A show-within-a-show is typically a fictional television show featured within the fictional universe of a real television show. Less frequently, the term may be applied to a fictional radio show within a real television or radio show. It often features a frame story.

Historically, the idea of a play within a play is an ancient one, appearing in Ovid's Metamorphoses; William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet, etc. Many films also feature this idea, Singin' in the Rain and Pee-wee's Big Adventure being two examples.

List of TV shows within shows

• UltraLord within Boy Genius.
• Bionic Bunny, Dark Bunny, Terrific Turbo-Trooper Toy T-Bot Team, Mary Moo Cow, Vidiboobies, Love Ducks and many others in Arthur.
• The Colonial Gang within Battlestar Galactica.^*
• The Gray Ghost and _The_Animated_Series) within The Animated Series.
• Several television series including cop drama Manhunt, variety program Big Night Out, and medical drama Mercy Flight within The Box.
• Rainbow Monkeys within Kids Next Door.
• Big Shots within Cowboy Bebop.
• Sick Sad World within Daria.
• The Bad Wolf television corporation in the 2005 series of Doctor Who.
• Now Where They At? within Drawn Together.
• Crash Nebula, Maho Mushi, and many other series shown in Channel Chasers within The Fairly OddParents.
• The Brown Hornet within Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.
• Wake Up, San Francisco, Mr. Egghead, Rigby the Rhino within Full House.
• All my Circuits, Everybody Loves Hypno-toad, and The Scary Door within Futurama.
• Tomorrow's Another Day within Generations.
• Kujibiki Unbalance within Genshiken.
• Dinobonoids and My Troubled Pony within The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
• Mysterious Mysteries within Invader Zim.
• Men on Film within In Living Color.
• Emergency Pet Groomer, Pals, Agony County, The Fearless Ferrett, Laugh Riot, and The Mod Quad within Kim Possible.
• Los Días y Las Noches de Monsigñor Martínez and Manger Babies within King of the Hill.
• Real **********ing Talk with Dollar Bill Montgomery within MADtv.
• Psycho Dad within Married... with Children.
• Gekigangar III within Martian Successor Nadesico.
• WJM-TV Six O'Clock News, The Happy Homemaker, and Chuckles the Clown within The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
• Bear on Patrol, Muppet News Flash, Pigs in Space, Veterinarian's Hospital and others within The Muppet Show.
• Vermont Today within Newhart.
• The Valley within The O.C.. Additionally, after MTV launched The Real O.C. the O.C-verse's equivalent of MTV launched Sherman Oaks: The Real Valley.
• Miss Sally's Schoolyard and Up Your Ante within Oz.
• Hip Hop Helicopter, Iesha, My Momma and Me, Two for Two, and Soul Sisters within The Proud Family.
• Androids within Red Dwarf.
• TJ Laser and It's Not My Problem ("I'd buy that for a dollar!") within RoboCop.
• Commander Cash within The Series.
• Reptar within ''Rugrats.
• Numerous shows within Saturday Night Live, including Wayne's World, It's Pat!, and Weekend Update.
• Jerry within Seinfeld.
• Elmo's World within Sesame Street.
• Krusty the Clown, The Itchy & Scratchy Show, Bumblebee Man, Eye on Springfield, Smartline, and hundreds more^* within The Simpsons.
• Terrance & Phillip, Jesus and Pals and Fat Abbot within South Park.
• Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy and The New Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy within SpongeBob SquarePants.
• Mathnet within Square One TV
• Wormhole X-Treme! within Stargate SG-1.
• Revenge of the Babysitter within That's So Raven.
• Invitation to Love within Twin Peaks.
• Capitol Beat within The West Wing.
• Various segments within World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) programming, the majority of which are talk shows.

List of TV shows about TV shows

• Grosse Pointe within Grosse Pointe.
• Tool Time within Home Improvement.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000 within Mystery Science Theater 3000 (the "experiments" were sold to basic cable as a TV series).
• The Larry Sanders Show within The Larry Sanders Show.
• The Alan Brady Show within The Dick Van Dyke Show.
• Garth Marenghi's Darkplace within Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.
• Good Morning, Miami within Good Morning, Miami.
• Sports Night within Sports Night.
• FYI within Murphy Brown.
• The Sword of Damocles and Beaver Creek within Made in Canada.
• KYTV, a spoof of an entire fictional network.
• Frontline, a spoof of a current affairs television show.
• 31 Minutos, a spoof of a news program.
• The Red Green Show.
• "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip".
• Drawn Together, a sitcom set on a fictitious TV reality show.
• Silverstone within The Famous Jett Jackson;
  • also, in The Movie, the "real" Jett Jackson and "fictional" Agent Silverstone switched realities.
• SCTV, which is about a TV station.

List of TV shows depicting radio shows

• Frasier
• Martin
• Midnight Caller
• NewsRadio
• The New WKRP in Cincinnati
• Remember WENN
• WKRP in Cincinnati

See also

• List of fictional television shows

Narratology | Fictional television | Lists of fictional things | Fictional television programming