The Venture Brothers Season 4 Episode 13

Dr. Venture: What, are you waiting for Jacob Riis to take your picture?
Jacob Riis (1849-1914) was a photojournalist who documented the horrible living conditions in the New York City tenements at the turn of the century in an effort to help those living there.

Title:
Referencing the 1984 novel Bright Lights, Big City, written by Jay McInerney. The story is about a writer swept up in the New York City party scene while trying to forget the wife that left him, and coping with a cocaine addiction. It was made into a movie in 1988.

Phantom Limb: Phantom Limb: Not Spawn. "S.P.A.W.M."
Referencing the comic book character created by Todd McFarlane. Al Simmons is a soldier and then assassin who dies, goes to Hell, and is brought back as a pawn for demonic forces. He has vast superpowers due to his undead status, and wears a symbiotic necroplasm suit that can shapeshift. A live-action movie based on the comic was produced in 1997, and a cable animated series from 1997 to 1999.

Phantom Limb: It looks more like the Island of Misfit Toys out there.
Referencing the Christmas special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964). Rudolph and his friends eventually find themselves on the Island, which is occupied by unloved toys which are defective or unwanted in some way. A sequel was made in 2001.

Dr. Venture: Starlight Express. Exactly!
Referencing Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1984 musical which features a child's dream where his toy trains come to life and compete against each other. As noted, famously the entire cast performs on roller skates, and it is a major hit in Germany.