I immediately thought about how Kathy Griffin is canonically Peter Griffin's cousin on Family Guy. That means Tommy Westphall is responsible for "My Life on the D List." He must be stopped!!!
The Big Picture: Worlds Within Worlds
- Thread starter MovieBob
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The cool thing is, I read about this in Uncle John's Tunes into TV Bathroom Reader about a week ago...
So, if all of TV is in the mind of Tommy Westphall, could this theory explain why Chuck Cunningham vanished?
So, if all of TV is in the mind of Tommy Westphall, could this theory explain why Chuck Cunningham vanished?
I am sorry. I have to call bullshit on this; I wrote this two weeks ago as a supposed topic (The Escapist crashed and I lost all my work; Call me a liar if you will, but I typed this up and never saved it to word document) about bad writing, and now MOVIEBOB shows up with this?
I know, free market and all that, but that's a tad eerie by my tastes.
OT: I still don't want to believe it, just because the idea just sounds like a bad writing exercise for a television show that might have been good. I've never seen St. Elsewhere in my life, but I have heard of the Westphall Universe hypothesis. To me, it feels like a copout answer then it does anything legit.
If M. Night Shyamalan can't make Plants killing people seem like a good idea without everybody saying it's a 'jump the shark' point of his career, how can the same thing be said of St. Elsewhere? To me, that's just bad writing. It's different than Sid and a Mog or Chocobo appearing in nearly every Final Fantasy game because it's all kept in one similar universe.
and imagine if we apply this to video games, could anyone imagine how rediculous a Nolan North Universe Hypothesis would be? Nolan North is Ezio Auditore, which is based off something said by Nathan Drake as he imagines himself as some random passerby in Mafia 2? Doesn't that sound a bit ridiculous?
Also: Moviebob probably wasn't going to mention this, but it is the least I can do. I actually looked up this universe because of the Vanity Plates [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/VanityPlates] for it. I present to you all the Vanity Plate for St. Elsewhere during its run:
Cute, huh? Now look what the final episode's Vanity Plate was, and tell me how much money in drugs it would take for people to think this was a good idea:
0_o
I know, free market and all that, but that's a tad eerie by my tastes.
OT: I still don't want to believe it, just because the idea just sounds like a bad writing exercise for a television show that might have been good. I've never seen St. Elsewhere in my life, but I have heard of the Westphall Universe hypothesis. To me, it feels like a copout answer then it does anything legit.
If M. Night Shyamalan can't make Plants killing people seem like a good idea without everybody saying it's a 'jump the shark' point of his career, how can the same thing be said of St. Elsewhere? To me, that's just bad writing. It's different than Sid and a Mog or Chocobo appearing in nearly every Final Fantasy game because it's all kept in one similar universe.
and imagine if we apply this to video games, could anyone imagine how rediculous a Nolan North Universe Hypothesis would be? Nolan North is Ezio Auditore, which is based off something said by Nathan Drake as he imagines himself as some random passerby in Mafia 2? Doesn't that sound a bit ridiculous?
Also: Moviebob probably wasn't going to mention this, but it is the least I can do. I actually looked up this universe because of the Vanity Plates [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/VanityPlates] for it. I present to you all the Vanity Plate for St. Elsewhere during its run:
Cute, huh? Now look what the final episode's Vanity Plate was, and tell me how much money in drugs it would take for people to think this was a good idea:
0_o
My only 2 questions (other than WHY?) is how did you jump from Alien/Predator to Firefly? And any of the direct cross overs in the Original 'St. Elsewhere' would be explainable if the kid had simply seen the shows on tv and put them in there, right?
I think you missed the whole point of it. He was explaining how comic book fans always insist that any character appearing in another character's comic means that the two comics MUST share the same continuity, and that said logic breaks down when you apply it to other mediums, using TV as the example.Stormtyrant said:
Well, obviously we could take it to that level if we wanted, though I think the point of the St Elsewhere thing was to link fictional characters/companies. Still, I think you already know how valid the whole thing is, otherwise you wouldn't have posted such a blatant exaggeration to try and disprove it. Still, the point is a bit too simple to have to try and look for flaws by over-analyzing the after-math. All that McDuffy was saying is that comic continuity needs to get a little more lax; Character A appearing in Character B's comic doesn't mean that their comics need to share continuity suddenly, because applying the same logic to any other medium would result in the kind of things like what this video talked about.Friv said:
All of netweork TV is the delusion of an austitic kid? Explains so much. The really scarry part is Star Trek's done crossovers with the X-men and the Leigon of Superheroes, bringing both Marval and DC into the same mess at the same time.
Of course there are rational explainations for all this: from the kid draws from the real world or other established series for his own dream, to just being not anal enough to count obvious gag cameos and re-used company names to connect the dots. Still, it's kind of fun. As it applies to continuity however, it makes things look messier than they really are. Yes there are trekkies that go batshit when someone gives a bad star date, but most of us are rational and even if we note incongruities, look over them for the bigger picture if they are small enough. We'd probably have a coronary if someone still had Spider-Man dating Gwen Stacey, or writing Robin as Dick Grayson in the main continuities. In the age of wikipedia and e-mail, some things are hard to overlook.
The theory also provides an escape continuity benefit: if it's a dream, it doens't have to make perfect continuital sense. Hence you now have an escape clause for continuity errors like the characters in MASH (set 1951 - 1953) refrenceing Godzilla (premiere 1954), or the Jeffersons existing as both a show and characters in Fresh Prince. It can also cover chuck cunnigham syndrome and other foibles of TV.
Of course there are rational explainations for all this: from the kid draws from the real world or other established series for his own dream, to just being not anal enough to count obvious gag cameos and re-used company names to connect the dots. Still, it's kind of fun. As it applies to continuity however, it makes things look messier than they really are. Yes there are trekkies that go batshit when someone gives a bad star date, but most of us are rational and even if we note incongruities, look over them for the bigger picture if they are small enough. We'd probably have a coronary if someone still had Spider-Man dating Gwen Stacey, or writing Robin as Dick Grayson in the main continuities. In the age of wikipedia and e-mail, some things are hard to overlook.
The theory also provides an escape continuity benefit: if it's a dream, it doens't have to make perfect continuital sense. Hence you now have an escape clause for continuity errors like the characters in MASH (set 1951 - 1953) refrenceing Godzilla (premiere 1954), or the Jeffersons existing as both a show and characters in Fresh Prince. It can also cover chuck cunnigham syndrome and other foibles of TV.
I knew it! I just knew that we were nothing more than figments of our own imaginations within the imagination of another imaginary universe!videocrazy said:
This pretty much sums up the nerd community doesn't it...
McDuffy: 'This is why interconnected continuity in comic is insane. Don't take it this far.'
Nerd Community: 'Hey, how far could we actually take this?'
McDuffy: 'This is why interconnected continuity in comic is insane. Don't take it this far.'
Nerd Community: 'Hey, how far could we actually take this?'
I had a thought after watching this video, as I'm sure everyone did, about the connecting shows and one thing struck me.
In Red Dwarf they talk about The Flinstones briefly in an episode... which if you stretch that out far enough with the mmount of crossovers... the entierity of hanna-barbera is in there!
Yes moviebob you were right, this episode did blow my mind, but in a fascinating way
In Red Dwarf they talk about The Flinstones briefly in an episode... which if you stretch that out far enough with the mmount of crossovers... the entierity of hanna-barbera is in there!
Yes moviebob you were right, this episode did blow my mind, but in a fascinating way
So basically, by proxy, the entire universe exists in a fictional autistic character's imagination. Mind-bending.
Also, bob gets an E-cookie for referencing ALF. I have the first two seasons on DVD. Shit, that show might just be older than I am. I remember watching it as an infant.
Wandering fool's image almost made me fall out of my chair laughing. well played sir or maam, well played.
Also, bob gets an E-cookie for referencing ALF. I have the first two seasons on DVD. Shit, that show might just be older than I am. I remember watching it as an infant.
Wandering fool's image almost made me fall out of my chair laughing. well played sir or maam, well played.
GOD, super hero continuity is dumb. Interesting show today, but all it really did is remind me how I felt trying to read Fifty Two, tearing my hair out over the parallell universe characters and the amount of weird characters in general.
Imagining the Tv shows where all the characters mentioned in today's show get together and have a big event... I'm so happy this continuity crap is stuck in not only comic form, but only the super hero genre. With any luck they stop making Marvel movies soon before that gets all messed up, too.
Imagining the Tv shows where all the characters mentioned in today's show get together and have a big event... I'm so happy this continuity crap is stuck in not only comic form, but only the super hero genre. With any luck they stop making Marvel movies soon before that gets all messed up, too.
Wait...did I miss something here? Is the whole universe suddenly even stupider than before?
Seriously...I once dreamt I had a new computer with win7 on it. Does that mean Microsoft is also only fiction? Just because someone appeared in the imagination of somebody doesn't mean he doesn't exist.
Mind officially unblown.
Seriously...I once dreamt I had a new computer with win7 on it. Does that mean Microsoft is also only fiction? Just because someone appeared in the imagination of somebody doesn't mean he doesn't exist.
Mind officially unblown.
Or! Since it all happened in some kid's mind... That kid adopted things he'd heard and seen into his own little world.
It's kinda like when my Transformers used to fight my Battletech mechs when I was younger. The confines of that cross over only happened in my mind, making use of two existing franchises.
Because we're dealing with a kid's imagination, all those things can still be things without being affected by some kid's day dreams.
It's kinda like when my Transformers used to fight my Battletech mechs when I was younger. The confines of that cross over only happened in my mind, making use of two existing franchises.
Because we're dealing with a kid's imagination, all those things can still be things without being affected by some kid's day dreams.
Well, I'm not so sure about this theory I have as I've never seen st.Elsewhere, but just because the events of that show took place within the mind of an autistic kid, doesn't mean the characters only existed there. Maybe he just invented scenarios for people he knew. Bob did say he was the son of a doctor who was a character on the show?
Not that that means the shows aren't inter-connected, just that its not all a figment of that kids imagination.
I read a great cracked article about interconnecting universes once but this is even more mindblowing.
Not that that means the shows aren't inter-connected, just that its not all a figment of that kids imagination.
I read a great cracked article about interconnecting universes once but this is even more mindblowing.