Shout Out / Bones

• Series creator Kathy Reichs appeared as one of the doctors Zack Addy defended his dissertation to in one episode.
• "The Girl with the Curl" has the Hyperion Hotel.
  • Also, Brennan mentions Booth threatening to push someone out a window, possibly a subtle shout out to the pilot episode of Angel, in which Angel (Boreanaz) does exactly that.
• "Boris and Natasha and their Russian Throwing Knives of Death."
• "The Bond in the Boot" is loaded with James Bond references. One of the few that goes unremarked is a CIA front company named "Universal Exports" — 007's standard cover.
• There are two inside thirty seconds in "The Dwarf in the Dirt" — "There are no such things as leprechauns" and Homer Simpson's brain MRI on the X-ray board behind Nigel. ^note  For bonus points, Dan Castellaneta appears in the episode as a snarky policeman. Both were put in to coincide with The Simpson's 20th anniversary, a theme running throughout all Fox shows that week.
• Possibly, possibly "Mr. White" in "The Proof in the Pudding." Possibly.
• Booth spends the first half of "The Devil in the Details" dressed uncannily similarly to John Constantine.
• The opening camera zoom during "The Woman in the Sand," set in Las Vegas, is identical to those commonly used on Las Vegas. Given that reruns of both shows air on TNT, once could be forgiven for thinking someone screwed up the scheduling until Brennan starts talking.
• Possibly in the episode "The Death of the Queen Bee", during which Booth and Bones go "undercover" as married to Bones' highschool reunion. Booth is Bobby Kent, newspaper man.
• The episode "The Beaver in the Otter" is one long sequence of references to Animal House, from the title to the Dean being named "Vernon Wormer" and a student having sex with the Dean's wife.
• In the sixth season opener Caroline refers to the Squints as the Scooby Gang.
• In "The Babe in the Bar", the victim of the week is named Harriet. She's a corporate spy.
• "The Maggots in the Meathead" is one big shoutout to Jersey Shore. The "documentary" on the Guidos that Brennan watches is implied to be Jersey Shore itself.
• In the pilot episode, Booth refers to both himself and Bones as "Scully and Mulder".
• Not to mention the episode "The X in the File", which is full of X-Files references and guest stars.
• In the book series, Brennan's mother is named Daisy. On the show, we have the intern Daisy Wick. This is either a dual case of Shown Their Work or just an extreme coincidence.
• The episode title for "The Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood".
• One of the major character interactions in "The Gamer in the Grease" is lifted directly from The King of Kong, right down to the record holder and breaker being named Billy and Steve, respectively.
• In "The Feet on the Beach", one of the employees at the body farm is named Larry Wolfram.
• Hodgins mentions Zack watching reruns of Firefly. No mention is made of the fact that Cam appeared briefly in the beginning of Serenity. Though this might be pretty standard fare for Bones. Mention has been made of watching Buffy by characters, and no one seemed to notice that Booth was a pretty major character there for a while.
• On a related note to the above entry, Firefly regular Gina Torres played Dr. Toni Ezralow, a murder suspect in season 4’s “The Bone That Blew”. In the same episode an affluent young boy calls Booth “stupid inbred stack of meat” in Mandarin. The same insult is used by Saffron, the recurring character who tricked Mal into marrying her, in the Firefly episode “Trash”.
• And Franchise/Star Wars is brought up several times:
  Sweets: It's awesome! It's like the Sith Lords, man. There's always only two of them.
  Booth: Did you just Star Wars us?
  • It's brought up in the first season by Booth, when Zack is wearing the thermal imaging helmet:
    Booth: How’s it going there, Darth? See anything on Saturn? (off of Brennan’s look) Oh, please tell me you’ve seen at least one Star Wars movie.
    Brennan: When I was seven, and leave Zack alone.
  • Another Star Wars reference is found in "The Brain in the Bot":
    Booth: I mean, what, are we talking like, full-on C-3PO or RD-D2? What?
    Brennan: I have no idea what that means...
• Battlestar Galactica (2003) was mentioned, and "gut instinct" girl squintern was surprised Cam's never heard of it since it's "old school".
• Angela is stunned that Brennan thinks an "unflattering" reconstruction of an old man resembles Iron Maiden's ("Not an actual iron maiden") mascot Eddie. Turns out she's been interested in the metal subculture since it came up in a previous case.
• Possibly The Lord of the Rings for Brennan's "surprise" 40th birthday party: She planned her own party and surprised a few of her guests with presents by revealing that she's the one who recommended Angela for a MacArthur Genius Grant and for Daisy to be head forensic anthropologist for a national forensics group.
• "A Night at the Bones Museum" is one big Homage to the 1932 original film version of The Mummy, featuring Boris Karloff. Clips of the film are seen throughout the episode, being watched by Angela, Sweets and a gleeful Dr. Brennan. The latter of the three even refers to the movie as the inspiration to her becoming an anthropologist, although she prefers the Lon Chaney interpretation of the character over Karloff's.
• "The Jewel in the Crown" features a few references to The Pink Panther, particularly since the team are aided by French detective Inspector Rousseau; he freely admits that given his name he's had to learn to have a good sense of humor about people quoting the film to him.
• In one occasion, Booth knows something about giraffes Bones didn't and he sees it as Pinky getting one over the Brain.
• In the 200th episode, a film noir themed episode, Warren and Fuentes appear as a husband and wife duo remiscent of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
• The episode with Sweets, Hodgins and Fisher getting Avatar tickets. Fisher’s actor was in the film, and there’s a mention of “freaks and geeks”. John Francis Daley, who plays Sweets, was one of the stars of Freaks and Geeks
• In “The Lost in the Found”, the headmistress of the private school is named Amelia Minchin, which is the same as that of the sister to Miss Maria Minchin, the headmistress of the boarding school in A Little Princess.