Crossovers... grrrrrr (1 Viewer)

[Yee-Ming]

I was catching a re-run of Law & Order season 8 last night. Richard Belzer a.k.a. Munch, then still with Baltimore police, guest-starred, and the New York detectives visited Baltimore as well, so I guessed the episode might be a crossover with Homicide: Life On The Street. After extensive searching on the net, I finally found an episode guide that confirms it.

(As an aside, it is amazing that it was so difficult to find a working ep guide for a show as popular and long-lived as L&O. But I digress).

Since Homicide isn't being shown right now, I won't get to find out how the story ends (And the ep guide's summary is only two lines so it doesn't tell me anything there either.)

Anyway, this got me thinking, if/when L&O S8 is released, there's going to be a "hole" in the story, in that the resolution to this story is on a H:LotS set and won't be on L&O. The same problem arises with Angel and Buffy crossovers, which is another annoyance since I watch Angel but not Buffy. Or for that matter any number of David E. Kelley's shows, IIRC Boston Public and Practice, Ally McBeal and Practice had crossvers.

So, IMHO, if the producers want to do a crossover, it's only right that the crossover episode in the other series is also included, for completeness. So far AFAIK this hasn't been done, producers no doubt assuming die-hard fans buy everything under the sun to complete their collections.

As for other "legal" issues that might preclude such inclusions, surely if they were able to produce a crossover tie-up in the first place, future paperwork can cover such scenarios? E.g. I'll let you include my show's ep if you let me include yours.

 

[Eric Paddon]

If I recall right, this sort of complication would also happen with "Six Million Dollar Man" and "Bionic Woman" episodes that crossed over.

 

[David Lambert]

Next time you're researching a cross-over, try this web site!

 

[Mark Silver]

1) Episode guides can be found at epguides.com

2) I agree with your sentiment, but recognize that it is an impossibility, due to different producers, ownership rights etc.

3) You are in luck, Homicide Season 4 has been released on DVD and part 2 of the crossover is in the set.

 

[Gord Lacey]

A&E tried to include the first part of the crossover in their Homicide Season 4 set, but they weren't able to do so.

Gord

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Going OT, but the crossover list posted by David really is great. I'm especially fond of the crossover between Batman and Hogan's Heroes. Very funny.

 

[David*P]

The same thing will happen when Sabrina the Teenage Witch is released....the viewing audience won't know the outcome unless they watch the other shows.

What happened is that Sabrina got a time ball that messed time up and threw them into a different time period and Salem, her cat swallows it and somehow ended up on three other ABC TGIF shows that night, which included Boy Meets World, You Wish, and Teen Angel. Now we know that BMW is coming out on DVD, but those other two, I doubt it. Hopefully those episodes could be included as extras.

BTW, David, that website is really fun to look at.

 

[Rick P]

www.tvtome.com is also an excellent source of guides that epguides.com dosen't have..

 

[Jay Pennington]

Yup. On the Sci-Fi Channel reruns (and probably in syndication), they'd pick one series or the other and plop all of a storyline's episodes into it, changing the opening credits as necessary.

But those are two series produced by the same production company and currently reside under a common owner; I doubt there'd be any problems working something out for any future DVDs.

I guess it gets more complicated in other cases...

 

[Yee-Ming]

Thanks for the pointers to the episode guides; but the funny thing is, when I did my "research" that day, tvtomes was down, and epguides carries only listings, with links to tvtomes for the actual synopses, so I was SOOL that day.

I've never actually caught H:LOTS. It was shown here not on the prime channel but the "arts" channel, and at a rather strange time, on its first run, and now in re-runs it was on really late and I never got around to catching it.

Now, if I am a fan of NYPD Blue, all 3 L&Os, Boomtown, would I like H:LOTS? Isn't it supposed to be an even grittier, less glammed-up, less "action" type cop show?

I've seen that crossover list before (it's quite prominent at Yahoo's listing for TV shows). The funniest connection has to be Star Trek and Team Knight Rider...

Edit: it appears tvtome is still down... :frowning:

 

[Gord Lacey]

Yee-Ming, I think you'd like Homicide. It took me a few episodes to really get into it because it's a slower-paced show than NYPD Blue, but the acting, directing and stories are superb. I usually get through one of the sets in a few days (3 or 4).

Gord

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Yeah Crossovers Suck I just watched Homicide's "For God and Country" which was a L&O crossover, they at least had a "Previously ON" but still to have a part two episode and no part one really stinks.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

That is pretty funny.

 

[Daniel W]

Click on the link for a very clever article about crossovers. I posted a link to this article in the St. Elsewhere/Hill Street Blues thread, and the couple of people who read it seemed to get a kick out of it. As I'm sure that many who did not check out that thread might find it of interest, I'm reposting this link here. I hope that's not bad form on my part. Enjoy.


http://www.slushfactory.com/columns/...yZloMBeEdd.php