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eddstarr
Headline News gotcha down? Take a break with "Psycho Dad"!

I'm going to repeat something I heard as a kid and I bet you've heard this too - "some of the best shows on television have a 'show within a show' as part of the plotline". You know what I mean, The Simpsons were inside "The Tracy Ullman Show" until they spun off into TV history.

Think about it, some shows are so good that the writers insert a "gag show" as a tool for quick laughs. 

My favorite will always be "Psycho Dad" from "Married . . . with Children".  What makes Psycho Dad so much fun is you never actually see the show, you only hear the intro theme song. Love the way Al sang along with his hands as index finger guns. Sometimes he looked at Peg but he was thinking about Darcy, lol.


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Mr Magic
"killed his wife, 'cause she weighed a ton..." 
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"Magic can happen to you."

eddstarr
I died laughing when Christina Applegate was clapping along with the theme song, and the look on David Faustino's face - priceless!
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pikachulover
There are a few shows in The Simpsons itself like Krusty the Klown show and The Little Happy Elves.
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Vaporman87
Beavis & Butthead, like The Simpsons, was a show that started out as part of a different program... a montage of cartoon shorts (as was Aeon Flux).
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Mr Magic
@Pika:

And Itchy & Scratchy.

South Park = Terrance and Philip
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"Magic can happen to you."

pikachulover
That's right and there was also Gabbo and Worker and Parasite.

In Miss BG there were shows called Fishy the Fish and Captain Shimmer.

In Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Greg watched a show called My Buddy Buzz
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shakin steak
When The Simpsons was young and so was I, I wished they would make a real, standalone Itchy and Scratchy show. I think they did get their own Bongo comic book at some point.
Vaporman87 wrote :

Beavis & Butthead, like The Simpsons, was a show that started out as part of a different program... a montage of cartoon shorts (as was Aeon Flux).
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Can we count anthologies like Liquid Television? How about Chilly Willy as part of The Woody Woodpecker Show, then, or eddstarr's avatar Mr Peabody and Sherman as part of The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle? Or The What a Cartoon Show, which served as a showcase to pilot shorts and was the first place many of Cartoon Network's original series of the early 2000s were first seen. 

Of course, we can talk about anything. I just see a distinction between those that stand on their own, entertainment-wise, and those that serve more to develop characters or the world of the encompassing show.
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Ajimbo
The characters on Passions would sometimes watch Passions and they would sing the theme song.
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Vaporman87
shakin steak wrote :

Of course, we can talk about anything. I just see a distinction between those that stand on their own, entertainment-wise, and those that serve more to develop characters or the world of the encompassing show.
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Yeah. Me too. Seeing the Simpsons mentioned made me think of how it and Beavis & Butthead started.

How about Muddy Mudskipper in Ren & Stimpy? And of course, the commercials like Powdered Toast Man, and Log.
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eddstarr
Doesn't it seem to you guys that it's easier to suggest a 'show within a show' rather than create visuals?Audience imagination will always work in the shows favor. What makes "Itchy and Scratchy" outstanding is the degree of detail involved.

Remember "The Itchy and Scratchy Movie"? The Simpson's team even took the time to create a trailer!

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