iZombie: Easter Eggs and Pop Culture References in “Even Cowgirls Get the Black and Blues”

Every week, iZombie delivers not only one of the most consistently entertaining shows on the air, but a show that lavishes in its own pop culture savvy, in-jokes and referential humor.

But it isn’t Family Guy or The Simpsons. It isn’t so bathed in those elements that they define the identity of the series; the jokes just help to shape its personality a little.

That said, we haven’t typically spent as much time on iZombie’s hidden gems as we have on, say, Arrow or The Flash, where they’re super comic-nerdy and not everybody gets them.

Still, we always have fun with iZombie‘s, and it seemed worth putting together a listing every week.

So…what did we catch? What did we miss? Read on…!

MURDER, SHE WATCHED

The second title card of the episode is a wink and a nod to Murder, She Wrote, the long-running TV mystery starring Angela Lansbury.

The series, which starred Lansbury as a mystery novelist who helped out law enforcement using the skills she picked up at her day job, was a precursor to the dozens of shows nowadays that have “outside experts” helping the cops, from iZombie to Psych and Castle.

BAT SIGNAL

“Bat-signal,” Ravi says as his phone lights up with messages from work. “Shall we?”

Of course, that’s a reference to the spotlight shone in the sky to get Batman’s attention.

Rahul Kohli, who plays Ravi, said on Twitter tonight that he’d love to play Batman…ish.

…let’s brainstorm who he might play so he can hang out with Affleck’s Batman, eh?

A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY

When Liv referred to the murder victim as “A little bit country,” it was almost instantaneous that Clive replied with “a little bit rock ‘n’ roll,” the second half of the reference.

Didn’t get the joke? I guess you’re not as big a Donnie and Marie fan as I am…!

…Well, it would be pretty much impossible to be as big a Donnie and Marie fan as I am. Unless you’re Clive Babineaux, of course.

“When Liv goes to the country music club, initially there had been talk of Clive being already there, and Clive’s a line dancer,” Rose McIver told us on the set of iZombie last week. Unfortunately, the showrunners changed their mind.

 

PAWN OF THE DEAD

This isn’t the first reference to George A. Romero’s zombie movies in iZombie, and it likely won’t be the last, but I have to admit: “Pawn of the Dead” as a bumper graphic when you’re headed into a pawn shop, is fairly clever.

Just in the interest of clarity, the reference here is of course to Dawn of the Dead, Romero’s second and arguably best zombie movie, and a direct sequel to his classic Night of the Living Dead. It was remade about ten years ago by Man of Steel director Zack Snyder from a script by Guardians of the Galaxy‘s James Gunn.

PHEROMONE COLOGNE

Not so much a reference or an Easter egg, but it just should be acknowledged that while it’s played for humor here, the pheromone cologne is indeed a very real thing.

GABRIEL THE HOLY MAN

Gabriel is one of the most storied angel in Judeo-Christian texts.

And to me, that means making it the name of a preacher is another good example of the “Liv Moore” phenomenon of giving people clever names left and right.

Hell, even Blaine DeBeers doesn’t SEEM like a pun or a funny name until you realize he shares a surname with Roman DeBeers from Party Down, another show worked on by iZombie producers Rob Thomas and Dan Etheridge.

And let’s be honest: “Major Lilywhite” is pretty funny, too.

GROUND CONTROL TO MAJOR

This one’s pretty on the nose…in case some of the others weren’t.

A little David Bowie to play us out…!