- In Scary Movie, when Cindy and Bobby are about to kiss, the theme song plays and James Van Der Beek makes an appearance at the window, expecting Joey, but immediately leaves after seeing he has the wrong house.
- 10 Things I Hate About You: Bianca wants to go to the prom and tries to convince her dad it’s all PG but he is not buying it.Mr. Stratford: What’s normal? Those damn Dawson’s River kids, sleeping in each other’s beds and whatnot?
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Spike watches TV in his crypt and seems a bit annoyed at Season 4.Spike: Oh Pacey, you blind idiot. Can't you see she doesn't love you?
- In the series finale of all episodes, Buffy jabs a bit at Angel's jealousy and their eternal Star-Crossed Lovers state.Buffy: You're not getting the brush off. Are you just gonna come here and go all Dawson on me every time I have a boyfriend?
- Spike watches TV in his crypt and seems a bit annoyed at Season 4.
- Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, naturally. Several jokes about the show as James tries to move beyond it. Most vividly when he starts teaching an acting class and treats it as 'role of professor' complete with a 3-piece tweed suit, but all his students want to hear about is Dawson.Student: Have my baby Dawson!
- MADtv (1995) did a sketch called ''Devon's Creek''
. A supposed response to the all-white casts on TV has an all-white writers room missing the point entirely, while they and the media congratulate themselves for being so diverse. When the actors ask for any kind of representative writing, they of course get a mention of slavery, with a 'so glad slavery and racism is over' sign-off. - At the 1998 MTV Movie Awards show hosted by Samuel L. Jackson, a skit has James Van Der Beek and Katie Holmes as Dawson and Joey attempting to kiss each other. Not only are they ridiculously slow in doing it, but Samuel accidentally ruins the moment by walking in, causing the theme song to stop playing. They finally do kiss, but not until Samuel reluctantly sings the theme himself.
- Family Guy:
- In "Death Is a Bitch", Peter lets slip that death has taken a holiday, and Death himself forces him to take his place and cause a major death to remind the world of their mortality. His assignment: the cast of the seriesnote . Peter tries to refuse, but after Death threatens to kill him instead, he gets on the cast's flight and accidentally kills the pilots of the plane they're on. The four actors and all passengers land safely and come out unharmed, and Death feels they learned their lesson.
- In "Peterotica", Peter and Carter film a TV pilot called Quahog Creek.
