The Big Picture: Worlds Within Worlds

[Hylke Langhout]

That was pretty damn awesome. I looked up the site and was surprised to find The A-Team or Columbo do not fall in Westphall's Mind. I haven't done extensive reason, nor have I seen all of the episodes, but you'd think that with how long those series ran, that they'd have some crossovers at some point.

 

[Urh]

Now we just need an Infinite Crisis for EVERYTHING.

Surely we'd need to start with Crisis on Infinite Shows. At the very least it'd give TV networks an excuse to do nothing but reboots of old shows. Then we can watch people argue over the internet as to whether or not the pre-crisis Alf was superior to the ludicrous post-crisis retcon, or is the new Fresh Prince's origin story really that fresh?

 

[Orks da best]

er de da er my head hurts!

moviebob, where do you find these things!

 

[Falseprophet]

Well, now I'm just interested in more of McDuffie's point about how comics continuity is too rigid and what should be done about it. Okay, what Aquaman does might make meaningless an old Sandman issue, but why is that a bad thing, and what did he propose instead?

Reading McDuffie's original essay [http://dwaynemcduffie.com/?p=47], I think his point is basically "relax--don't flip about over minor deviations from established canon if the result is a good story." So in your example, if someone wrote a great Aquaman/Sandman crossover that maybe contradicted some minor thing established in an earlier story, then cut them a little slack.

 

[Doom972]

That actually did blow my mind. Wow. Since some of these series had video games, comics, and films based on them, I wonder how far we can go if we include those in the Tommy Westphall universe.

 

[Vault Citizen]

There is only one logical conclusion, Westfall is God.

 

[blanksmyname]

Goddamn, that is mind blowing. If I ever find myself working in and maybe even creating television in the future, every show I create will be the product of Tommy Westphall's imagination.

 

[marioandsonic]

Oh dear, I think I've gone cross-eyed...

 

[Littaly]

So... what about that Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode where they insinuated that maybe the entire show was took place inside the head of a girl locked inside a mental institution? That's some Inception sh*t right there ^^

Also, somewhat related. This is partially why I'm not too bummed over the rights to X-Men not reverting back to Marvel any time soon. Being part of the larger continuity always kind of undermined the whole idea of that franchise.

 

[Mortamus]

I, for one, welcome our new imaginative overlord.

 

[SnakeoilSage]

From the Simpsons into Family Guy, and then thanks to Seth MacFarlane and his shameless inability to innovate, EVERYTHING THAT WAS EVER IN THE MEDIA EVER INCLUDING THE INTERNET. Done.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

Aliens...
Star Trek...
Doctor Who...

Christ, that kid has one of a imagination...

 

[videocrazy]

Here's a creepy thought: The Mythbusters did a cameo on an episode of CSI. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman are real people. Ergo, we are also imaginary.

 

[CommanderKirov]

See. Where every single thing of it falls flat is that an autistic child still could incorporate parts of real world glimpsed by him into his own fantasies.

 

[aba1]

Instead of simply having comic book writers care less about continuity why not consider the implications of throwing continuity out the window. It is basically saying why not stop caring if the story makes sense which is moronic.

 

[esperandote]

I don't think even if these shows crossed over it means they are imaginary too, only that interaction would be imaginary as long it isn't mentioned in other episodes.

 

[daxterx2005]

So, many shows in one autistic mind.
How does he have room for all of that!?

 

[Bindal]

I kind of think, that was partly overacting in terms of "this stuff is connected with this". For example, the whole "Simpsons/X-Files" thing noted in the episode, that was more of a reference or joke than an actual crossover. Hence, they don't have to be set "in the same universe" and X-Files might be not part of that long chain of flowcharts from reaching "Simpsons". Same with a lot of other things, too, I assume.

And if we kick out the reference/jokes as connections and go only with the actual crossover/spin-off, then the whole thing probably shrinks down from the 300 series to probably about a dozand or two...
I could even go further and say that cameos can also be taken out when not acknoledged within the show the character originated from as that could then just be one something that guy quickly thought up in terms of "I like that shows character I saw recently on TV, why not let it appear there in my mind as well?".



So, depending on how tolerant you are, that whole "300 and counting connected shows" isn't true. I exclude references and jokes from such an idea myself, to be honest.
Final line: Mind not blown. Sorry.

 

[Ickabod]

There is a flaw in the entire theory though. What if Tommy was incorporating stuff into St. Elsewhere from people and places that really existed in his world, not just his imagined world.