TV's Top Easter Eggs: The Walking Dead, Teen Wolf, Once Upon a Time, Smallville and More!

From a Buffy weapon showing up on ABC to Boy Meets World cheeky reference, check out our list of TV's best hidden references!

By Tierney Bricker Mar 29, 2013 8:36 PMTags
Michelle Williams, Stan Lee, Stephen Arnell, Jennifer MorrisonDimension Films, NBC, Cate Cameron/The CW

Did you see that?!

We've all had that moment while watching our favorite TV show, you know, when they subtly (or sometimes not so subtly) reference another series, be it through a line of dialogue or a random prop in the background. These are what we call TV Easter eggs, people. And because Easter is this Sunday, we decided to compile a list of some of our favorite Easter eggs of the TV-variety, which includes references to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Vampire Diaries, The Dukes of Hazzard and more!

So let the nerdiest Easter egg hunt ever begin!

1. Boy Meets World: Did you know that the series' high school was named John Adams High because William Daniels, who played Mr. Feeny, played John Adams in The Rebels?

2. The Walking Dead: AMC cross-pollination FTW! The zombie survivors came across some blue meth, aka the color of Walter White's crystal meth on Breaking Bad.

3. The Office: In the season-two episode "Halloween," Michael says, "You've Been X Punk'd! Ryan was in on it." Ryan is played by B.J. Novak, who worked alongside Ashton Kutcher on MTV's prank show Punk'd.

4. Arrow: The most recent egg on the list: After Oliver's girlfriend is shot, she says she's moving to a city with the best physical therapy. And guess which city that is? Coast City, where fellow DC Comics hero Green Lantern, aka Hal Jordan, lives!

WB

5. Once Upon a Time: We won't even begin to try and list the show's endless Disney references. It's also hard to keep track of all of the ABC hit's references to Lost, which creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz worked on. There are the Apollo candy bars and the nods to Lost's infamous numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42), including the clock stopping at 8:15 and Regina's house number is 108 (the sum of the numbers). Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Jane Espenson is a producer on OUAT, which explains what might be our favorite Easter egg from a show currently on the air: Buffy's scythe from the final season is one of the items in Mr. Gold's pawn shop. Nerdgasm!

6. Heroes: The NBC drama had quite the treat for Marvel Comics fans when Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man and X-Men to name a few, made a quick cameo as a bus driver in "Unexpected." Also, Star Trek's George Takei character's license plate number was "NCC-1701," the service number for the USS Enterprise.

7. Dawson's Creek: Ducks fly together…or get referenced by The Mighty Ducks' star Joshua Jackson on his WB hit show. When a character knocks the hockey series, Jackson's Pacey says, "Hey, I liked those movies!" Also, Michelle Williams' character goes on a date to see Halloween H20, which she starred in.

8. Teen Wolf: The MTV hit series paid a bit of respect to The Vampire Diaries, another supernatural teen drama that also features werewolves, when the lacrosse team played the team from Mystic Falls High, the school Elena, Stefan and the gang attend.

9. Lost: The gold standard of TV Easter eggs, that's what Lost was! There's the ever-present number (4,8,15,16,23,42), which were probably referenced 4,815,162,342 times throughout the series. There were the countless anagrams. Books the characters read provided important clues. We could go on and on, but instead, we urge you to watch the six seasons of awesomeness. You're welcome.

10. Smallville: Let's ignore the endless references to Superman, shall we? A season-three episode features an email address, CNH320@instamail.com, which is Clark's parents' account. His father is played by John Schneider, who starred on The Dukes of Hazzard. The General Lee's license plate number on Dukes? CNH 320.

Any TV Easter eggs we missed that you love? Sound off in the comments!

Look back at how TV and the movies celebrated Passover!