In General
- See all the entries in It's a Wonderful Plot
- The Far Side: A flower collector shows his collection to someone, including his prize find, which he claims he had to buy from a one-armed man in Istanbul - "Zuzu's petals".
- The American President: When Sydney and Susan first get to the White House, Sydney gushes about the Capra-esque quality of it all. Susan snidely tells her the White House guard checking their ID's doesn't know what she's talking about, but the guard does know, and mentions both It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
- The In-Laws: A firing squad sings "Buffalo Gals Can't You Come Out Tonight" to Sheldon and Vince when they're having lunch with General Garcia.
- The Ref: One of the ways we learn the town sheriff is Surrounded by Idiots is one of his deputies accidentally recording It's a Wonderful Life - while it's playing on TV - over a videotape of a robbery.
- "The Ghost of Christmas Possible" by Tim Pratt and Heather Shaw posits that Clarence is a colleague of the three Ghosts from A Christmas Carol; where they show visions of Christmases Past, Present and Yet-to-Come, he shows visions of Christmases that might have been.
- In Language Arts, Charles's teaching job sometimes makes him feel like a bank officer at a savings and loan, like George Bailey.
- In the first Red Dwarf novel, this is Lister's favourite movie. When they return to Earth, he finds a town called Bedford Falls, and is delighted to discover it's exactly like the film, assuming it must have been created by particularly dedicated fans. It's actually an early sign that he's in a Lotus-Eater Machine, giving him exactly the return to Earth he dreamed of.
- Friends: In "The One Where Old Yeller Dies", Phoebe learns that her mother has been shielding her from sad endings in movies for years, so Monica tries to cheer her up by having her watch It's a Wonderful Life. However, she turns it off halfway through because she can't stand all the bad stuff happening to George, ironically missing the uplifting finale.
- Saturday Night Live: A memorable 1986 sketch depicts a "lost ending" to the film, in which everyone finds out about Mr. Potter's theft and beats him up.
- Sesame Street: In Elmo Saves Christmas, the film is playing on every channel after Elmo wishes for it to be Christmas every day. In addition, Bert and Ernie do a Double Take when they think they hear the movie calling their names, referencing the rumor that they were named after the cop and cab driver.
- The Golden Girls: "It's a Miserable Life" takes its name after the film.
- Married... with Children: In "The Worst Noel", Al and Peg try to find something to watch on Christmas Eve besides the film.
- My So-Called Life: In the Christmas episode "So-Called Angels", the movie plays in the background while Graham and Patty talk about Ricky.
Other Media
- The Bedford Falls Company logo
(as seen at the end of shows such as thirtysomething, My So-Called Life and Nashville) pays homage to the film, particularly the scene where George and Mary sing "Buffalo Gals".
- The long-running Christian audio drama Adventures in Odyssey had a family in the early years known as the Barclay family in which the parents were named George and Mary, while the children, Jimmy and Donna, were named after George and Mary Bailey's respective actors, Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. When a third child was added later, that child received the name Stewart Reed as an allusion to the lead actor's last names.
- In the Heights: In the "Finale" number, part of Usnavi's lyrics include "Merry Christmas, you old Building & Loan!", as Usnavi decides to stay at home in the Heights and appreciates his small community similarly to George at the end of the movie.
- The Nostalgia Critic: The film is listed as #5 on his life of "Top 12 Greatest Christmas Specials".
- Animaniacs:
- One of the theme song's variable verses has the Warners singing "public domain-y" while watching this film, throwing shade at its copyright debacle of the mid-90s.
- In "Bubba Bo Bob Brain", Brain asks Pinky what will happen if people hear his mind-controlling song one more time, and he answers "An angel gets its wings?".
- Batman: The Animated Series: In "Christmas With the Joker", Dick manages to convince Bruce to watch the movie (he never managed to sit through it all the way), but the broadcast is taken over by The Joker, who is holding Commissioner Gordon, Summer Gleeson, and Det. Bullock hostage. After Joker's plot is foiled, the day is saved, and everyone is safe, Bruce watches the movie and admits that it "had its moments".
- Beavis and Butt-Head: In "It's a Miserable Life", a guardian angel shows Butt-Head what everyone's life would be like if he was never born, but since this is Butt-Head we're talking about, everyone's unambiguously better off without him: Anderson's yard is in a much better condition, Burger World has more customers and McVicker still has his hair and Beavis and Stewart are volunteers at a homeless shelter. After witnessing all the above, the guardian angel realizes his mistake but it's too late since now Butt-Head is determined to live, if for no other reason than the fact that he considers everyone's improved lives to be much worse without him there to ruin them.
- The Fairly OddParents!: In "It's a Wishful Life", an unappreciated Timmy wishes that he was never born, so Jorgen shows him an alternate reality where he didn't exist. To Timmy's annoyance, the whole world turns out to be better off without him.
- Family Guy: In "It's a Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas", George is seen on the bridge begging Clarence to take him home, only for Lois (in the middle of an anti-Christmas rampage) to push him off.
- The Flintstones: In the special A Flintstone Family Christmas, Fred and Stoney watch the end of It's a Wonderful Stone-Age Life, with Fred saying that he used to watch it all the time with Pebbles. This results in Stoney imagining himself in the film, coming to the family's doorstep, only to be cruelly turned away.
- Robot Chicken:
- A sketch from "The Sack" has Clarence showing a suicidal Wimpy what the world would be like without him. Once it turns out the world would actually be better without him, Clarence says "Sorry for wasting your time" and pushes him off the bridge.
- A sketch from "Dear Consumer" spoofs the "angel gets its wings" quote to a violent extreme. A liberal mayor has a church bell dismantled to piss off his religious population, but when the Humping Robot "rings" it, an army of newly-winged angels gun him down.
- A sketch from "Gracie Purgatory in: That's How You Get Hemorrhoids" has Clarence getting his wings via painful surgery.
- Rocko's Modern Life: In "Skid Marks", a kid tells his father that his teacher told him "Whenever someone drives with a gas cap on, an angel gets its wings".Dad: You teacher's full of snot!
- Rugrats: The episode "Chuckie's Wonderful Life" is a parody of this film.
- The Simpsons:
- The ending to "When Flanders Failed" parodies the film's ending.
- In "The PTA Disbands", when Bart tricks people into thinking the bank is out of money, A Jimmy Stewart-esque man says that the money is "in Bill's house, or Fred's house", resulting in a man named Bill getting beat up.
- In "My Sister, My Sitter", one of the stores at the Springfield Squidport is called It's a Wonderful Knife.
- In "Natural Born Kissers", Bart and Lisa find an alternate ending to Casablanca, and the Old Jewish Man (who produced it) pays them to bury it along with a reel labeled "It's a Wonderful Life: Killing Spree Ending".
- In "Holidays of Future Passed", as the family gets ready to take their Christmas card photo, an impatient Homer tells them to hurry up because It's a Wonderful Life is about to start."I wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn't seen that movie."
- The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries: In "It Happened One Night Before Christmas", Granny visits her brother in Bedspread Falls to help him find lost money.
- Tiny Toon Adventures: The special "It's a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special" is a spoof of this film, complete with Montana Max being in a wheelchair (with a broken leg) and Buster's guardian angel having a voice like Jimmy Stewart.Buster: I feel like I'm in a bad episode of Quantum Leap.
