Television
- The film was parodied on The Carol Burnett Show in a recurring sketch called "Sunnyset Boulevard" in which Carol Burnett played the insane "Nora Desmond" and Harvey Korman her servant Max.
- The film has clearly influenced The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine, which is the 1959 fourth episode of the first season of the original Twilight Zone. In it, Ida Lupino stars as Barbara Jean Trenton, an aging Hollywood film star who lives a secluded life in her mansion, reminiscing constantly about her past by watching her old films from the 1930s and planning an unrealistic comeback.
- The Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Sepulveda Boulevard" is a parody of the film, with various characters trying to steal screenplay ideas from each other; when characters try to justify the theft with, "Hey, this is Hollywood," someone replies, "This is the VALLEY, bub!"
- In the episode of American Dad! entitled "Star Trek", the plot revolves around the downfall of stardom and pays tribute by replicating the opening scene of the movie. The plot of the episode "A Star is Reborn" is also based on the film.
- The Archer season 7 finale and segue to the film noir Archer: Dreamland season 8 recreate the pool scene from the opening of the film.
- The Season 11 premiere of Curb Your Enthusiasm, entitled "The Five-Foot Fence", begins with Larry David finding a home invader's corpse floating face-down in his pool.
- The Twin Peaks character Gordon Cole is named after the Sunset Boulevard character. A scene from the film itself appears in Part 15 of Twin Peaks: The Return. In the scene, being viewed by Dale Cooper, the name "Gordon Cole" is spoken, which stirs Cooper's buried memory of his time in the FBI.
- The 3rd Rock from the Sun episode "Fifteen Minutes of Dick" (season 2, ep. 23) features a spoof on the film, wherein Sally, suddenly famous, spirals into Norma-esque despair as her celebrity wanes.
- The early episodes of Desperate Housewives (2004) have numerous allusions to Sunset Boulevard, including the use of a dead person as a narrator, and another character's fondness for Billy Wilder movies.
- In the movie Hick, Luli (Chloe Grace Moretz) can be found in her room reciting the movie in the mirror. Moretz revealed that she was the one who suggested the quote be implemented.
- In the scene where Robin Williams first tries on his drag outfit in Mrs. Doubtfire, he quotes Swanson's famous line "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille".
Literature
Sunset Boulevard is frequently referenced in the book The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell, which documents Sestero's relationship with director and actor Tommy Wiseau and the making of Wiseau's film The Room. Quotes from Sunset Boulevard are used as epigraphs for several of the book's chapters.[76] In a 2017 interview, Sestero stated that "I saw a lot of similarities with my story, especially when Tommy lived in a place that had a pool and wanted to make his own vanity project."[77]
Politics
Donald Trump has cited the film as one of his personal favorites, and screened it multiple times at the White House Family Theater during his presidency. The press subsequently brought up an analogy between Trump's Mar-a-Lago and Norma Desmond's Sunset Boulevard mansion.[78]
Popular music
The song "Antarctica Starts Here" by John Cale, from his 1973 album Paris 1919, describes a "paranoid great movie queen" that Cale said was inspired by the character of Norma Desmond.[79]
The song "Floating" on the album Outskirts by Canadian country-rock band Blue Rodeo references the movie in its chorus line 'I feel like William Holden floating in a pool.' The album's liner notes explain the connection to the film.
The 1996 song Sunset Boulevard by the Spanish songwriter Javier Álvarez includes the verses Los años de papel te vuelven a cegar / Como a Norma Desmond en Sunset Boulevard ("The paper years blind you again / as [they blinded] Norma Desmond in 'Sunset Boulevard'".)[80]
