References in Pop Culture

Cats is an international hit and has been referenced many times in pop culture.

Caroline in the City
One of the main characters, Annie, works as a dancer in the Broadway production of Cats.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
The season 4 episode "I Need Some Balance" is a parody of Cats.

Family Guy
In "Brian Does Hollywood", Lois recalls a previous time when Peter disturbed a performance. During a performance of Cats, Peter crashes through a wall, running over one of the performers. He tries to explain that the "cat" just jumped in front of him and he never meant to hit it.

Glee

 * In the season 2 finale "New York", Rachel buys Broadway tickets for Cats from a scalper, not knowing that the show had already closed 11 years ago.
 * In the season 5 episode "Old Dog, New Tricks", "Memory" is performed by Kurt Hummel and Maggie Banks.

The Golden Girls
In the "Bang the Drum, Stanley" episode, Blanche and Rose dress up as cats for a community production of Cats.

Muppet films and shows

 * In the Fall 1983 issue of Muppet Magazine, Scooter interviews Candy Carell, the creator of the Broadway makeup design for Cats.


 * Sarah has a poster of Cats in her room in Labyrinth.


 * The marquee for the musical is shown in The Muppets Take Manhattan teaser trailer.


 * In Muppets Tonight episode 108, Gonzo and Jason Alexander revive their college musical, Bats: the Musical, a parody of Cats.


 * In a 2001 episode of Sesame Street, Elizabeth sings a song to Little Murray Sparkles that parodies "Memory."


 * In a 2002 episode of Sesame Street, a duck who performs in one of Prairie Dawn's pageants proudly announces that he's won a role in Cats.


 * In the Muppets' 2002 MasterCard commercial, Kermit and company are shown in front of a theater where The Producers is playing. As they approach the lobby, Rizzo the Rat inquires "No cats in this one, right?"


 * In the Elmo's World episode "Pets," the The Pets Channel tells viewers to stay tuned for CATS starring Eartha Kitten.


 * The Muppets Character Encyclopedia mentions that the Muppet birds like the musical Cats, but not the animals.


 * In the waiting area for the Sesame Place stage show Elmo the Musical, a poster hangs for the show Bats.
 * Lillias White  played the lead singer of The Squirrelles
 * Roger Kachel  played Ernie in the first Sesame Street LIVE show.

The Office
In the season 5 Halloween episode "Employee Transfer", Andy dresses up as a cat from Cats.

Riverdale
The season 3 episode "American Dreams" has a gang member nicknamed Old Deuteronomy.

Saturday Night Live

 * In 1986, SNL parodied 1980s Broadway television commercials with a fake ad for the fake show The Amazing Alexander. The ad featured a member of the public saying: "I loved it. It was much better than Cats. I'm going to see it again and again.'"
 * The January 2009 episode had a sketch with Neil Patrick Harris and Taylor Swift called "Save Broadway". The sketch featured Bobby Moynihan as Mr. Mistoffelees.
 * The March 2019 episode had a sketch with John Mulaney called "Bodega Bathroom". In the sketch, Kate McKinnon sings a parody of Memory.

The Simpsons
At a comic convention Buddy Hodges said that he played Rum Tum Tugger in Cats and asked the crowed if anybody saw that.

While Bart and Milhouse were on their all-syrup Squishee bender, one of the things they did was attend a performance of Cats. Bart blew blobs of the Squishee onto the stage with a straw, which provoked a fight among the actors

In an  Itchy & Scratchy cartoon, Scratchy went to see Cats, but became bored with the show and shoots himself.

When Marge was decluttering Crazy Cat Lady's house, she bought her tickets for Cats. Eleanor cried throughout the musical, wiping her nose on her cats

Six Degrees of Separation
The 1990 Broadway play and its 1993 film adaptation feature a young con artist who lies to the main couple that his father is directing a movie of "Cats." The husband responds: "Surely they can't make a movie of Cats." His wife replies: "Of course they can."

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
In the penultimate episode, Titus gets cast in the Broadway production of Cats, although he is later fired.