Fictional Media
It is quite common for characters within one work of fiction to reference another. If this show takes place in our Universe then it is to be expected that the characters would know about any other show that exists in the real world. The only real show that by default doesn't exist within a story is the one you're watching right now (and there are some exceptions to even this).
On the other hand, there is no reason why the author is required to stick to real media. Sometimes, an author will make references to a work that was never written in the real world, even if it's completely real for their characters. Some other times, the author will use a non-existent book to mock something. Or use it as a Take That for a film, or just as a parody. Characters in series may listen to platinum albums that were never recorded, watch movies never filmed, or play videogames never programmed.
This is not necessarily just a throwaway reference either; sometimes the whole point of the main work is based upon this Fictional Media, for example a review of a non-existent book, or a trailer for a film that no one had any intention to make. Common types of Fictional Media include:
This is the Super-Trope to the following tropes:
- Encyclopedia Exposita
- Epistolary Novel
- Fake Band
- Fictional Document
- Fictional Video Game
- Great Big Book of Everything
- Hollywood Apocrypha
- Media Mirroring
- My Little Panzer
- Niche Network
- Real Trailer, Fake Movie
- Scrapbook Story
- Show Within a Show
- Spell Book
- Tome of Eldritch Lore
- Show Within a Show (arguably the Super-Trope)
- Back to The Future Part II had a Jaws sequel at a number the real franchise did not reach.
- In fact, that was a common future trope for the movies about the future made in the 1980s and 1990s. Rambo and Rocky sequels were also popularly mentioned.
- Red Dwarf did the same with Friday the 13th, up to one thousand six hundred and forty nine.
Examples that don't fit the categories above
- Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves is a complicated example: a book that exists about a dissertation that does not exist, about a film that does not exist, about a house that does not exist. It's also implied that the book itself occurs in our reality, which would make the entire thing prophetic, by definition, if it were true. Topping it off? The book is filled with hundreds of footnotes, referencing a lot of things that do exist, but even more that don't.
- Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was described as "The movie project without a movie". They produced a novel, comic, game, action figures, soundtrack CD and a bunch of other merchandising to cash-in on the non-existent Episode V ½.