The 1960s show “Burke’s Law” had a couple of sly references to its star, Gene Barry’s, previous role as Bat Masterson. In one, Barry’s character police captain Amos Burke happened upon a fancy cane similar to the one Masterson used. Captain Burke gave the cane a couple of expert twirls just as Masterson used to do. In the other one, the cops were at site of an amusement park with a phony graveyard full of phony headstones, one of which was for Bat Masterson his own-self.
In the Newhart episode where Dick and Joanna go to see a therapist, the patient before them is leaving the therapist’s office. It’s actor Jack Riley, who played the great character Elliot Carlin on the Bob Newhart Show (who was repeatedly shown to be Dr. Hartley’s most messed up patient, despite years of therapy).
Bob/Dick recognizes him, and Carlin launches into his standard surly act against Bob’s trademark halting style. It’s for the ages.
After Carlin leaves, the therapist (Melanie Chartoff–hubba hubba 
) apologizes for her patient, explaining how much work it’s taking to undo the damage done by some “quack in Chicago”.
This brief encounter made much more sense after the finale of Newhart. Elliot Carlin is the patient who would haunt his psychologist’s nightmares.
The classic ending to Newhart. If you don’t know it, you owe it to yourself to find out.
Does this Andy Griffith/Matlock thing count?
How about Alan Brady on Mad About You?
In His Girl Friday Cary Grant refers to Earl Williams hiding in a roll top desk as “Mock Turtle,” the role Grant played in Alice in Wonderland.
Doesn’t Grant also mention some bloke named “Archie Leach”? (Which was his real name.)
Yes. The movie also has Grant describing a character as looking like the actor Ralph Bellamy. And, of course, Bellamy played the role.
There was a CBS sitcom in the early '70s called The Good Guys, which was a vehicle for Bob “Gilligan” Denver. Jim Backus and Alan Hale, Jr, (“Mr Howell” and “The Skipper”) were both guest stars, prompting a drunk who came into Bob’s diner to ask “Hey, didn’t I see you guys on an island?”
In 1984’s Back to the Beach, Bob Denver played bartender “Willy Gilligan” (the name used in the GI series proposal but never mentioned on screen) and complained about knowing a guy (obviously “The Professor”) who could make a nuclear reactor out of two coconuts but couldn’t figure out how to repair a boat.
In Spin City Michael J. Fox’s character meets an old friend played by Christopher Lloyd. They exchange a few lines alluding to their roles in the Back to the Future trilogy.
On The Wild, Wild West, Alan Hale, Jr, guest starred as a temporary replacement for Artemus Gordon when Ross Martin was recovering from a heart attack. At the end of the episode, Hale’s character told Jim West he was going to take a nice, long vacation on a deserted island and exited to a few bars of the Gilligan’s Island theme.
Breaking Bad did an alternate ending in which Walter White woke up to find it was all a dream by Hal, Bryan Cranston’s previous role on Malcolm in the Middle.
Ralph Macchio was on an episode of Psych. The main character said “Well, don’t just stand there and wax on about it”.
For anybody who doesn’t know “wax on” was from Karate Kid starring Ralph Macchio.
Sean Bean has done this at least a couple of times*, memorably in the Fellowship of the Ring. There, he clumsily handles the broken sword Narsil while being watched by Aragorn. He cuts his finger on it, remarking “Still Sharp!” This line refers to his earlier role “Sharpe,” the British rifleman in the Napoleonic wars.
Heh, nice. I have a Star Trek one as well. Robert Beltran played showed up as Chakotay, second in command. At one point, Voyager encounters a space “Think Tank” in the Delta quadrant, and has a tough time with them. Eventually, of course, Voyager gets the better of them.
Robert Beltran was previously in a movie called, “Night of the Comet”, in which he runs afoul of another think-tank. Before getting the better of them, he says, “Think-tank, huh? Think this over!”, flips them off, then nasty things happen to the think-tank.
I so very, very, much wanted a callback to his NotC role. It would have been so EASY for him to say the line. I think he even had the helm, and was talking with them via the viewscreen when they were turning the tables on them. Bah!
I’m pretty sure I posted about this in the past. It’s just so. . . argh! DISCOVERY would have done it, AND would have kept the middle-finger as well!
This is a great one. First half, Doogie Howser. Second half, How I Met Your Mother.
My favorite was when Barry jumped the shark:
A Halloween episode of 2 1/2 Men had Allen (Jon Cryer) costumed as Ducky (his character in Pretty In Pink).
A bit obscure and not quite in line with the subject, but kind of close: in an episode of Wagon Train, wagonmaster Chris Hale is introduced to someone who will be joining his train, named John MacIntire, which causes Hale to raise an eyebrow because that is the name of the actor playing him.
Just about to post that one, here is the clip:
