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Season 1
Season 2
- Casey's first visit to a psychiatrist is a homage to Tony Soprano's first visit with Dr. Melfi in The Sopranos.
- The name of Will's love interest for the season comes from two Sopranos characters. Her first name, Meadow, comes from Tony's daughter, while her last name of La Cerva comes from Adriana La Cerva.
- The first three episodes feature at least one scene of someone watching Seinfeld.
- Even though the episode "The Risk" is all about the board game of the same name, Candyland and Monoply are also discussed at length.
- Kirk gets high and tries to experience "Dark Side of the Rainbow" - a pairing of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard of Oz.
- Joel's line "What about my burning desire to study and learn a vocation?"
- Brian and Stacy often argue about The Lord of the Rings films (he loves them... her, not so much).
- In an early episode where Casey had a crush on Stacy, he states "she's even better then Return of the King. Ironic considering her vocal disdain in the films.
Season 3
- Debbie Vandele says owes her very brief political career to Jimmy Carter.
- In the same episode, Stacy also discusses Ronald Reagan and Ralph Nader.
- When Stacy runs for class President, Brian agrees to be a speech writer and even comes up with a beautiful and eloquent speech for her debate...it's a shame he stole it verbatim from The West Wing.
- During Stacy's run for President she tries to hold campaign meetings with The Gang that get disrupted by their marathon sessions of Dynasty Warriors.
- The scene where Ms. Hackford tries to explain to Reicther's mom that he has special needs, is a parody of a similar scene in Forrest Gump.
- The Gang finding Brock and Casey after a paint ball attack spoofs a similar scene from Platoon.
- The teaching staff is shown to be obsessed with the soap All My Children and even install a TV in the break room to watch it.
- Reicther spends an entire episode trying to find his sleep number on a Sleep Number Mattress.
- Mr. Parker resents Stacy for trying to turn him into some sort of "Dead Poets Society like teacher".
- Stacy is often to referred to by the nickname Raggedy Ann.
- Before they set off on their camping trip, Reicther states that they will "go where no man has gone before".
- Marilyn creeps up on Stacy and spooks her by yelling "everything down here floats, Georgie"!
- While scanning the bookstore, Stacy comes across a book titled A Buddhist's Guide to Bisexuality which was also the name of Detective Bayliss' website on Homicide: Life on the Street.
- Principal Stevens brings Brian down to his office to explain certain movies to him, including The Matrix sequels.
- Reicther is often called the Kramer of the group.
- After a blind girl does Stacy's make-up, Chris asks if she's auditioning for "The Whores of Madison County".
- Throughout the season, Joel can bee seen reading the Michael Moore book "Stupid White Men".
- This was foreshadowing for an abandoned plot involving Moore coming to Centerville.
- When trying to explain her bisexuality, Stacy uses a convoluted metaphor in which she equates being straight to "liking Superman comics" and being gay to "liking Batman comics."
- Chris has a tendency to draw weird things when he's bored, like the Kool Aid Man fighting a clown.
- Brock mocks Brian and calls him a "rebel without a clue".
- Joel tries to win Cathy back by holding a boombox outside of her window.
- Brian's fantasy of what Brock and Sarah's break-up will be like spoofs Casablanca, Dawson's Creek, Friends, Annie Hall, and The Sopranos.
Season 4
- When Joel takes Cathy to a record shop countless musicians gets named dropped including Five for Fighting, Jay-Z, Annie, Pedro the Lion, Old Crow Medicine Show, Gwen Stafani, The Pussycat Dolls, and Michael Bolton.
- Joel finds albums for Men Without Hands along with ones for mock bands Men With Hats and Men Who Were Kicked out of the band 'Men Without Hats' because they had hats.
- Janice's suggestion to religious zealots? Shut up and watch House like normal people.
- Kirk smelling something 'pot like' and chasing after it mocks Lassie.
- Alice Hoffman books aren't good for anything according to Will...except for killing bats.
- Will is convinced that Eva Braun is the name of a contestant on American Idol.
- Kate's psychiatrist is Dr. Dorian, named after the main character from Scrubs.
- Brian drastically changes his lifestyle based a chance viewing of an episode of Dr. Phil.
- Cathy always mistakes Purple Rain for The Color Purple.
- Kate, suffering a mental breakdown, ends up telling Chris the killing joke from the Batman comic The Killing Joke.
- Much like The Joker in said comic, Kate also warns Chris that all it takes is 'one bad day' for anyone to go insane.
- On more then one occasion, Brandon Brim has been referred to 'Ned Flanders with five fingers', a reference to The Simpsons
- The three greatest words Will's ever heard? Journey Performs Live.
- A reference to The X-Files occurs when Kate won't answer her phone which Reicther believes is a sign of alien conspiracy.
- Mr. Parker often calls Ms. Ballard 'Condescending Rice' a play on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
- Will gets overly excited at the prospect of the original Guns N' Roses reuniting.
- Casey's line "There's always room for Jello" is a reference to Ghostbusters II.
- Casey and Brock accidentally become guest stars on To Catch a Predator.
- Chris references a frequent dream where he's spanked by G.I. Joe action figures.
Season 5
- Brock would much prefer to watch Futurama reruns then go on a blind date in "Quest for the Nintendo Wii".
- Guitar Hero. Brian and Joel play the game drunk in one episode, while Reicther explains why he plays it nude in another.
- Brian mentions that Superbad has given him a complex about girls wearing skirts in "The Trials of Chris Hughes".
- Will after drinking his first beer: "It's like The Tin Man shot his load in my mouth!"
- After Brock accidentally takes Uppers, Reicther convinces him has a "bomb in the nose" much like in Mission: Impossible III.
- During the same incident, Brock becomes paranoid that Xerxes and the Persian army (300) are coming for him.
- "By the power of grey skull!", the famous quote from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), is frequently uttered.
- Brian makes a strong case that The Lion King (1994) is a rip off of Kimba the White Lion.
- Leah Thompson, and Keira Knightly have been mentioned as celebrity crushes.
- Star Wars is seemingly named dropped almost every episode.
- Casey confuses the Four Spiritual Laws with the rules from Gremlins.
- Joel compossed a list of what he called "Ignored Greatness", which included Arrested Development and Rocko's Modern Life.
- Brock has a collection of toys from Captain Planetandthe Planeteers.
- Just because Reverend Johnson is a man of God, doesn't mean he can't rock out to Pearl Jam.
- Brian would much rather play Left 4 Dead then watch Reicther try to flirt with a girl.
- "Never question Paul Giamatti!"
- When Brian says 'I've got news for you pal, you ain’t leading but two things, right now: Jack and shit...and Jack left town."' The line comes from Ash in Army of Darkness.
- During a flashback to their younger years, it's mentioned that the kindergartners love playing Dunston Checks In on the playground...even though they don't really know what they're doing.
