AIGH!
You stole my reference. The only one I could think of.
WAH!
Toward the end of Doc Hollywood, tow small-town Southern characters played by Woody Haralson and Bridget Fonda are sitting in a Hollywood restaurant. Bridget’s character is on the lookout for Hollywood celebrities.
Bridget Fonda’s character (wide-eyed): "Is that a star?!?
Woody Haralson’s character: “Nah. That’s just Ted Danson.”
*The Dark Tower * jaunts back and forth over the fourth wall. I’d say it qualifies as bending, because it’s never quite clear if King is merely referencing the real world within a work of fiction, or if he actually in some way believes the fiction takes place in the real world.
Another *Monk * moment: right after they dumped the cool jazzy theme song in favor of irritating Randy Newman, there was a show with Sara Silverman as an obsessed fan of a popular TV show, on a mission to get the producers to revert to the show’s old theme song.
Actually that was Jazz. And naturally Uncle Phil gave him the old heave-ho for suggesting that his wife looked like a different person.
In The Famous Teddy Z, Alex Rocco is telling Teddy that you never know who might hit it big in Hollywood, and that some unknown might write the script for Police Academy and become big.
Hugh Wilson, who wrote the script for Police Academy, was creator of The Famous Teddy Z
The entirety of Galaxy Quest, which is a two hour riff on Star Trek and its fans, plus the entertainment industry as a whole. 
Tim Allen et al play washed up SF actors who’re on a permanent convention circuit until the aliens come down to find the intrepid crew and take them away, believing that the TV show is the reality.
I’m surprised that no one mentioned this one before I got there…
Two bend-the-fourth-wall items that haven’t been mentioned (mild curses upon Scott Plaid for having brought up [the 007] James Bond impersonating an ornithologist in Cuba, about which Fleming’s friend the real-world James Bond was the acknowledged expert! :mad: )
In the otherwise execrable Beverly Hillbillies movie, a significant plot element centers on Granny Clampett having been kidnapped. Miss Jane refers Jed to “the best private detective in Beverly Hills” – who turns out to be Barnaby Jones, the other character created by Buddy Ebsen, the original TV Jed Clampett.
And veteran character actor Ray Walston played the alien Uncle Martin in the 60s TV sitcom My Favorite Martian. Twenty-odd years later, Ray Walston is the judge in Picket Fences, and in one episode a case comes before him involving the sighting of U.F.O.s. He sardonically delivers a throwaway line about people who would believe in Martians, making the eyebrow-twitch signature gesture of his Uncle Martin character from the other series.
Indeed.
At the end of the first episode where Sarah Chalke took over the role of Becky, the Conner family sat around watching “Bewitched,” commenting on the change in Darrens. Chalke commented, “I always liked the second Darren better.”
They also played it up when Lecy Goranson returned for the 95-96 season. In her first returning scene, Roseanne said, “Where have you BEEN?”
In the horrible, horrible Exit to Eden, Eliot (Paul Mercurio) and Lisa (Dana Delaney) are walking through New Orleans. Lisa sees someone off-camera, and asks, “Isn’t that Tom Cruise?” Eliot replies, “No…that’s Brad Pitt.” Both Cruise and Pitt were in Interview with the Vampire, penned by Anne Rice. Rice also wrote Exit to Eden[sup]*[/sup], but under a pen-name.
[sup]This is the biggest pet peeve I have in movies: When they stray way too far from the source material. In the book, the Rosie O’Donnell/Dan Ackroyd characters, and their plot (which is the main plot of the film), DON’T EXIST![/sup]
This reminds me of one of my favorites - In “Take Her, She’s Mine,” Jimmy Stewart plays Sandra Dee’s overprotective father who is constantly mistaken for Jimmy Stewart. He spends a good part of the film shouting, “No, I’m not him!”
Doesn’t qualify, though. There’s no hint in the text of the characters realizing that the events taking place are part of a work of fiction. Great movie, though.
Ah, here we go - last night, a couple of my friends came over for a movie night. Just get together, watch some DVD, end of story.
Well, as I was struggling to find something in my colelction that they both hadn’t seen - not that the collection is small, it’s just they have tremendous coverage between them - I finally settled on the underrated 1992 gem Stay Tuned. One of my favorites - neither of them had seen it.
For those unfamiliar with it, John Ritter stars as a TV-obsessed schlub whose marriage is falling apart. A mysterious TV salesman (in reality, a demon) has him sign a contract for a free trial of an ultimate TV system - of course, the fine print says they can draw him into their TV world, and if they kill him in there, his soul is forfeit.
Contains a lot of great devilish TV parodies, and some cheap puns - one of the highlights of the film is when Roy (John Ritter) and wife Helen (Pam Dawber) end up in a cartoon on one of the channels - the animation sequence was done by Chuck Jones.
Anyway, later in the film, Roy starts fleeing through a series of channels, trying to get away from the sales-demon fellow (Spike, played by Jeffrey Jones) - and ends up in a very distinctive 70’s or late 80’s style apartment. He tumbles onto the couch as he arrives, and as he stands up, the door opens, and two girls enter - one with short black hair, the other with medium-length blonde hair. The Three’s Company theme plays as they say, in unison “Where have you Been?” And Roy (played by John Ritter, again) begins this slowly building scream of terror.
In an interesting bit of self reference, the film is about an evil monster who wants to take over humanity * **and ** * it is available at wall-mart for only five dollars.
Actually, no, it’s about a poor TV-obsessed schlub trying to save himself and his wife from eternal damnation, but don’t let reality get in the way of the tired Wal-Mart joke. 
Actually, I was talking about the devil. You know, the guy that owns the cable company. I should have said
Well, technically, it co-starred Jeffrey Jones, a man playing A devil - and not the owner of the cable company - referred to in the movie as the Chairman, but never seeen - who is presumably THE devil. And there’s no indication that any of the characters wants to take over humanity. Jones’s character is just the programming director.
**Baker **- the St Elsewhere bit with William Daniels was the one I was going to add. I think I remember that he also tells his wife “I was obnoxious and disliked” in that episode.
In Mallrats, there is a scene where Shannen Doherty’s character sees the magic eye sailboat, the guy who can’t see it looks at her and says “Brenda?” (her 90210 character). To which she replies “Dick!”
In the TV series Boy Meets World, William Daniels plays Mr. Feeny, principal of John Adams High School. (This was pointed out to me when I was showing the movie 1776 to a class of 6th graders.)
In the FOX TV series Herman’s Head, there are a few jokes about how the character Louise sounds just like that girl on The Simpsons. Louise was played by Yeardley Smith, who is the voice actress for Lisa Simpson.
In Parker Lewis Can’t Lose (another FOX show), one of the geekier characters was forced to sell his beloved Star Trek memorabilia collection for some quick cash. The person he was selling to was Michael Dorn, who played Worf in Next Generation. (“How can I be sure that this is of…highest quality?”)
Also from Parker Lewis, during scenes where students were rallying/protesting something, you’d occasionally see one student holding a sign which said something like “Thank you for not watching Hull High,” or some other show in the same timeslot.
My favorite old fox show! Oh, how I missed you.
From It’s a Wonderful Life
In the scene where Bert, Ernie and George are talking by the cab, Bert has a newspapaper and the headline is"Mr Smith wins Washington" , a reference to Jimmy Stewert’s previous film.
Here’s one for arabic speakers:
**Jewel of the Nile **
In the movie, which starts Michael Douglas, there is a scene where an Arab is making a speech in Arabic, supposedly exhorting his followers to fight. The text of the speech is actually a list of all the movies that MD’s father Kirk Douglas has appeared in!
Cite:: Interview with Michael Douglas, many years ago.