REVIEW: End of Month Reviews #71 - November 2009 [spoilers]

Andrew Perron pwerdna at gmail.com
Fri Dec 11 18:05:52 PST 2009


On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:27:44 +0000 (UTC), Dave Van Domelen wrote:

>      There's plenty of shared universe action on TV too.  At the most basic
> level, most shows have a pool of writers, so even within a single program
> there's a lot of sharing.  Extend it a little more to get things like
> spinoffs...Laverne & Shirley exists in the same world as Happy Days, while
> Mork & Mindy is set in a possible future of Happy Days and Joanie Loves
> Chachi is a horrible nightmare someone in Happy Days had.  ;)  A bunch of
> shows are set in Archie Bunker's world, with spinoffs of spinoffs existing.
> And so forth, even ignoring the obvious franchises like Star Trek or CSI.
>      Additionally, every so often two shows that aren't directly based on one
> another will have a crossover, like when Martial Law and Early Edition had a
> two-part story that started in one show and ended in the other.

All true.  None of those was really what I was thinking of, though; none of
them really have that feel of a *setting*.  Plus, the way TV shows are
written makes it weird.  It's cooperative writing, but instead of having a
bunch of distinct flavors layered you get a single flavor that's all
homogenized.

I suppose the TV equivalent would be making a world, then launching, like,
three shows that all take place in it in the same season.  Don't think
anyone's ever done that.

>      Finally, you get the in joke echoes, like Faceman (Dirk Benedict)
> running into an actor playing a Cylon in an early episode of The A-Team, or
> Pa Kent in Smallville (John Schneider) listening to the Dukes of Hazzard
> theme on the radio or having an old buddy (who Clark thought of as an uncle)
> played by Tom Wopat.  :)

Mythology Gag!

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, I think.


More information about the racc mailing list