Not a complete human reference but in last years remake of Clash of the Titans, Perseus finds a mechanical owl (Bubo from the 1981 original movie) and asks, “what’s this?” “Nothing. Leave it alone.”
Remember the last season of The A-Team when they were recruited by the CIA. Robert Vaugn was their boss. One of the episodes had Davis McCallum as the principle villain. It was called The say U.N.C.L.E. affair.
Tom Wopat made an appearance on Smallville, where the other Duke Boy (something Schnider?) played Mr. Kent. They did a weird super cheesy car thing where they had to get somewhere fast a-la Dukes of Hazzard. It was awesomely cheesy and clearly intentional.
For bonus points, a busted door meant he needed to slide in through the car’s open window.
Shatner: I saw something on the wing of the plane!
Lithgow: The same thing happened to meeeeeeeeeeeee!
that was then a spoof on Shatners role in the Nightmare at 20,000 Feet episode of the Twilight Zone.
great casting to put him in such a role with that character name.
Which was recreated in the Twilight Zone film… with John Lithgow as the tormented passenger.
Danicka Mckellar appeared on the Fred Savage show “Working” as the boss’s niece. Fred said,“She reminds me of someone I grew up with.” I thought it was a nice touch.
And of course during the opening credits of the A-Team, there was a brief shot of Dirk Benedict looking sideways at a Cylon.
On “Newhart”, besides Suzanne Pleshette, Jack Riley as Elliott Carlin from “The Bob Newhart Show” made at least one cameo as another patient seeing the same therapist that Dick Loudon was seeing. Carlin even referred to having been previously treated by “some quack in Chicago.”
Speaking of Bob Newhart, Marcia Wallace as Carol was Murphy Brown’s secretary in one episode. At the end, Newhart asks her to come back to work for him.
Elliott Carlin also appeared as a psychiatric patient on St. Elsewhere. That show did these jokes so often it started to lose its impact.
Two of the minor characters had actually been characters on an earlier show, White Shadow. A third actor from the show showed up in one epsiode, was greeted, only to say he wasn’t the character the others thought he was.
Early in the show’s run, an amnesiac patient believed he was actually Mary Tyler Moore. When Betty White guest-starred as a doctor, the patient greeted her as Sue Ann.
Late in the run, most of the performers from the old Steve Allen show appeared in one episode playing parents of various hospital staff.
Characters from Terry Gilliam’s short film *The Crimson Permanent Assurance *turn up in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life.