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Company Cross References

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This is what happens when one work references or shows a part of another work, both of which are owned by the same company, network or studio.

During The Golden Age of Animation, many studios had cartoon series produced and/or distributed by them play songs from their music library, or caricature movie stars the studios had under contract to them.

Contrast Continuity Nod and Mythology Gag. Doubles as intra-company Product Placement. Crossovers don't count, but a Crossover Punchline can. Compare Production Foreshadowing.

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Examples

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    Cartoon Network 
  • The Amazing World of Gumball: In the episode "The Boredom", as the Wattersons' house is hauled away, it passes by the sets of Clarence, Regular Show, and Uncle Grandpa. Gumball and Darwin, who are inside the house as it is being hauled, fail to notice because they're convinced nothing interesting is happening and are too busy staring at the clock.
  • Ben 10: Omniverse: In one episode about a store that shifts between dimensions, Cow and Chicken make a cameo as alien customers in said store.
  • Ben 10: Ultimate Alien: Gwen's cousin Sunny is a complete expy of Blackfire, down to having a black-and-purple colour scheme and being voiced by Gwen's VA, Ashley Johnson (In Teen Titans, Blackfire and Starfire shared a VA, Hynden Walch).
  • Chowder has two references to The Powerpuff Girls:
    • At the end of "The Hot Date", Miss Bellum is initially revealed to be the police chief's blind date, before she realizes she mistaked him for her actual blind date a few tables away.
    • In "The Heist", Mung tastes a Sweet Sapphire crystal that's so sweet, his head briefly changes into Bubbles and he speaks in her voice.
  • Clarence:
    • While Clarence is angrily burying his "Lil Buddy" doll in the episode of the same name, a silhouetted Greg and Wirt can be seen walking behind some trees in the background.
    • During his attempts of getting Chad into the "camping spirit" in "Where The Wild Chads Are", Clarence comes across Chad sleeping while a little TV plays an Affectionate Parody of Adventure Time.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: Dexter makes a cameo as a balloon in a Zombie Apocalypse episode.
  • Dexter's Laboratory: In "Tele-Trauma", Dexter, who is beaming TV shows straight to his brain, is constantly reciting TV quotes, including "Townsville's in trouble!".
  • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends:
    • Many references to The Powerpuff Girls, given that both shows are created by Craig McCracken.
      • Frankie wears a t-shirt with color-coded silhouettes of Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup.
      • In the pilot movie, Mojo Jojo appears as an "unimaginary" imaginary friend, as an example of friends based on things kids see on TV.
      • In "Cookie Dough", Bloo names off some cities that want shipments of Madame Foster's cookies, including Townsville and Johnny Bravo's Aron City.
      • In "Nightmare on Wilson Way", Frankie dresses as Blossom for Halloween.
    • In one episode, Mac comes up with a theory about every imaginary friend being suddenly adopted before being returned. At one point, Mandy can be seen returning a smiley-faced imaginary friend for being "too happy".
  • The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy:
    • In "Sickly Sweet", Grim is watching Codename: Kids Next Door.
    • In "Herbicidal Maniac", Cow gives Skarr a bag of manure for his garden, while Johnny Bravo makes a background cameo at Skarr's party.
    • In "Billy and Mandy vs. the Martians", Billy sees a giant holographic screen and laments "Hey, this isn't Codename: Kids Next Door!"
  • Johnny Bravo: In "I Dream of Johnny", Johnny tries to use his mind to return his "dream" girl back to her previous hot form. In one of his false tries, she becomes I. M. Weasel.
  • In the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode "Mystery Science Fair 201X", Dendy takes K.O. to her secret lab to figure out how to get him to transform into T.K.O. as part of Dendy's science project. The entire sequence in Dendy's lab contains several references to Dexter's Laboratory (among other things, K.O. and Dendy's footsteps make the same sounds to Dexter and Dee Dee's footsteps and the former characters also walk similarly to the latter characters, and Dendy at one point speaks in Dexter's accent, even saying "Get out of my observatory!"). It gets to the point that there's literally a line of text saying "With apologies to the crew of Dexter's Laboratory :)" in the episode's The End tag.
  • Near the end of Over the Garden Wall, an overhead shot shows that the layout of Wirt and Greg's town is almost identical to the layout of Aberdale.
  • The Powerpuff Girls: Dexter had background cameos in several episodes. In addition, "Imaginary Fiend" featured a cameo by Dee Dee's imaginary friend, Koosie.
  • "Say Uncle", in addition to being a crossover between Steven Universe and Uncle Grandpa, has Uncle Grandpa go through a checklist with the names of nearly every Cartoon Network child character on it (at the time of airing) along with the SWAT Kats.
  • Teen Titans Go!: In "Squash and Stretch", the Titans watch a parody of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner featuring characters who are obviously meant to resemble Gumball and Darwin, with the Gumball lookalike representing Wile E. Coyote and the Darwin lookalike representing Road Runner.
  • In one episode of Time Squad, Buck and Larry try to find an orphan to replace Otto after a fight. One of them is Dexter, who complains that he's not an orphan.
  • We Bare Bears: In "My Clique", Chloe is watching an actual episode of Adventure Time on TV.

    Disney 
Films Television
  • Aladdin: The Series contains several. For example, in one episode, Saleen the mermaid attempts to give Jasmine a new hairstyle and ends up giving her one resembling the hairstyle of Ariel ("She looks like any other princess under the sea.").
  • Darkwing Duck: The statue that Drake Mallard pounds on to activate the chairs and send him and his allies to Darkwing Tower is of Basil from The Great Mouse Detective.
  • In the first episode of DuckTales (1987), Scrooge McDuck tells a worker "there'll be no whistling while you work!"
  • In the DuckTales (2017) episode "The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee", Gizmoduck fights a Mad Scientist named Dr. Atmoz Fear who looks and sounds a lot like Dr. Doofenschmirtz from one of Disney's other shows, Phineas and Ferb.
  • Goof Troop:
    • Several references to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:
      • In "Midnight Movie Madness", Goofy is against Max seeing a scary movie, saying that Max was scared of the Witch from Snow White.
      • In "Date with Destiny", Max lies to his principal that Goofy is getting married and says "and we'll all live happily ever after like Snow White and Dopey and stuff."
    • In "Calling All Goofs", Peg tells Pete to keep Goofy away from a surprise family reunion until noon, "even if you have to clean his clothes, shine his shoes, or take him to Disneyland!"
  • In one episode of Kim Possible, Dr. Drakken reacts to some good news by saying "It's a zip-a-dee-doo-dah day!", a reference to the Disney film Song of the South.
  • Mickey Mouse (2013) has quite a handful of Disney references, mostly to the Disney Animated Canon. Just to name a few examples, Lady and the Tramp appear in "Third Wheel" and have their signature Spaghetti Kiss interrupted by Goofy, Donald bumps into Belle and the Beast during a dance in "The Adorable Couple", and "Wish Upon a Coin" features appearances from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
  • One episode of Phineas and Ferb is titled "Troy Story", a reference to Toy Story.

Marvel Entertainment

  • Avengers: Age of Ultron: Ultron sings "I've Got No Strings" from Disney's Pinocchio in one scene. Age of Ultron was made around the time Disney purchased Marvel.

Disney Channel India

  • The Simple Samosa episode "Banana Fontana" is about Samosa pretending to be a popstar named Banana Fontana, which is most likely derived from one of Disney's American series, Hannah Montana.

    Nickelodeon 
  • One episode of The Amanda Show has Amanda reading fan mail. She starts the letter with "Dear Amanda...", to which the audience replies with "Thaaaaat's me!", referencing the "Dear Ashley" segments of All That which always began with Ashley starting off her letters with "Dear Ashley... thaaaaaat's me!" Amanda catches on to the reference and says "Wrong show, guys."
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: In the first season finale, Pakku tells one of his students that in a few years, they may be able to defeat a sea sponge. The creators of the series later admitted this is a reference to SpongeBob SquarePants.
  • The Fairly OddParents!:
    • There are several references to SpongeBob SquarePants:
      • A Running Gag in "Ruled Out" has Timmy's Dad saying "Pants are for squares" and "X is/are for squares, like pants."
      • In "Wish Fixers", Cosmo gives Timmy cheese pants and calls him "Cheeseboy Squarepants".
      • In "Something's Fishy", King Greg says that the merpeoples' diet consists of "crabs, starfish and the occasional underwater squirrel."
      • In "App Trap", a student at Timmy's school has a familiar-looking pair of buck teeth, white shirt, red tie and brown pants.
  • In one episode of Fanboy and Chum Chum, Chum Chum's pirate name is "Chumbucket", which is the name of Plankton's restaurant in SpongeBob SquarePants.
  • House of Anubis: When Patricia suggests getting the help of their "favorite comedy double act" to protest Victor's cameras, Amber suggests SpongeBob and Patrick.
  • In one episode of Kenan & Kel, Kenan tries to learn the plot of the episode by reading some TV listings, but ends up finding a listing for fellow Nickelodeon show Rugrats.
  • The Loud House:
  • Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide:
    • In "Daydreams", Ned sees Cosmo and Wanda in his daydreams.
    • In "Photo Day", Ned gives the tip to "Dress up as yourself, not someone you see on TV". At that point, a student in a SpongeBob costume walks past him.
  • In the Sam & Cat episode "#TextingCompetition", one of the things Cat says she wants to do with the speedboat is to "Look for SpongeBob's pineapple!"
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Truth or Square", there is a scene where Patchy the Pirate is out on the street, standing right in front of some street posts depicting Dora the Explorer and Aang.
  • Zoey 101: In "Curse of PCA", Lafe asks Lola if she thinks he's silly, and Lola says back "No, SpongeBob's friend Patrick is silly."
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    Nintendo 

    Williams Electronics 
  • The Twilight Zone references Pat Lawlor’s previous pinball machines in two places:
    • The Fast Lock mode is a Timed Mission where a radio steadily progresses back in time, playing sound clips from every one of his older titles in reverse order – The Addams Family, Fun House, Whirlwind, Earthshaker!, and Banzai Run. Completing it (and thus starting multiball) will play the multiball music from the game the last quote played originated from.
    • Hitting the clock enough times during "Clock Chaos" will play a clip of Rudy (from Funhouse) yelling, "Quit playing with the clock!"
  • Red & Ted's Road Show similarly has a number of allusions to Lawlor’s other games:
    • The Invaders from The Twilight Zone appear during several modes, most notably during the Seattle mode.
    • Los Angeles' mode is nicknamed "Earthshaker!", and you get to hear Red imitate the Title Scream at the end of the mode.
    • The Kansas City "Tornado" mode starts with a quote from Whirlwind.
    • One non-Lawlor allusion: if you restart multiball but fail to get the jackpot, Red comments "You missed everything!"
  • Judge Dredd has several references to "Creature from the Black Lagoon" (also designed by John Trudeau):
    • Scoring a jackpot during the Traffic Jam mode in Supergame prompts the "MOVE YOUR CAR!" soundbite to play.
    • The "Safe Cracker" mode is extremely similar to Lagoon’s "Move Your Car" mode as well, in both scoring and aesthetics (the player uses increasingly excessive means to accomplish their goal, alongside a cry of "MOVE YOUR CAR!"/"OPEN THAT SAFE!" upon each successful shot).
      • Furthermore, upon activating the mode, the display shows the player’s character donning sunglasses and declaring "I’ll be back!"
    • Several of the arrested criminals are characters taken straight from "Lagoon".
  • Junk Yard has a lot of them. Examples include:
  • No Good Gofers has a few other references to previous Pat Lawlor tables, all of which occur when you lose all your balls in multiball without scoring the jackpot.
  • One of the things Pin*Bot can say when you cheat in Jack*Bot is "Look, there's Rudy."
  • Johnny Mnemonic:
    • Shooting the outer loops several times in a row prompts Skull the Bone Head (from No Fear: Dangerous Sports) to appear and shout "Again!"
    • At the beginning of Frenzy, a voice clip of Rudy from Fun House saying "Frenzy?!" plays.
  • Congo has several references to John Trudeau's Creature from the Black Lagoon during the "Satellite Transfer", including the hot dog vendor and the MOVE YOUR CAR! man.
  • In Tales of the Arabian Nights, you can sometimes hear the callout "Move your carpet!" after a shot up the ramp.

    Other 
Anime & Manga

Asian Animation

Animated Films

Live-Action Films

Live-Action TV

  • Both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune are produced by Sony, and Jeopardy! has made several references to Wheel. For example, "Before & After" is a recurring Jeopardy! category that references Wheel, and at one point, they featured a category called "Wheel of Jeopardy!" where the clue was given in the form of an unsolved Wheel of Fortune puzzle.
  • Fraggle Rock: In "The Cavern of Lost Dreams", Sprocket tries his paw at making his own dog food and, at one point, imitates the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show, another Jim Henson series.
  • In the Planet Ajay episode "Planet Badjay", Ajay's Evil Twin Badjay takes over the show, leaving Ajay on Badjay's spaceship. Ajay presses several buttons in the ship to see if any of them teleport him back to Planet Ajay; one of the buttons plays the drum beat hearc at the beginning of the theme song EastEnders. EastEnders is a series produced by The BBC, whose children's station CBBC aired Planet Ajay.
  • Goosebumps: In The Cuckoo Clock of Doom, when Michael is six years old, his father reads him Clifford the Big Red Dog as a bedtime story. Both Clifford and Goosebumps are properties of Scholastic Inc.
  • In an episode of The Practice a witness claims that he knows what time a certain thing happened because he was watching Boston Public at the time. This caused a Continuity Snarl when The Practice and Boston Public had a crossover later on.
  • CBBC series Sorry, I've Got No Head references fellow BBC series Doctor Who in a few episodes.

Pinball

Professional Wrestling

  • Back when Ring of Honor and Full Impact Pro were "sister promotions", the "Crazy Homeless Person" who interfered on the behalf of Jimmy Jacobs and The Age Of The Fall in ROH was Milo Beasley, a longstanding bum/minion of FIP who had previously "served" indie legend CM Punk. The only member of the FIP Age Of The Fall that was respectively recognized in ROH was Radiant Rain, on account of her and Lacey working as The Minnesota/International Home Wrecking crew in ROH's other former sister promotion, SHIMMER.

Toys

  • Hero Factory: One of the online games has "S-L-I-Z-E-R-S" as an access code, with Slizers being the name of a previous LEGO toyline.

Video Games

  • Capcom likes doing this with their games. For example, in God Hand, one of the mini-bosses is wielding Nevan the electric guitar from Devil May Cry, one of the names of the chihuahua in the dog race minigame is Amaterasu, and the Mad Midget Five miniboss is a reference to Viewtiful Joe.
  • The Roblox game Mad Games includes a mini-game based off of the Roblox game The Mad Murderer. Both games were made by the group Mad Studios.

Western Animation

  • In the 3-2-1 Penguins! episode "Trouble on Planet Wait-Your-Turn", Michelle says that she and Jason stopped at Burger Bell on their way to the cottage. Burger Bell first appeared in one of the Silly Songs in VeggieTales, from Big Idea who also created 3-2-1 Penguins!.
  • In the Arthur episode "Attack of the Turbo Tibbles", while D.W. goes to get her mother to help fix the Mary Moo Cow tape they were watching earlier, Tommy and Timmy switch through the television channels to find something to watch. One of the shows they find is a parody of The Busy World of Richard Scarry where Huckle and Lowly are bats sleeping on a ceiling. Both The Busy World of Richard Scarry and Arthur were produced by Cookie Jar Entertainment, known as Cinar back when the episode originally aired.
  • FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman: One of the phrases Ruff uses at the end of the Season 4 intro, after Chet the mouse destroys the set for the intro, is "You know, I bet Arthur doesn't have to deal with stuff like this". Both shows air on PBS Kids and are produced by WGBH Boston.
  • One episode of The Flintstones has Fred and Wilma going on a picnic. Their picnic basket is stolen by fellow Hanna-Barbera character Yogi Bear.
  • In the first episode of Freakazoid!, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot show up and sing a song called "Freakzoid and Friends" to the tune of the Animaniacs theme song.
  • In Inspector Gadget, there are several references to Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats; to name just a few examples, Penny is shown to have a Riff-Raff stuffed animal in "The Incredible Shrinking Gadget", and a person attending a costume party in "Ghost Catchers" is dressed up as Heathcliff. Both shows were produced by DiC Entertainment.
  • An episode of Littlest Pet Shop (2012) has Blythe Baxter dressed as a cowgirl riding Applejack for Halloween. Doubles as an Actor Allusion, since Ashleigh Ball voiced both characters.
  • A few of the Looney Tunes shorts reference Casablanca, such as (to name one example) Bugs Bunny humming "As Time Goes By" in the 1944 short Hare Force. Both Looney Tunes and Casablanca were produced by Warner Bros..
  • Martha Speaks: In "Martha's Chair", Mrs. Demson sees a chair resembling Martha's favorite chair on Antiques Roadshow, which airs on PBS just like Martha Speaks.
  • Muppet Babies (1984): In "The Daily Muppet", Oscar the Grouch, from fellow Jim Henson series Sesame Street, makes a cameo during the episode's song, "The Daily Muppet".
  • One episode of Oggy and the Cockroaches has Oggy and the cockroaches falling into acid and being turned into slime. They then enter a washing machine, which turns them into clothing, animals, and the aliens from Space Goofs, both of which are produced by Gaumont.
  • In the Sid the Science Kid episode "Sid's Amazing Lungs", Gerald pretends to be a baby and says "I'm the baby, gotta love me!" This is one of the Catch Phrases of Baby Sinclair from Dinosaurs, another Jim Henson series.
  • One episode of the 20th Century Fox Television-produced The Simpsons is titled "Them, Robot", a reference to the similarly 20th Century Fox-produced film I, Robot.
  • In a Spiral Zone episode, Tank gives a hospitalized girl a Pound Puppies doll. Tonka Toys had the license to both franchises at the time.
  • In the Sidekick episode "Master XOX Ray Vision", after Eric puts on the special contact lenses, it intially causes him to see his friends Trevor, Kitty and Vana as Scaredy, Dave and Sally, respectively.
  • In the Spliced episode "Same Difference", one clip in Smarty-Smarts and Joe's montage shows the both of them watching Grossology, which was created by the same people, and by extension the same company (Nelvana, in this case).

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