August 12, 2005

The Multiverse of TV, or The Best Link Ever.

You want some Friday Fun? It’s not flash, but man-almighty it’s fantastic. It’s the best-est link ever.

It’s about TV. And the ginormous universe that all the shows occupied. That’s right, I’m saying each and every TV show lives in the same universe. From 1951 to the present times this Make-believe Universe exists.

How do I know all of this? Because of one special boy, Tommy Westphall.

Tommy Westphall was an austistic child on ST ELSEWHERE who, it was revealed in the closing moments of the final episode of that series, had dreamt the entire run of the show. So if ST ELSEWHERE is part of his mind, so are the 194 other series to which it is connected.

So we know that St. Elsewhere is imaginary. By taking this one, very important, fact into consideration, you can start building. These guys did, and it’s impressive. Check out their chart of connected shows. This Fontana-verse (named after HOMICIDE producer Tom Fontana) spans FOREVER. Newhart (which also was a dream, was really a dream within a dream. How Meta). You must also really read the key to really enjoy this chart.

Here is a sample trailing:

  1. St. Elsewhere (imaginary) is connected to Cheers.
    • St. Elsewhere characters visted Cheer’s bar. Thus Cheers is imaginary.
  2. Cheers visits Wings Airport.
    • Thus Wings is imaginary.
    • Cheers spins off Frasier.
  3. Fraiser’s Niles read Caroline in the City.
    • Thus Caroline in the City is imaginary
  4. Caroline in the City is visted by The Single Guy.
  5. Caroline in the City meets Friends’ Chandler.

But how, you ask, does it go all the way back to 1951? Easy. Mad About You.

The line to Mad About You is: St. Elsewhere → Cheers → Fraiser → Caroline in the City → Friends → Mad About You (Friends Phoebe and Mad About You Ursula are sisters).

In Mad About You Paul did a documentary narrated by The Dick Van Dyke Show’s Alan Brady. Bingo!

I mean, The Adventures of Superman takes place in the same world as MAS*H, Cop Rock, Touched by an Angel, Family Ties and Get Smart. How awesome is that?

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Comments are Open (3)

Posted at 09:13 AM

Comments

Ash

The Best Link Ever? Thank you.

When we started it was just a little project with 50 or so shows, now it has grown to levels we'd never imagined it would. Our next update will bring us up to 200 shows.

Tony

Wow. I can't wait for the next update. I've found myself just browsing the key randomly, enjoying the heck out of the possibilities. It's a great site.

Now I did have a friend say that including "Hi, Honey I'm Home" is somewhat of a cheat. How do you explain that? I myself don't think that so much, but see his point.

Crossoverman

"Hi Honey I'm Home" is a complicated thing - especially as neither Ash nor I have actually seen an episode. But we've decided that though it's a meta nightmare, that it works well enough for our purposes.

Until we see it and it contradicts the hell out of our using it, it stays.

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