Pop Culture References[]
- The flashback to Frank's childhood trip to see a dead body is similar to Stand By Me (Wishing Hell)
- Nightmares the Clown shares some similarities (at least in his first appearance) with Pennywise from It(Wishing Hell)
- The monster that causes havock at Sebastian's home is referred to as a Grinch, and Sebastian's late wife was named Cindy Louise, both of which are characters in How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Winter of the House of Usher)
- Sebastian is reading (and speaks to) the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe, and makes several references to The Raven (Winter of the House of Usher)
- The Law and Order scene change sound effect is used (A Dave at the Races)
- The spirits that visit the Doyles are the spirits of A Christmas Carol (Making Spirits Fight & Bah, Murderbug)
- The Darlings share a name (and family dynamic) with the family that encounters Peter Pan in the eponymous story by JM Barrie (Second Star to the Wrong)
- The teenagers have similar powers and appearance to the children in Village of the Damned (Teenagers of the Corn)
- Herbert and Ambrose, the two machanic brothers resemble Click and Clack of Car Talk (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang You're Dead)
- The Doyles' car is the same model as the car that "goes evil" in Christine (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang You're Dead)
- The car which Herbert the mechanic possesses is a VW Bug Referencing Herbie the Love Bug (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang You're Dead)
- Frank's dentist is Dr Frankenstein (Greta, the receptionist/hygenist, has the surname of Igor) (Molar Express)
- Dee is searching for the ghost of "Jay", who appears first as a green light. The story of their doomed romance shares aspects with Daisy and Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby (She Blinded Me With Séance)
- Most, if not all, episode titles including the "lost" episodes.
- One of the skeleton men demonstrates his newfond knowledge by saying “the sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side”. This is how the Scarecrow demonstrates his knowledge at the end of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (The Skeleton Brief)
Meta References[]
A recurring theme in Beyond Belief is the meta references made to stereotypes, tropes, or the show itself
Sadie: That time we thought it would be anachronistically amusing to make a donation to public radio.
- Frank: (laughs) Can you imagine! Radio! Why is it still a thing? (Claus and Effect)
- --
- Frank: You know dear, I will say, it was feeling very off genre in here, you know more fairy tale or fantasy than our usual, but a monster puts us right back into familiar territory. (Touch of Keeble)