“It’s those TV networks, Marge, they won’t let me.  One quality show after another, each one fresher and more brilliant than the last!  If they only stumbled once!  Just gave us thirty minutes to ourselves!  But they won’t, they won’t let me live!” – Homer Simpson

Jeff Wysaski writes a blog called “Pleated-Jeans”.  He put up a list of The 10 Best TV Shows Within TV Shows and, quite justly, “Itchy & Scratchy” is number one.  There’s plenty of good YouTube at the link, including a ninety second montage of several of Scratchy’s demises.  Some of the other examples include “Terrance and Philip” from South Park, “All My Circuits” from Futurama, and “Mock Trial with J. Reinhold” from Arrested Development.  He also lists some other fake shows from the same real show, for example:

Other honorable mentions from Arrested Development: El Amor Prohibido, Scandalmakers and Wrench (featuring Detective Frank Wrench)

And:

Other honorable mentions for 30 Rock: Gold Case, MILF Island and Bitch Hunter

Here’s the one for The Simpsons:

Other honorable mentions for the Simpsons: The Krusty the Klown Show, Eye on Springfield, Knightboat (the Crime-Solving Boat), Radioactive Man and The Happy Little Elves.

Naturally, that’s more than any of the other shows listed.  And while this list makes no claims to comprehensiveness, is there any doubt that The Simpsons blows everything else away in the category of “shows within shows”?  (And I mean The Simpsons, there’s no Zombie Simpsons at the link, and I’m certainly not about to include any.)  Even Arrested Development, which is about as good as teevee is capable of getting, isn’t in the same league.  Take any three seasons from The Simpsons and I’ll bet you have more. 

In addition to the ones above, there’s Smartline, Ben (the talk show), McGarnagle, Hunks, America’s Most Armed and Dangerous, that unpredictable Mexican sitcom Bumblebee Man is on, Movie for a Rained-Out Ballgame, Movie for a Dreary Afternoon, Edward the Penitent, Pardon My Zinger, Rock Bottom, Kidz Newz, Ya Hoo!, and that’s just off the top of my head.  The complete list is, just like everything else, at SNPP.  And, just like everything else about The Simpsons, it’s staggering. 

There are a lot of very creative shows on the Pleated-Jeans list, but in terms of sheer imagination and diversity of thought, none of them are even close to what The Simpsons was. 

[Hey, look what I found while looking up the spelling of “McGarnagle”]: