Dear television viewer:
In an effort to further drain you of all your energy, tonight's episode of Extremely Popular TV Drama will involve a cliffhanger to be resolved next week on an episode of That Other Extremely Popular TV Drama which airs on a different night and time. We hope you enjoy.
Your friends, The Insane Network Executives.
Am I the only one who hates this? For whatever reason, it really bugs me when TV worlds collide. I just can't deal with the notion that, just maybe, Jack Bauer and Sydney Bristow work down the street from each other. Someone who works on a much higher floor than me thinks this is great idea though. Joel briefly mentioned them in his Festivus post from a few weeks ago, but I've got a whole rant in me.
It's been going on for years though, and while I may be slightly young to recall all the instances, I think I can peg enough to make my point. Law and Order did it relentlessly (well at least twice anyway I think) with Homicide. So much so, that when Law and Order: Special Victims Unit premiered in 1999, Richard Belzer was able to reprise his Homicide Det. John Munch and it made perfect sense. This just doesn't seem right to me. What if I just walked into my neighbor's house and pretended to be their new son? I don't think they'd be like, "Because you've lived next door for so long this makes all the sense in the world!" See what I'm saying?
But it didn't stop there. Belzer also played Munch in episodes of The X-Files, Law and Order: Trial by Jury, and that crappy UPN show The Beat. The only other actors to have played the same character on as many series are George Wendt and John Ratzenberger who've played Norm and Cliff on Cheers, St. Elsewhere, The Tortellis, Wings, Frasier and The Simpsons. I can't take this melting pot of merging shows and connecting storylines. My head hurts.
NBC seems to be the biggest culprit though. They've also pulled off crossovers with ER and Third Watch after Sherry Stringfield returned to the show and more recently with Las Vegas and Crossing Jordan. Giving Jerry O'Connell a spot on one show was bad enough. But as crossover poster boy Belzer demonstrated with his jumps to FOX and UPN, networks aren't boundaries for crossovers. David E. Kelley pulled off a crossover with his shows The Practice and Ally McBeal creating a connection between the ABC and FOX shows. In what may be one of the more logical examples of late, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY connected a few months ago.
I'm sure I'm missing some, but I think I said what I wanted to say. It just seems weird to me when one show suddenly has characters from another show in it. Good for publicity and as a sweeps stunt I suppose, but things like that aren't generally good. They're just made to get your attention.













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-14-2006 @ 4:06PM
Fred said...
On occasion, I think it works. I *liked* the Homicide/Law and Order crossovers. And there was an amusing almost-crossover between The X-Files and Picket Fences when both were on the air.
But these worked, I think, because they were relatively infreqent. (I seem to remember only a handful of times Belzer appeared on L&O before officially joining the show.) And the shows stayed pretty self-contained when the crossover ended and they'd gone back to their independent TV universes. NY and Baltimore are far enough apart that I was never left wondering why they didn't run into each other more often.
It can get ridiculous, though, and I thought Belzer's transition to SVU was a little lamely done. (Then again, I never much cared for SVU and I've largely given up on the whole franchise years ago.)
I have worried for awhile now that Alias and Lost would be revealed to be connected, that the whole island would turn out to be some Rambaldi-cult thing.
Reply
1-14-2006 @ 4:12PM
Joel Keller said...
As much as I hate crossovers, I thought the X-Files/Simpsons crossover was one of the best Simpsons episodes of all time. Especially when the "alien" Homer saw turned out to be a glowing, zonked out Burns.
Oh, and when Mulder showed his badge: "Agent Mulder, Efffff BI", it had a picture of him sprawled out in his underwear (or a Speedo... one of those).
Reply
1-14-2006 @ 4:29PM
Danny Edwards said...
Check out http://www.poobala.com/crossoverlist.html for a huge list of crossovers.
Reply
1-14-2006 @ 4:30PM
Vito said...
I just dislike crossovers when they require you to be a fan of both to enjoy them. Like Law & Order. I like SVU, but none of the others. As a result, when they have an episode where the plot continues on some other show, I just don't watch. Easy as that.
Not to mention that because of these stupid things, there is an episode of SVU that will never make complete sense in reruns or on DVD because it will be contingent on an episode of the long-dead (and likely not to be seen again) Trial By Jury.
Reply
1-14-2006 @ 4:31PM
Michael said...
Don't forget the awful Simpsons/The Critic crossover--that one sucked so much that Matt Groening took his name off the credits for that episode.
Reply
1-14-2006 @ 4:42PM
Jay Allen said...
I liked the L&U/Homicide crossovers. Of course, it helped that Homicide was the best. Show. Ever.
I repeat:
Best.
Show.
EVER.
Reply
1-14-2006 @ 5:19PM
Jamie said...
Some have been cool. I recal enjoying the magnum PI-Simon & Simon crossover. But yes, most just smell of a ratings stunt with no particular purpose. The wrap up of Millennium on the X-Files was a major letdown.
I've always thought the times when more than one Star trek was on, the shows could have more involved crossover. i'd also like to see the Hanso Foundation appear on Alias, but for some reason, TV doesn't fulfill fanboy wishes quite that way.
Reply
1-14-2006 @ 5:40PM
Jimmy said...
These crossovers don't always work: Crossing Jordan (and OK show) with Las Vegas (a really bad show) are examples that come quickly to mind. However, I often enjoy them. The L&O crossovers make sense because they're all part of one huge group of New York police officers and attorneys, but they don't always work. Personally, I think a 24/Alias crossover would be a hoot -- Sydney Bristow could kick Jack Bauer's ass! However, given 24's "real time" format, a crossover could never work. My favorite crossovers were always the Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman episodes. They were always fun and always worked.
If I had to choose a crossover I'd like to see, it would be Desperate Housewives and one of the CSIs -- they could use help solving all those damn murders.
Reply
1-14-2006 @ 6:33PM
sean said...
i like crossovers.. it's funny, i was just thinking about this the other day, if crossovers are meant to bring in higher ratings for both shows, or if the show that is getting crossed over to, is the one with the lower ratings, so the execs are trying to higher ratings/more viewers for that show?
personally i really enjoyed the crossovers with buffy/angel which had many many crossovers- and they were such good episodes..
also to add to the ally mcbeal/the practice..boston public too.. i'm not sure if they crossed over with ally, but i'm near certain it crossed with the practice.
Reply
1-14-2006 @ 7:46PM
RAB said...
In fairness, a Cheers character showing up on Frasier or (shudder) The Tortellis is much like a crossover between Mary Tyler Moore and Rhoda...or between All In The Family and Maude or The Jeffersons. It's kind of built into the premise.
Weirdest crossover ever was Betty White showing up as a new character on St. Elsewhere and being "recognized" by a mental patient as Sue Ann Nivens...
Reply
1-14-2006 @ 8:04PM
Patrick Wynne said...
"I have worried for awhile now that Alias and Lost would be revealed to be connected, that the whole island would turn out to be some Rambaldi-cult thing."
I don't watch Alias, but I do recall hearing about a party in an episode earlier this season (or maybe late last season?) where that stupid Driveshaft song could be heard playing in the background. So I guess they are already slightly connected.
Reply
1-14-2006 @ 10:49PM
Rich Keller said...
Bringing up the Magnum/Simon&Simon crossover reminded me of another Magnum crossover with Jessica Fletcher of 'Murder She Wrote' fame. Then, that brought me to another crossover when Erkel visited The Tanner family of 'Full House'.
I too enjoyed the L&O/Homicide crossovers because you got to see the characters in a different light, depending which show they were on. You heard much more about Briscoe's life on Homicide then you did on L&O.
Reply
1-14-2006 @ 11:34PM
Dave D said...
Well crossovers between spinoff shows are a different ball of wax, so a Cheers/Frasier one is pretty logical. Ditto Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman, Hercules/Xena, Buffy/Angel, etc.
Then there's always the Tommy Westphall Multiverse theory:
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~kwgow/crossovers.html
Reply
1-15-2006 @ 1:38AM
DEE CAINE said...
i think that anyone that needs to take the time to whine about cross over eps needs a life
i love them personally and i especially love the l&o crossovers
there were a couple of svu/tbj crossovers i thoroughly enjoyed
also the earlier svu l&o crossovers with briscoe and munch
they were brilliant
you know there IS an off switch on your remote
if you don't want to watch it switch it off and stop whining about it and let those that do enjoy a crossover from time to time enjoy it in peace and as we say in australia
pull yer bloody head in mate
Dee
Melbourne Australia
Reply