Three Kings/References

• The entire episode contains parodies of/homages to the works of writer Stephen King:
  • The first segment is a parody of King's 1982 novella The Body which was made more famous by the 1986 film Stand by Me
  • The second segment is a parody of King's 1987 novel Misery, made more famous by the 1990 film of the same name.
  • The third segment is a parody of King's 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, made more famous by the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption.
    • Peter deceives the audience by making reference to The Shining, another King masterpiece, before introducing the Shawshank parody.
• The wraparounds of Peter hosting are similar to such anthology story shows as Masterpiece Theater.
• The running gag with Joe keeping getting his legs damaged is similar to Groundskeeper Willie getting axed in the back in The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror V".

Stand By Me

• Roy Scheider suggests a catch-up with Richard Dreyfuss but is offended when Richard Dreyfuss gives him a phone number with the prefix 555, which is widely used as a fictitious number in TV shows, films and other media.
• In "Stand by Me" Peter and Cleveland are singing "T.V. Medley" another song from Family Guy sung by Stewie and Brian.
• Ace Merrill's gang consists of Beastman and Mer-man from the early 1980's television series "He Man and the Masters of The Universe", as well as Norm from Cheers.
• Whilst walking to see the dead body the boys all sing the theme to 'Growing Pains'.

Misery

• The scene of Stephen King getting run over at the start of "Misery" emulates his habit of inserting himself into all of his movies since Maximum Overdrive.
  • It is also a reference to the episode "Brian in Love" where Brian runs over someone who he thinks is King, but ends up being Dean Koontz, King's competitor.

Shawshank Redemption

• The scene in the Warden's office when the lamp is knocked off the desk is taken from Caddyshack.
• When Andy Dufresne escapes from prison, Warden is watching an episode of Friends, and actually Andy breaks the pipe with a rock following the rythm of the show's theme song, which is I'll be there for you by The Rembrandts.

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