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The following are references and parodies of TRON in television.

The Simpsons[]

Sark simpsons

Treehouse of Horror VI (Season 7, Episode 6)[]

In the story segment, Homer³, Homer accidentally enters into an eerie third dimension (represented by 3D computer graphics). When Homer tried to explain his surroundings to everyone in his is living room, he says, "Uh... it's like... did anyone see the movie TRON?" to which everyone replies, "No", except for Chief Wiggum who at first says "yes" but changes his answer to "no".

The Spy Who Learned Me (Season 23, Episode 20)[]

Toy Story 2[]

When Buzz Lightyear walks through a dark hallway in the beginning of the 1999 Pixar animated film, his space suit shows the glowing effect that was seen throughout TRON.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)[]

As in TRON, the characters going a computer world and race the light-cycle-like bikes.

Family Guy[]

Family guy tron

A Hero Sits Next Door (Season 1, Episode 5)[]

When Peter faces the possibility of being fired, he has a flashback of his previous job as a Calvin Klein model. In the flashback, various models are heard thinking such things as, “I don’t want to be different, but I don’t want to be the same." As the camera pans to Peter, he thinks to himself, "What was the name of the bad guy from TRON? Aww, this is gonna drive me nuts."

One if by Clam, Two if by Sea (Season 3, Episode 4)[]

In yet another flashback, Peter is seen reenacting the light cycle sequence. One of the opponents that Peter is racing against, Eric, is actually a high-school friend of his. As they exchange greetings while driving, Eric says to Peter, "Hey, is that Stacy Beachum?" Peter looks behind to see that the high-school hottie is not there and crashes into Eric's jetwall. This was produced by Area51 the visual effects artists are Don McCoy (http://www.youtube.com/user/DonLMcCoyDemo) and Glenn Campbell.

Futurama[]

A Bicyclops Built for Two (Season 2, Episode 13)[]

The Planet Express crew entering cyberspace may be a reference to TRON.

Love and Rocket (Season 4, Episode 4)[]

The scene where the Planet Express ship chases Bender in cyberspace is a reference to TRON.

Law and Oracle (Season 6, Episode 16)[]

Law and Oracle screenshot 2

In the streets of New New York, Fry and URL chase a car through Circuit City for going 15 MPH over the speed of light. they catch the law-breaker with their lightwalls and identifying one Erwin Schrödinger, who has kept a cat and drugs hidden in a box. Impressed with their work, O'Manahan promotes the two of them to the Future Crimes Division.

A Farewell to Arms (Season 9, Episode 2)[]

Robot Chicken[]

Dexter's Laboratory[]

Dexter tron1

Dexter in his "beam cycle".

Game Over (Season 1, Episode 7)[]

This episode of Dexter's Laboratory is essentially a parody/tribute to TRON. Every time Dexter plays a video game with his sister, Dee Dee, he always loses, despite his superior intellect. To make things worse, Dexter's dad buys him an old video game cartridge called "Master Computer" (that he bought from a gypsy for a nickel). When Dee Dee sees the game, she provokes Dexter to challenge her at the game. Dexter loses and kicks Dee Dee out of his secret laboratory. When Dexter tries to pull out the cartridge out of his state-of-the-art computer, the game comes alive in the form not unlike the MCP and begins to take over Dexter's computer with a virus.With the Master Computer game loaded in Dexter's computer, he tells Dexter his plans on taking over the world. Dexter runs towards the emergency shut off switch, but Master Computer digitizes Dexter with one of his laboratory lasers. Dexter, now inside his computer tries to destroy Master Computer, but to no avail - even when using a beam cycle. After getting caught in a "grid spider's website", he regrettably gets Dee Dee to help him defeat the evil program. Dee Dee successfully derezzes Master Computer and saves Dexter's life and as she removes the cartridge, Dexter tells her to return him back to the real world. However, Dee Dee makes him play a game of "Primal Fighter" in the computer, where he is then senselessly beaten up by a giant ape.

Dexter tron2

Dexter against Mandark "The Virus"

Dos Boot (Season 5, Episode 7)[]

Dexter is working on the computer when all of a sudden, it gets a virus and starts shutting down. To stop the virus, Dexter suits up in a circuited lightsuit and goes into the system. At first everything seems to be perfectly okay, but then he finds a hole in the computer's binary patterning, revealed to come from Mandark, who is also inside of the computer. Mandark explains that he sent an email carrying himself as a virus, and when Dexter opened the email, Mandark got inside the computer, destroyed its binary patterning, and made it die. The two fight; the computer comes back to life when Dexter wins, but the the two are still stuck in the system. Dee Dee walks into the room and starts playing around with them on the screen, making girly pictures of them and printing them out to hang on her wall.

The Fairly OddParents![]

Power Mad (Season 1, Episode 2)[]

PowerMad207

Timmy, Chester, and AJ in a video game world

Timmy Turner tells his Fairy Godparents that he wishes for the best video game ever and using a virtual reality plays the game inside the video game console, ala TRON. He even wears a TRON-inspired suit in the virtual world.

Lizzie McGuire[]

Night of the Day of the Dead (Season 1, Episode 24)[]

Gaz Membrane (Invader Zim) is seen wearing Yori's armor and helmet.

Lizzie McGuire: Timmy Turner, Cosmo and Wanda's First Day of HillRidge Junior High School (2001)[]

In a live-action/animated film, Animated Timmy Turner (10 year old average kid that no one understands), Cosmo and Wanda (Timmy's wish-granting fairy godparents) (voiced by Tara Strong, Daran Norris and Susanne Blakeslee) (The Fairly OddParents) has a list of the VHS tapes on the shelf in Lizzie's bedroom to pick a movie to watch with Lizzie McGuire (13 year old sweet and very kind teenage girl) (Hilary Duff), the 1993 VHS release of TRON is seen on display.

Timmy Turner, Lizzie McGuire, Blossom (voiced by Catherine Cavadini), Bubbles (also voiced by Tara Strong) and Buttercup (voiced by E.G. Daily) are sleeping at Lizzie's bedroom while Cosmo and Wanda are sleeping in Timmy's goldfish bowl. Their dream sequence of them, with Zim (voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz) (Invader Zim), Lizzie's best friends Miranda Sanchez (LaLaine) and Gordo (Adam Lamberg) in the virtual world, wearing a TRON-inspired outfit. They are seen during the iconic light cycle sequence from the movie. One of the opponents that Zim, Lizzie, Gordo, Miranda, Timmy, Cosmo, Wanda, Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup must face against, Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda (also voiced by Daran Norris and Susanne Blakeslee), is actually an Anti-Fairy version of Timmy's fairy godparents. As they exchange battle while driving, Timmy says "One false move and I'll send back to the Anti-Fairy World," Zim, Lizzie, Gordo, Miranda, Timmy, Cosmo, Wanda, Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda are shock and accidentally crashes into a jetwall. This was produced by Nickelodeon Digital, the CGI animators Ernest Chan, Donny Sorvala and John Karner

Lizzie's little brother, Matt McGuire (Jake Thomas) can be seen playing an arcade game called "TRON" at the Mt. Rushmore Miniature Golf and Charity Drive. The game features characters with a same design as those in TRON trying to destroy one another with walls generated by the first generation Lightcycles from the lightcycle sequence.

Invader Zim[]

("Walk of Doom" Season 1 Episode 3)[]

The screen on Zim's Underground Lab shows the places of The City, the original classic "TRON" is briefly seen at the City Movie Theatre.

Chuck[]

TronChuck

The TRON poster seen in the background.

Chuck vs. the Lethal Weapon (Season 2, Episode 16)[]

Chuck Bartowski, the title character, has a TRON poster on his bedroom wall, suggesting that he is a fan of the cult classic.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart[]

TRON was referenced during the 2004 election special of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Indecision 2004: Election Night - Prelude to a Recount. The opening light cycle sequence is satirically shown during a segment where Daily Show correspondent Bob Wiltfong is explaining to host Jon Stewart how election votes are electronically sent.[1]

Freakazoid![]

The Chip, Part I (Season 1, Episode 6)[]

Dexter Douglas gets the new Pinnacle Chip for his computer. Dexter's cat steps on the keyboard and enters the secret combination of letters and numbers that sucks Dexter into the computer when he hits the "delete" key, turning him into Freakazoid.

The Chip, Part II (Season 1, Episode 7)[]

Dexter unleashes Freakazoid for the first time in defeating the evil Guitierrez.

South Park[]

Mad[]

The Cartoon Network show Mad (based on the magazine) features a segment called "Soul Tron," which is a blend of the original TRON and Soul Train. It features the setting and elements of TRON with a music-based aspects, such as Identity Disks instead being records.

Another Mad sketch, featuring a crossover between Winnie the Pooh and another Jeff Bridges movie, featured Kevin Flynn (identified only as "Jeff Bridges from TRON") and Clu 2 (identified only as "Young Jeff Bridges from TRON") teaming up as bounty hunters to capture Tigger. They also both utilized a fifth-generation Light Cycle.

Another Mad sketch, featuring a segment called "Minute to Flynn It," which is a blend of TRON: Legacy and Minute to Win It. It features Clu 2 challenging Sam to prove that he is the superior player on the grid with various mediocre challenges, and recreating the light cycle sequence from TRON.

The Big Bang Theory[]

TRON T-Shirt from a May, 2008 Episode of 'The Big Bang Theory' TV Show 4887

"The Pork Chop Indeterminacy" (Season 1, Episode 15)[]

Sheldon Cooper occasionally wears a TRON (1982) T-shirt.

Phineas and Ferb[]

In the episode "Gaming the System", Candace gets digitized to the game world just like how Kevin Flynn got digitized in the computer world in TRON.

In the episode "Where's Perry Part 1", when Doofenshmirtz is showing his "inators", one of them is called a "Derezz-inator".

Gravity Falls[]

Fight Fighters (Season 1, Episode 10)[]

NORTGravityFalls

NORT

Soos can be seen playing an arcade game called "NORT" (which is TRON reversed). The game's cabinet describes "NORT" as being "the game based on the movie: based on the game." "NORT" features characters with a similar design to those in TRON trying to destroy one another with walls generated by their segways, parodying the lightcycle sequence.

Adventure Time[]

Adventuretime-cg

Finn and Jake in the video game world.

Orange Princess, a background character on the show, was originally named "Tron Princess".

Guardians of Sunshine (Season 2, Episode 16)[]

Finn and Jake trick BMO into letting them into the video game called Guardians of Sunshine, where they attempt to defeat an unbeatable video game in a 3-D digital environment, ala TRON.

Acceleracers[]

The Silencerz racing team has similar designs to the TRON suits, as they also wear silver/white jumpsuits with vibrantly colored circuitry. The Silencerz’ base also has similar design elements to TRON’s environment.

Once Upon A Time[]

Once Upon a Time was created by TRON: Legacy writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, and contained a number of TRON references.

What Happened to Frederick (Season 1, Episode 13)[]

Regina gives Henry a Space Paranoids game to play, and Emma tells him that the skills involved are "all in the wrist." Henry also has a TRON lunchbox, which reappears in subsequent episodes as a TRON: Legacy lunchbox. 

Welcome to Storybrooke (Season 2, Episode 17)[]

An '80s-era flashback featured a recent widower named Kurt Flynn and his young son. Flynn is trapped by evil forces in a magical town which was rendered invisible to outside authorities; in a subsequent episode, the orphaned son returns to the town twenty-eight years later in to search for his missing father. In addition, a bench features an ad for computer products clearly marked with an ENCOM logo.

The Goldbergs[]

TRON 'The Goldbergs' TV Show Episode - 1.08 (Nov

Lightcycle bike

Adam Goldberg is seen to wear TRON shirts several times during the series, which is set in the 1980s.

The Kremps (Season 1, Episode 8)[]

Adam befriends his neighbor Chad Kremp, finding common ground over their extreme love of TRON. Chad has seen TRON sixteen times ("my mom's actually kind of worried"), wears a homemade version of Tron's armor and helmet, and constructed a blue cardboard lightcycle shell to fit over his bicycle.

NCIS[]

Gut Check (Season 11, Episode 9)[]

Gibbs and DiNozzo visit NSA HQ to call on Ellie Bishop. The first person they meet there is Special Agent Chad Flynderling, who tells them to call him Flynn and is not amused that eternal movie buff DiNozzo immediately says, "Flynn? Like Jeff Bridges in TRON?"

Later in the episode, Bishop puts her earbuds back in, thinking the meeting is over, and Flynderling apologizes to Gibbs for the reclusive-data-geek behavior he’d described earlier. Bishop says, "Still hear you, Jeff Daniels," and Flynderling retorts, "Jeff Daniels wasn’t in TRON; that was Jeff Bridges." DiNozzo, of course, takes the opportunity to tease him about being a fan after all.

3375129-1179925495 1

TRON reference.

Tom and Jerry Tales[]

Digital Dilemma (Season 1, Episode 6)[]

Tom builds a home PC out of junk and winds up getting zapped inside it, along with Jerry, whom he chases through the digital realm, even playing a game of Pong with a fiery ball of energy reminiscent of Crom and Flynn's jai alai game.

Community[]

Community S3E6 Advanced Gay

Advanced Gay (Season 3, Episode 6)[]

Dean Pelton, who often appears in random costumes during the show, dresses up in a dark jumpsuit and helmet with luminescent green lines. When asked by Abed if the getup was inspired by TRON, the Dean replies, "What's TRON?"

Dr. Slump[]

Yay! Bori Bari Bori Bari (Episode 135)[]

Senbei has a nightmare about The Gatchans and then get chased into the TRON Lightcycle Look-a-like.

Dr

Brooklyn 99[]

Pontiac Bandits (Season 1, Episode 12)[]

TRON is included in a box of laserdiscs stolen from Tower Records.

The Cinderleaf[]

Limited 4 and 8 Are Missing[]

Limited 4 and 8 Are Missing, the second track on The Cinderleaf's 1999 album Please Stand By, is named after the phrase repeated by Yori while in a low-energy state.

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