens on the set of not-Star Trek/Firefly/Battlestar Galactica (which was cancelled after twelve episodes), ends with William Shatner's rendition of "Ideal Woman", and is filled with enough nerd allusions to upend a starship.
  • "A Slice Of Death" is one looooonnng homage to the noir genre. Even the episode's twist is a direct Shout-Out to The Usual Suspects. The murderer, a fan of noir, uses frequent references in their nefarious operations.
  • In the episode "Eye of the Beholder" there's a thief named Serena Kaye, a reference to Cat Woman aka Selina Kyle.
  • "Demons" has Castle pleading with Beckett to say it — she "ain't afraid of no ghost".
    • The murderer in "Demons" also played a major demon on Supernatural...coincidence?
  • In "Cops and Robbers" the robbers use the aliases Dr. Howser, Dr. Quinn, Dr. Huxtable, and Trapper John. There's also a mention of Die Hard, Dr. House, Dr. Shephard (or possibly Dr. Shepherd), and Dr. Phil.
    • Sal, the epileptic hostage, is likely a reference to Dog Day Afternoon. Helps that he's the culprit.
  • The episode "An Embarrassment of Bitches" guest-stars Hilarie Burton, who played Peyton Sawyer in the show One Tree Hill. The episode title is probably a subtle reference to the aforementioned show, whose initial title was "An Unkindness of Ravens".
  • In "The Blue Butterfly", besides the general Noir style, Castle makes an explicit reference at the end, calling the titular Blue Butterfly "the stuff that dreams are made of". This also references the fact that the butterfly is a fake.
  • In "Once Upon a Crime", an episode about fairy tale-related crime, Beckett asks Esposito to look into a victim's bank account. He responds with, "As you wish".
  • From the other direction: sister ABC show "Missing" featured a former CIA agent who became a successful writer of spy thrillers in the episode "Tell Me No Lies". One of the characters tacks a glance at the back cover, which has a recommendation quote by Richard Castle. Apparently, he's a fan.
  • The entire episode "Murder, He Wrote" is pretty much an entire Shout-Out to, well, Murder, She Wrote.
  • Also takes place at a beach resort with a Chief Brady and a "shark attack" (really just a boat with a neon shark sign). And a lampshaded, "Not to get all Scooby, but he would have gotten away with it if not for you, Castle."
  • Within the first few minutes of The Final Frontier, Castle fires off 2 Firefly shoutouts: describing his excitement over a murder "shiny" and listing "that Joss Whedon show" as one of his favorite sci-fi series ever made. In addition, Firefly was cancelled after twelve episodes were aired while Nebula Nine was cancelled after eleven. Captain Max Renard sounds quite similar to Firefly's Captain Mal Reynolds, while Lieutenant Chloe rhymes with Zoe. And then there are the Creavers, the sworn enemy of the Nebula 9 crew, and the horrible things they would do to you (as Esposito describes to a disturbed Ryan) is like a g-rated version of what Reavers would do to you if they ever caught you.
    • As well as the the obvious Firefly references, Nebula 9 also appears to be something of a mash-up between various versions of Star Trek and old-school Battlestar Galactica. Both franchises, accordingly, get name-checks.
    • The episode was directed by STNG alum Jonathan Frakes (who did a cameo) and featured Armin Shimerman (of both Buffy and Star Trek fame), and a variety of other sci fi references. Many behind-the-scenes production staff at Castle got their start with the original BSG or ST. Several recurring characters (Gates and Beckett's therapist, for example) were Star Trek regulars.
    • Despite several opportunities, the episode even manages to totally ignore Babylon 5, also a Star Trek tradition.
    • A pre-emptive Shout Out(or possible inadvertent spoiler); when learning about a murder at the convention, Castle asks, "What happened, Doc Ock finally caught up with Spider-Man?" The episode aired just over a month before the start of Superior Spider-Man.
    • At one point, Beckett suggests that Castle would look good as Doctor Manhattan: "Blue skin, brings out your eyes."
  • "Under The Influence" starts with a younger singer giving an older singer a Stealth Insult about her age, which was likely taken from Nashville.
  • "Hunt" references Taken (including name-checking Liam Neeson) and Casino Royale.
  • "Scared to Death" brings a whole lot of contemporary horror movies into the fore, most notably The Ring. Castle and Beckett visit a suspect in a mental hospital in a scene reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs. Castle even calls Wes Craven for advice.
  • In "the Third Man", there is a close up shot of the "most eligible bachelors". The names of some of the writing staff have been placed under several of the photos.
  • The micro-Big Bad of "Taken" and "Hunt" is an ex-KGB agent turned wealthy industrialist named Volkoff.
  • In "The Human Factor" when reffering to two homeland security officers in black suit, sunglasses etc (who happen to be a black man and white man).
    Castle: Hey, guys. You get this a lot? Agent J, Agent K.
  • In "Time Will Tell", Esposito mocks Castle's credulous reaction to the main suspect's claims that he's a time traveller by sarcastically suggesting that he was expecting the strange gadget the suspect was found with to be "Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver." He also suggests the suspect's story is derivative of 12 Monkeys and The Terminator.
    • Also, when Simon disappears from lockup, Beckett asks where he is, Castle responds with "Not where, when." Which is a modified version of Inspector Spacetime's catchphrase. Not super overt, but Fillion himself guest-starred on Community.
  • In "Get A Clue", Castle puts a hand into a stone mouth and starts shouting. Might have been unintentional, but it might have been a Shout-Out to National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, where Nicolas Cage's character does the same.
    • It can be assumed, that this is in fact a Shout-Out towards Roman Holiday, the film where this scene appeared first.
  • In "The Fifth Bullet", Castle suggests that the fifth bullet was an ice bullet. Esposito points out the bullet would still leave a bullet hole. Ryan corrects him by saying it would be an ice hole. Castle's response is "what did you call me?" All of which is a possible shout out to the famous "ice hole" Eskimo sketch in the American Whose Line Is It Anyway? series.
  • "Significant Others:" Having a character named Billy Piper is one thing, but having his wife be named "Leann" (Billie Piper's birth name,) stretches the believability of being a coincidence. Later Sonic Screwdriver references have confirmed there's at least one Whovian on the writing team, so the possibility of it being accidental seems even less likely.
  • The supposed victim in "Limelight" is a former child star known for portraying a school girl with a double life as a popstar, who grew up and tried to shed her squeaky clean image by doing drugs and acting provocatively. It should go without saying where they're getting this from.
  • "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is one big shout-out to Carrie, with a troubled, lonely outcast teenage girl being picked on by a gaggle of mean Alpha Bitches apparently discovering she has telekinetic abilities and seemingly using them to take revenge. Castle even mentions at one point that "Stephen" will love it when he tells him about this case. There are also some shout-outs to The Bling Ring when it turns out the Alpha Bitches are performing similar robberies.
  • The Season 7 story arc deals with Castle's mysterious disappearance, what happened while he was gone, why he was gone, and having convenient amnesia. Plus, the in-universe rumors that he faked his disappearance to either walk away from a relationship, or as a publicity stunt. Remind anyone of another famous author?
  • "The Invisible Man" reveals that the US government has started researching stealth armor, but is significantly behind the Chinese, who have already started making them. Quite reminiscent of the state of affairs in the Fallout universe.
  • In "Resurrection (Part 1)", Jerry Tyson (a.k.a. "3XK")'s foster mother is named Gretchen Cutler, which also happens to be the name of the female lead on You're the Worst.
  • "The Wrong Stuff" has a lot of them to 2001: A Space Odyssey. It even features Castle saying "Open the pod bay doors." The title, for its part, is a reference to The Right Stuff.
  • "Dead From New York" spoofs Saturday Night Live and has Ryan mention that they got video footage from the 87th Precinct.
  • 2 Cool 4 School from "Need to Know" is an obvious spoof of Saved by the Bell. The murder victim is a parody of Screech (with plenty of Urkel and Dwayne Wayne thrown in as well).
  • "Last Action Hero" has a movie called The Indestructibles full of '80s action stars, not unlike The Expendables in real life, except in the Castle universe Ted McGinley is an action star.
  • The narration to the season 2 opening references Starsky & Hutch and Turner and Hooch. Beckett comments that Castle does remind her a little bit of Hooch.
  • Someone on the Castle writing team must be a theatre fan, because Rick's real name is Richard Rodgers. As in, one half of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Martha is, after all, a Broadway actress in drama. Her Nikki Heat counterpart, Margaret Rook, is a Tony-winning musical theatre actress.

Alternative Title(s): Castle

Top