Studio Episode

"CUT!"

The process of creating media makes for good drama. On top of that, a lot of creators adhere to the rule of Write What You Know, and when it comes to producing Film and TV Shows, there are few experiences more universal than having to come into a studio for several hours a day, put up with personalities like a Prima Donna Director or a Smooth-Talking Talent Agent, and a Troubled Production with plenty of Hostility on the Set. As such, there's a long and proud tradition of media taking place at a studio where something is actively being shot.

Expect plenty of Self-Referential Humor and Lampshade Hanging in these episodes as the characters discuss how corny the plot of the production is while being in a show that might be equally corny. There might be a Celebrity Cameo or two in the form of a producer or director of the show that's being shot. Occasionally these episodes are a Take That! to the production process or a particular personality or show the creator has animosity towards. Sometimes the episode is framed as a "making of" documentary.

Subtrope of Set Behind the Scenes, when an entire work is about the production of a single movie or show, as opposed to being a one-off episode. Also a sister trope of The Show Goes Hollywood, but not all of these are set in that particular city. Studiopolis is a subtrope for video games that have levels with the aesthetic of a film studio, but don't do anything narratively with them. Often involves a Movie-Making Mess. Live-action media can involve a Filming Location Cameo. Contrast with Amateur Film-Making Plot, which typically does not involve Hollywood in the process at all. If the work is an adaptation of an already existing film, expect this episode to focus on the production of that film.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Kirby: Right Back at Ya!: The episode "Cartoon Buffoon" is about King Dedede hiring the entire town to work on an animated show. This is a parody of the terrible work environments of animators.
• Pokémon: The Series has a two-parter set in Hollywood (which is apparently in Western Kanto; the original Japanese explains it's just named after Hollywood) where Ash and the gang are recruited to help make a film with an all-Pokémon cast, where Misty's Psyduck lands the leading role. The second half of the two-parter elaborates on the backstory of Team Rocket's talking Meowth, with the film itself a bit of a footnote, with the appearances by all of Ash's Pokemon being on the cutting-room floor.
• Sailor Moon: In the Sailor Moon R episode "For Love and for Justice: Sailor Guardians Once Again/ So You Want to Be in Pictures", the former Sailor Guardians (who lost their memories of being guardians and of each other at the end of Season 1) and Naru are invited to attend a TV audition, which turns out to be a trap for Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon attempts to fight the monster by herself on the set, but her struggling causes Luna to reawaken the other guardians' memories.
• Scott Pilgrim Takes Off: The third and fourth episodes of the show focus on Ramona's efforts to investigate a film that Young Neil apparently wrote in the space of a single night, based on a timeline where Scott survived his fight with Matthew Patel. (basically the original Scott Pilgrim vs. The World). It first stars her second ex, Lucas Lee, as Scott, before Todd Ingram, her third ex, is brought on to replace him. In the end, the film fails to come to fruition, between Lucas's ego and the relationship drama between Envy Adams and Todd after Wallace becomes the latter's Closet Key.

Comic Books

• Doctor Who (IDW) featured a special for the 50th Anniversary, titled "The Girl Who Loved The Doctor", where the Eleventh Doctor gets sent into a universe where Doctor Who is just a TV Show. Not only does Eleven meet Matt Smith, but at the time, Matt Smith is filming an episode about the Doctor coming into real life.
• Teen Titans: Garfield Logan/Beast Boy has had a few acting gigs over the years, with the red-and-white costume he adopted as Changeling coming from his role on the show Space Trek 2022.
• Ultimate Spider-Man had a six-part Story Arc where Peter went to Hollywood and crashed the production of a Sam Raimi Spider-Man film, implied to be part of the Spider-Man Trilogy, given both that Avi Arad and Tobey Maguire also show up.

Film — Live-Action

• Downton Abbey: A New Era: As a film continuation of Downton Abbey, this one has the Crawleys reluctantly open their home to a Hollywood film crew trying to shoot a period film in order to earn the money to fix the leaky roof, a metafictional commentary on what the owners of the real Downton film location, Highclere Castle, had to do for the original series and its film sequels.

Literature

• Animorphs: "The Reaction" has Rachel attempt to get onto a talk show to try and sabotage the Yeerks attempts to recruit a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Jonathan Taylor Thomas to act as the spokesperson for one of their front organizations. However, this is complicated by the the fact that Rachel is allergic to a recently acquired crocodile morph, and said allergy is causing her to morph uncontrollably. Oddly enough, when this was adapted for the TV show, this was changed into a plot focusing on Cassie instead.
• The Dresden Files: Blood Rites focuses on Harry being hired by Thomas Raith to investigate an adult film studio run by the Raith family, which is being affected by a curse that's causing its performers to die in bizarre accidents.
• Thursday Next has a twist on this in the third book; Thursday decides to spend a year living inside an unfinished novel called Caversham Heights to escape from an evil MegaCorp in the real world, and there are parallels between acting out her character in the novel and acting in a play, complete with having scene cues and script notes. Between fixing up the plot of this novel and solving an issue with a union of Nursery Rhyme characters, she manages to transform Caversham Heights into Nursery Crime.

Live-Action TV

• Bones:
  • In "The Suit on Set", Brennan and Booth discover a real body on the set of Bone of Contention, an action film adaptation of Brennan's book, and it turns out to be the head of the studio. Bones and Brennan remain on the set, helped by the actor playing Hodgins' character since he has a science background, while the rest of the team help from the Jeffersonian. The murder turns out to have nothing to do with the film — the studio groundskeeper got fed up with him and the other creatives ruining her topiaries.
  • Downplayed and inverted in "The Body and the Bounty", where Brennan agrees to host an episode of The Science Dude in the Jeffersonian if the host Bunsen Jude proves himself as a squintern on an unrelated case. While he does come through, the filming doesn't take place until the last scene of the episode, with Brennan hilariously dressed in a skeleton costume and tutu.
  • In "The Carrot in the Kudzu", a popular children's show actor, most known for playing Carrot Bill in The Vegetabills, is found dead, so Bones and Brennan investigate the set to see if anyone involved in the show killed him. The murderer instead turns out to be a fan who killed him entirely by accident, not knowing he had a heart condition that made him prone to dying from a sudden scare.
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine: In "Serve & Protect", Jake and Rosa are assigned to solve a case on the set of their favorite crime show, Serve & Protect, with Jake struggling to solve the case objectively since he is so starstruck. The episode pokes fun at some of the inaccuracies of crime shows, such as actors not wearing gloves when handling evidence, though this turns out to be a ruse since the actor in question was the culprit pretending to be a bad Method Actor. Jake also gets a character named after him... a gross, perverted serial killer, as revenge for him accusing the producer of the theft (but he is just happy they used his name at all). As a meta bonus, the lead actor on Serve & Protect is played by Nathan Fillion, who was best known for the long-running crime show Castle (2009) at the time this aired.
• Castle (2009): In "One Life to Lose", the murder of the head writer on the popular soap opera Temptation Lane has Castle and Beckett visiting the show's set, and finding just as much drama backstage as onscreen. Castle's unique skill set as a writer comes in handy, and in the process, he discovers Beckett is Not So Above It All, as she is a Temptation Lane fan.
• Much of the Diagnosis: Murder episode "Death in the Daytime" takes place on the set of The Young and the Restless, including interactions with several actors from Y&R. In fact, actress Victoria Rowell who was in both series plays both her Diagnosis: Murder character and herself as an actress.
• Eerie, Indiana: The episode "Reality Takes a Holiday" has Marshall waking up one morning to find that his home has become a movie set, everyone is calling him "Omri Katz", and learns that he's to be killed off in the next episode of Eerie, Indiana.
• Friends: Joey's job as an actor means several episodes take place on TV or movie sets.
  • For a brief period on season 2, and from season 7 onwards, Joey had a regular role on Days of Our Lives as Dr. Drake Ramoray (although for the second stint, he actually played another character whose brain was implanted in Drake's body). In one episode, Joey invites Phoebe to work as an extra on the set, but she keeps ruining the shots by overacting.
  • "The One After the Superbowl" has a subplot where Ross' former pet monkey Marcel is working on a sequel to Outbreak starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, and the gang goes to visit. Joey gets a small role, but because of his tendency to go off-script, his role is rewritten from "dying" to "already dead."
  • In "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding", Joey is filming a WWI film and has to contend with an eccentric actor (played by Gary Oldman).
  • Subverted on "The One with Joey's Big Break". Joey is supposed to star in an independent movie, but by the time he makes it to the set, production on the movie has been cancelled.
• Maude: The Finleys learn that there's a local channel that gets federal grant money, provided they air content. Doesn't have to be good content, just has to be content. Maude tries hosting a telethon for gall bladder research, but the gall bladder society pulls out of this amateur effort. Maude proceeds anyway, shifting the focus to "Your Mystery Disease" until they can find a new sponsor. Most of the episode transpires within the limited studio of Channel G.
• Murder, She Wrote had one of these in Season 12 with the episode "Murder Among Friends". Part of the episode is a Take That! to Friends, which had stolen both Murder, She Wrote's time slot and a large portion of its audience, and features Jessica reluctantly investigating the murder of a producer on the show Pals after it was announced that a member of the cast would be bumped off in an attempt to raise ratings.
• In the Murdoch Mysteries episode "The Filmed Adventures of Detective William Murdoch", Murdoch investigates a murder taking place in an early movie house, where during a screening of the first motion picture with sound (in 1901, well before talkies and Hollywood), a major investor was killed by gunshot, which everyone first assumed was All Part of the Show. The investigation leads Murdoch into the drama surrounding the house's investor, James Pendrick, and his bitter rival, Thomas Edison, with blame naturally shifting between them and their associates, with the belief that someone was trying to sabotage Pendrick's show for infringing on Edison's patents. While this is happening, the same studio is also seeking to make a film about Murdoch and his illustrious detective career, initially titled The Filmed Adventures of Detective William Murdoch, before Crabtree suggests the much shorter, snappier title: The Murdoch Mysteries. Murdoch, for his part, has little faith in the industry's future.
  Murdoch: I'm not entirely sure I can envy a future where everyone wastes their lives staring at a screen watching made-up stories.
• Psych: In "Lights, Camera... Homicidio", Shawn investigates a murder on the set of a telenovela filmed in Santa Barbara.
• Seinfeld: The fourth season finale, "The Pilot," involves casting for and shooting the pilot episode of Jerry and George's "nothing" sitcom, "Jerry."
• Stargate SG-1: "Wormhole X-Treme!" is a Self-Parody episode where SG-1 visits the filming set for the Show Within a Show of the same name, which is loosely based on SG-1's own adventures as partly misremembered by Martin Lloyd, an offworld-born human hiding out on Earth. This results in Jack O'Neill getting named a US Air Force technical adviser to the series and giving advice, like just shooting an alien guard when the budget won't allow for Martin's original idea to sneak his protagonist past.
• The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: "The Suite Life Goes Hollywood" two-parter episode features two television screenwriters looking to make a show based on Zack and Cody's life at The Tipton called "Life is Suite," and the main cast is invited along to watch the show's production. Zack and Cody are then brought on as the lead actors after their actors are fired, and the main cast try to inject their own idiosyncrasies into their Hollywood actor counterparts. Ultimately, Zack and Cody's attempts to break into showbiz are cut short when the screenwriters find more success with a different pair of twins and everyone goes back to Boston. Meanwhile, Maddie and London attempt to get a kiss from a famous actor by sneaking onto the set of a Western and are mistaken for the leads' stunt doubles.
• Supernatural did this twice over its run.
  • Season 2's "Hollywood Babylon" is a fairly standard episode, with Sam acting as a PA at the Warner Bros. Studio in Hollywood as the Winchesters investigate a haunting on set. It features McG as the director of the film, creating a Celebrity Paradox, since McG is an executive producer on Supernatural.
  • Season 6's "The French Mistake" is a more... unique version of this trope. It's a Refugee from TV Land plot, where Sam and Dean are catapulted into an Alternate Universe where Supernatural is just a TV Show, and Sam and Dean are actors named Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. Despite this, there's still a body count, with Misha Collins and show creator Eric Kripke both being dead at the episode's end due to a demon from Sam and Dean's world tagging along.
• That's So Raven: The episode "Goin' Hollywood" has the Baxters going to Hollywood when Cory wins a contest to appear on the popular sitcom Better Days.
• Walt Disney Presents: Many episodes provide a behind-the-scenes look at the Disney Studio's latest projects, some more extensive than others.
  • The animated special "The Goofy Success Story" is about how Goofy got discovered and became a famous actor, with several scenes taking place on movie sets that segue into older Disney theatrical shorts.
  • The episode "A Day in the Life of Donald Duck" revolves around a day with Donald at the studio, which includes guiding the Mouseketeers on a tour through the lot.
  • "Backstage Party" has Walt taking his audience behind the scenes of his production of Babes in Toyland, with much of the show taking place during a cast-and-crew party that starts once filming wraps.
• The X-Files: The Season 7 episode "Hollywood A.D." features Mulder and Scully attempting to solve a case involving an item that might be able to resurrect the dead, and suffering through second-hand embarrassment at a film adapting said case.

Music

• The music video for Imagine Dragons' "On Top of the World" at first appears to document the band members in The '60s standing in for the Apollo 11 mission, seemingly landing on the moon... until one of them gets beaned on the head by a boom mic, revealing that they're on a soundstage staging the whole thing, complete with Richard Nixon and Stanley Kubrick watching by the side. Once the landing is complete and the broadcast cuts out, the band decides to play themselves out (still wearing spacesuits, mind you) and turn the shoot into a rock concert, especially once fangirls come barging into the studio, seemingly oblivious to what they're actually shooting there.
• Rammstein: The main setting of the video for "Amerika" is the moon, but it's eventually revealed at the end that the setting is actually a movie set, complete with cameras, personnel, and the like, with a group photo serving as the last shot of the video.

Podcasts

• The Magnus Archives has a few statements that mention Hollywood in one form or another, but Episode 110, Creature Feature, is explicitly about the production of a film from the POV of a cinematographer who watches the director slide into madness and eventually having them and the entire cast be abducted by a vast spider-like being.

Tabletop Games

• Sentinels of the Multiverse: One of the environments in which heroes and villains can clash is Champion Studios. Its main gimmick gameplay-wise is a special type of card called a 'Conflict' that needs to be dealt with, ranging from a room filled with Banana Peels to the heroes needing to win a game of baseball; despite the latter card potentially being an instant loss for the heroes if it whiffs three times, Champion Studios is one of the more forgiving environments to play in, with relatively few villain targets or hazards.

Video Games

• Cyberpunk 2077: The culmination of Joshua and Rachel Casich's questline, "They Won't Go When I Go", has a rather brutal version of this. Joshua is in a braindance studio in order to record the sensation of being crucified, and the player has the choice to either help him or have someone else crucify him.
• Duke Nukem 3D: The level "Movie Set" from Shrapnel City takes place in one, with Duke starting on the outside. The set in question resembles a science fiction set for a movie based on previous episode Lunar Apocalypse, with spaceships, teleporters, and recreations of the moon, with a specific area acting as the entrance to the Secret Level "Tier Drops".
• In Final Fantasy XIV, the Return to Ivalice quests begin with the Warrior of Light being invited on board the Prima Vista, the world's largest civilian airship and a flying amphitheater. On board is the Majestic Imperial Theater Company led by Jenomis cen Lexentale, who is famous for turning the stories of the legendary Zodiac Braves into a beloved work of theater. But he believes that the Zodiac Braves are more than mere fairy tales. He recruits the Warrior to help him uncover evidence to prove his theory by venturing into the ruins of what Jenomis believes is the lost civilization of Ivalice.
• In Mega Man Star Force, Geo and his friends are invited by Sonia Strumm, another close friend and an Idol Singer, to WGB Studios to participate as extras in a film she's a part of. Partway through the shoot, Bud is transformed into Taurus Fire by a Noise Card, forcing Geo to intervene as Mega Man. This in turn convinces the director to have Mega Man replace Belle, Sonia's co-star, in the film. This angers Belle's Virtual Sidekick, Ice, who is empowered by another Noise Card to become Diamond Ice in hopes of killing Sonia and Mega Man to give Belle the stardom that Ice believes she deserves.
• Mortal Kombat 1: The first half of Chapter 2: Mr. A-Lister (Johnny Cage's episode) has Johnny in the middle of an adventure as an Indiana Jones expy, with a sidekick, in search of a treasure. Once he finds the treasure and defeats Katara Vala, it turns out it was just FX and Johnny was in the middle of a wrapping-up for a movie, with a Steven Spielberg expy officiating as the director. The set itself is a fighting stage, "Temple of Katara Vala", and it has two variations: the full FX version ("Movie Set") and the green screen Studio version ("Work Set").
• Persona 5: The Thieves go on a field trip to a TV studio where they film a talk show, though the group is bored by the dull lectures and lack of activity. However, they end up meeting the show's guest, a detective called Akechi, who engages Joker in a debate over the morality of the Phantom Thieves during an interview. It's later revealed that Akechi accidentally gave himself away as the Black Mask assassin to the Thieves during this trip due to accidentally responding to Morgana's voice.
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: The Third Case, Turnabout Samurai, focuses on Phoenix defending Will Powers, the star of the Steel Samurai show, and he has to investigate the studio where Steel Samurai is shot for clues.
• Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 features a sidequest chain in the form of Pokéstar Studios. To succeed, the player has to follow the script by executing specific moves at least, at first; getting a strange ending actually makes for a more successful movie, but you have to go for the intended ending first. The main reward from this is a special effect for your Pokémon when it emerges from the ball, along with obtaining healing and selling items from fans of your movies.

Web Animation

• Helluva Boss: Seeing Stars has the crew travel to Los Angeles, during which Blitzo gets mistaken for a celebrity and pulled onto a soundstage. With no script or idea of what the show's about, he has to quickly ad-lib his starring role in front of a live audience.

Western Animation

• Big City Greens episode, Animation Abomination, has Cricket and Tilly go with Gloria to visit the studio making their favorite show, Kingdom of Lore. Cricket pitches his idea about the princess protagonist turning evil and blowing everything up. Tilly on the other hand objects with such an idea while hers is the main antagonist being revealed to be her father whom she must defeat to reclaim her kingdom. Tilly tries changing the episode's ending while the two siblings view the various steps of the animation production.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: The episode "Hollywaste" has Dr. Blight's sister Bambi attempting to create an environmentally-friendly film based on the Captain Planet and the Planeteers themselves. However, Dr. Blight attempts to sabotage it.
• Casper the Friendly Ghost: The 1957 short Ghost of Honor has Casper telling of how he started his acting career when he visited Paramount Cartoon Studios to see how cartoons were made.
• Ducktales 2017:
  • The Season 2 episode "The Duck Knight Returns!" features Launchpad, Dewey, and Jim Starling (Darkwing Duck's original actor) trying to sabotage the production of an In-Universe Darkwing Duck reboot film bankrolled by Scrooge in an attempt to get Starling his job back...but it turns out that the new actor playing Darkwing, Drake Mallard, is an avid fan of the original show and wants to do the character justice. The film is cancelled after a battle between Starling and Mallard, with Mallard deciding to take up the mantle of Darkwing Duck for real, while Starling transforms into Nega-Duck.
  • Season 3's Quack Pack gives the cast an Out-of-Genre Experience due to a wish made by Donald by forcing them to participate in a sitcom based on their lives, complete with a live Studio Audience... which is composed entirely of humans.
• The Fairly OddParents! had the episode "Lights... Camera... Adam!" which heavily featured Adam West as the a film version of the Crimson Chin and Timmy playing his sidekick, Cleft.
• Inside Job: Brettwork combines this with an Election Day Episode and goes behind the scenes as Cognito Inc.'s news station attempts to position Brett as a puppet candidate for the company.
• Jellystone!: In "A Town Video: Welcome to Jellystone, Yogi is put in charge of producing a tourism video for the town by Mayor Huckleberry Hound. It predictably gets far out of hand, with Yogi turning it into a sci-fi epic in which a character played by him saves Jellystone from the apocalypse, and Huckleberry has to shut it down by engaging in an Animesque battle with Yogi.
• Looney Tunes:
  • The 1935 short Hollywood Capers sees Beans the Cat sneaking into Warmer Brothers Studios and getting into various shenanigans.
  • The shorts Daffy Duck in Hollywood and Hollywood Daffy involve Daffy Duck causing all sorts of problems at a movie studio.
  • The 1940 short You Ought To Be In Pictures has Daffy tricking Porky into quitting his job at Leon Schlesinger Productions for a career in features. At one point, Porky sneaks into a soundstage and ruins the take with a Sneeze of Doom.
  • The 1956 short A Star Is Bored has Daffy as a lowly janitor being hired to be Bugs Bunny's Stunt Double.
• The Loud House: In "Screen Queen", the Louds take a vacation to Hollywood, and Lola tries out for the lead role in a Raiders of the Lost Parody. However, after dealing with an overly-bossy director and nosy admirers, she decides she isn't ready to be an actress yet.
• Men in Black: The Series: The episode "The Star System Syndrome" features J and K investigating alien performers in Hollywood being kidnapped and ends with the Worms getting a version of Men in Black greenlit, which forces J and K to neuralize Hollywood.
• Mickey Mouse (2013): The short "Roll 'Em" takes place in a movie studio where Mickey is working as a gofer.
• Popeye: The 1950 short Popeye Makes a Movie has Popeye's nephews visiting (and causing trouble on) the set of their uncle's latest picture.
• The Real Ghostbusters: The episode "Take Two" features the Ghostbusters being flown out to Hollywood to oversee the production of none other than Ghostbusters. The ending even features a couple of clips from the film, with the animated version of Peter complaining that Bill Murray looks nothing like him.
• Rocky and Bullwinkle: The story arc "The Last Angry Moose" has Bullwinkle going to Hollywood to become an actor, with a disguised Boris (as "Alfred Hitchhike") and Natasha making a movie with him so he can pay them the life savings he stored in his mattress. The moose's acting proves so terrible that they eventually decide to just take the mattress and run.
• Rugrats (1991):
  • In "Baby Commercial", when Tommy sees Phil and Lil in a commercial for Tighties diapers, he asks them how they can be near him and in the TV at the same time. The twins explain the concept of a TV commercial to him, and a flashback is shown of the day they visited a TV studio to be filmed in the Tighties commercial. The twins cause as much havoc as two babies could be expected to get into, from rubbing off their stage makeup to wandering around the set, giving Jonathan, the director, a nervous breakdown. However, despite all the odds against him, the agency executives are very pleased with the final product of his commercial, so he pesters Betty for another gig. Unfortunately for him, Betty has had enough and refuses to let Phil and Lil star in any more commercials.
  • In "The Word of the Day", Angelica auditions to be on Miss Carol's Happy House and is chosen as one of the finalists. On the day she visits the studio for her audition, she overhears Miss Carol saying the "real" fun phrase to her assistant Miss Stephanie, which includes an expletive. When Angelica tells Drew and Charlotte the fun phrase, they forbid her from going to the studio again but change their minds and let her go after all under the condition that she not say the fun phrase. Angelica eventually says the fun phrase out of pressure from Miss Carol, then exposes Miss Carol's true colors by having her reveal that she said it on live television. Miss Carol ends up getting fired from her show, which gets retooled as Miss Stephanie's Happy House. Angelica ends up getting barred from the retool due to saying the fun phrase, but Timmy, another finalist, gets to appear in her place.
• The Simpsons has had this plot crop up a few times:
  • Season 7's "Radioactive Man" has a Hollywood studio produce a Radioactive Man movie in Springfield. The town price-gouges the studio massively, and both Bart and Milhouse audition for the role of Fallout Boy, with the latter getting it. The production falls apart because of the jacked-up prices in the town draining the budget.
  • Season 21's Homer the Whopper sees Homer starring as Everyman, a superhero created by the Comic Book Guy that's getting a film adaptation. Homer loses a lot of weight for the role due to Executive Meddling proclaiming that Homer's physique is unfit for a starring role. Homer being Homer, immediately gains it all back, and the ensuing film is a disaster.
• Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends has the episode "Spidey Goes Hollywood", where Mysterio manipulates a director into casting Spider-Man in a film; Spidey and his friends go along with it because Aunt May needs to make a house payment. Even with Mysterio defeated, it turns out to be All for Nothing because the production ran out of film, even if Spidey does get paid.

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