A fictional crossover is the placement of
two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters,
settings, or universes into the context of
a single story. They can arise from legal
agreements between the relevant copyright
holders, unauthorized efforts by fans or common
corporate ownership.
Official crossovers
Crossovers often occur in an official capacity
in order for the intellectual property rights
holders to reap the financial reward of combining
two or more popular, established properties.
In other cases, the crossover can serve to
introduce a new concept derivative of an older
one.
Crossovers generally occur between properties
owned by a single holder, but they can, more
rarely, involve properties from different
holders, provided that the inherent legal
obstacles can be overcome. They may also involve
using characters that have passed into the
public domain with those concurrently under
copyright protection.
A crossover story may try to explain its own
reason for the crossover, such as characters
being neighbors or meeting via dimensional
rift or similar phenomenon. Some crossovers
are not explained at all. Others are absurd
or simply impossible within the fictional
setting, and have to be ignored by the series'
respective continuities. Still others intentionally
make the relations between two or more fictional
universes confusing, as with The Simpsons
and Futurama, where each show is fiction in
the other.
Comics
Crossovers of multiple characters owned by
one company or published by one publisher,
have been used to set an established continuity,
where characters can frequently meet within
one setting. This is especially true of comic
book publishers, as different characters in
various Marvel, DC or Valiant comic books
frequently interact with one another since
they live in a "shared universe". For example,
in the Marvel Comics universe, Spider-Man
has frequent dealings with another Marvel
hero, Daredevil, just as in the DC Comics
Universe, Batman and Superman often collaborate.
In comic book terminology, these "guest star"
roles are common enough that they are not
considered crossovers; rather, this short-term
collaboration to fight crime is called a team-up.
A crossover in comic book terms only occurs
when a story spans more than one title. This
has led to "crossover events", in which major
occurrences are shown as affecting most or
all of the stories in the shared universe.
The earliest such crossover event was Gardner
Fox's Zatanna's Search, which took place in
Hawkman #4, Detective Comics #336, The Atom
#19, Green Lantern #42, Detective Comics #355,
and Justice League of America #51. This story
dealt with Zatanna attempting to reconnect
with her father, Zatara, and seeking the aid
of Hawkman, Batman, Robin, The Atom, Green
Lantern, and Elongated Man along the way.
The first major crossover event was spearheaded
by the Marvel Editor-in-Chief at the time,
Jim Shooter. As a way to further toy sales
he devised the Secret Wars crossover which
brought all the major Marvel heroes into a
twelve issue mini-series to battle a common
threat. After the threat was dealt with they
all returned to their regular titles. This
Secret Wars was hailed as both a critical
and commercial success largely because the
events of the crossover had lasting effects
on the characters. Jim Shooter later perfected
his crossover at Valiant Comics with the Unity
event. Unity brought all the Valiant characters
together to defeat Mothergod but was told
within the existing Valiant Comics titles.
Readers were not obliged to buy all 18 chapters
as the story was coherent when reading just
one title, but far more layered when all were
read. Like Secret Wars, the Unity crossover
had lasting effects on the Valiant universe
most notably the introduction of Turok, the
birth of Magnus Robot Fighter and the death
of a major Valiant hero.
Dark Horse Comics's Aliens Versus Predator
franchise was a success that continued into
many games and two movies and even an Aliens
Versus Predator Versus The Terminator comic.
The comic crossovers from Raj Comics are very
famous in India, in which the super heroes
meet to fight a common enemy. Many of these
crossovers have occurred between Nagraj and
Super Commando Dhruva. In Kohram, all the
heroes in Raj Universe meet to finish Haru,
an extremely powerful enemy.
Webcomics creators sometimes produce crossovers;
one of the first was a two-week sequence between
Christopher Baldwin's Bruno and Peter Zale's
Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet in 1998.
In 2013, Archie Comics released a 12-part
crossover of Capcom's character Mega Man,
and Sega's character Sonic the Hedgehog called
"Worlds Collide".
There are also intercompany crossovers these
are where characters owned by 2 different
companies meet, such as those from DC and
Marvel such as the Amalgam comics
Animation
Cartoon crossovers are not uncommon, and most
of them - like comics or live-action TV shows
- will often feature characters owned by the
same company or network. One example is Cartoon
Network's The Grim Adventures of the Kids
Next Door. It features five crossovers - Ed,
Edd n Eddy, Codename: Kids Next Door, The
Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, a reference
to The Powerpuff Girls and a quote from Scooby-Doo,
which are all licensed Cartoon Network series.
The cast of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien and Generator
Rex team up in Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes
United. Most of the last episodes of the Lilo
& Stitch: The Series had crossovers with various
other Disney cartoons, including The Proud
Family, Kim Possible, Recess, and American
Dragon Jake Long. The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour
trilogy is another example, in which Jimmy
Neutron and Timmy Turner switch universes.
The Disney TV series Hercules, based on the
1997 film of the same name had an episode
titled "Hercules and the Arabian Night" that
had a crossover between the characters of
the TV series and film and with the characters
of the Disney film Aladdin, in which Hades
and Jafar each try to get rid of each other's
enemies. Another crossover is Rugrats Go Wild
in which the Rugrats are stranded on an island
where The Wild Thornberrys were at the time.
During the 1970s and 1980s, crossovers were
particularly common among the Hanna-Barbera
properties. Some of the earliest examples
happened on The New Scooby-Doo Movies, which
featured appearances by characters from Harlem
Globetrotters, Josie and the Pussycats, Jeannie,
Speed Buggy, Batman and Robin, and The Addams
Family. Later, the Hanna-Barbera Superstars
10 set of movies involved several crossovers,
including such combinations as The Jetsons
Meet the Flintstones. This was taken to an
extreme in the 1977-79 series Laff-A-Lympics,
which was essentially a gathering of the Hanna-Barbera
characters for a regular series.
Crossovers are not necessarily composed of
characters under common ownership. Two of
the most notable cartoon crossovers consisted
of characters from different companies. Disney's
movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit had characters
from various companies, most notably Disney
and Warner Bros. Daffy Duck and Donald Duck
made a simultaneous appearance in one scene,
in which the two of them exchanged blows during
a piano duet. Later in the movie, Mickey Mouse
and Bugs Bunny were shown parachuting together.
The film also includes cameos of characters
from MGM.The end of the movie features all
the cartoons from all of the animation companies
joining together in song, to be concluded
by Porky Pig stuttering his famous "That's
All, Folks!" line as Tinker Bell ends the
scene with a magical fade-out.
On October 4, 1997, The 2 Kids WB shows, Superman:
The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures,
had their first crossover with the TV movie,
"World's Finest", in addition to having it
released on DVD.
Another cartoon crossover would occur in 1990,
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. This cartoon
featured popular characters from children's
Saturday morning cartoons, banding together
to promote an anti-drug message. ABC, CBS,
Fox, and NBC aired this half-hour special
one Saturday morning with characters from
all their networks, including Huey, Dewey,
and Louie, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Slimer,
Michelangelo, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Alvin
and the Chipmunks, The Smurfs, ALF, Garfield,
and the trio of Baby Kermit, Baby Piggy, and
Baby Gonzo. Animation companies granted unlimited,
royalty-free use of their cartoon characters
for this project, a feat that has been unequalled
before or since then. This cartoon was also
introduced by then-President George H. W.
Bush and Barbara Bush, and would be distributed
to schools and video stores free of charge
nationwide.
Manga artist Leiji Matsumoto has been known
to cross over the characters of his various
stories and characters such as Captain Harlock,
Galaxy Express 999, and Queen Millennia, all
of which were originally written as separate,
self-contained stories. In the Maetel Legend,
Queen Promethium is revealed to be having
been the Yukino Yaoi, protagonist from Queen
Millennia. Matsumoto has also created various
crossovers with Space Battleship Yamato, an
anime on which he served as director, although
the rights to Yamato is actually owned by
Yoshinobu Nishizaki.
The adult parody-oriented series Drawn Together
features many crossovers; while some are regular
cameos, such as Peter and Lois Griffin from
Family Guy, others involve a personality twist,
such as the homicidal version of Bambi from
the eponymous film or the gay version of Elmer
Fudd from the Looney Tunes franchise.
The Disney/Marvel crossover Phineas and Ferb:
Mission Marvel features the Marvel heroes
Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, and Thor,
the Marvel villans Whiplash, MODOK, Red Skull,
and Venom, and characters from Phineas and
Ferb, where the storyline involves Phineas
and Ferb trying to restore power to the Marvel
heroes, whose powers were taken away by Doofenshmirtz.
During its 26th season, The Simpsons has crossovers
with Family Guy and Futurama. In the hour-long
Family Guy season 13 premiere "The Simpsons
Guy", the Griffins meet the Simpson family,
who meet the Planet Express crew in the Simpsons
episode "Simpsorama".
Video games
Konami made the first crossover video game
featuring Simon Belmont from Castlevania & Mikey
from the Warner Bros. Movie The Goonies in
Konami Wai Wai World for the Famicom in 1988.
The King of Fighters, Marvel vs. Capcom, and
many other franchises from third-party developers
such as Capcom and SNK bring these licenses
together.
The 2.5D fighting game series Super Smash
Bros., brings various Nintendo characters
together for a massive fight. The third game
in the series, Super Smash Bros. Brawl introduces
the first non-Nintendo characters with the
inclusion of Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog,
of Konami's Metal Gear series and Sega's Sonic
the Hedgehog series respectively. The fourth
game in the franchise brings even more non-Nintendo
characters to the series with the introduction
of Mega Man and Pac-man, in addition to other
Nintendo characters from the company's different
universes.
The Namco-developed Soul series, features
characters from outside of Namco's titles,
and Ubisoft Montreal's Ezio Auditore). Mario
& Sonic at the Olympic Games, released in
Japan two months before Super Smash Bros.
Brawl, was the first time that Mario and Sonic
appeared in a game together. In the RPG Kingdom
Hearts, Disney and Final Fantasy characters
join forces.
Super Robot Wars are turn-based strategy games
featuring a variety of Japanese mecha series
from many generations, such as Mazinger Z,
Gundam, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and GaoGaiGar.
More recently, there has been a collaboration
between Capcom and Namco, which will result
in the upcoming Street Fighter X Tekken and
Tekken X Street Fighter. The Disney film Wreck-It
Ralph features many video game character cameo
appearances.
Film
One of the first film crossovers was Frankenstein
Meets the Wolf Man, in 1943. This was also
perhaps the beginning of a film legacy of
monsters brawling each other, such as House
of Frankenstein and its sequel, House of Dracula.
In 1948, the comedy film Abbott and Costello
Meet Frankenstein was released. This led to
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man,
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde, and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy.
Then, Toho released King Kong vs. Godzilla
in 1962. Forty-one years later in 2003, Freddy
vs. Jason was released by New Line Cinema.
In 2004 20th Century Fox released Alien vs.
Predator along with the sequel Aliens vs.
Predator: Requiem in 2007.
One year later, both and Puppet Master vs
Demonic Toys were released by 20th Century
Fox and Terry Kelley Studios.
Literature
In literature, some authors also engage in
crossovers by including characters from different
novels they have written in one particular
volume; L. Frank Baum did this regularly,
and Michael Moorcock frequently uses this
device – particularly in his Eternal Champion
series of novels, which establish a vast 'multiverse'
populated by numerous different characters,
many of whom appear in different novels and
even different genres. Kim Newman is another
author who frequently uses this device, as
does Stephen King. The works of James Branch
Cabell, J.D. Salinger, William Faulkner, Margaret
Laurence, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, Mordecai
Richler, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Isaac Asimov
also 'crossover' with each other, linking
different characters and settings together
over a number of different works. Author Rick
Riordan publishes multiple book series featuring
Gods of Ancient Civilizations in the modern
day, which have had two crossovers and three
references to other series.
Brazilian writer Monteiro Lobato also created
solid and imaginative crossovers, using elements
and characters from Brazilian folklore such
as the Cuca and Saci, from Greek mythology,
from the Arabian Nights, from fairy tales
such as Grimm's "Snow White", Western literature
such as Peter Pan, cartoons such as Popeye
and Felix the Cat, and Western films.
Public domain
It is also common for authors to 'crossover'
characters who have passed into the public
domain, and thus do not require copyright
or royalty payments for their use in other
works; a prominent example of this occurs
in Loren D. Estleman's novel Sherlock Holmes
vs. Dracula, in which Sherlock Holmes and
Dracula are brought together and pitted against
each other. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill is another
example of this, as all of the main characters
and most of the secondary / background characters
are fictional characters whose copyright has
expired, and all are characters of different
authors and creators brought together within
one massive extended universe. Many of the
works of Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton
family sequences also utilize and interweave
numerous otherwise unrelated fictional characters
into a rich family history by speculating
familial connections between them. Roger Zelazny's
novel A Night in the Lonesome October combines
Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Frankenstein, Jack
the Ripper and the Cthulhu Mythos, although
he never specifically identifies them as such.
Occasionally, authors will include into crossovers
classic fictional characters whose copyright
is still held by the original authors, but
who are nevertheless considered iconic or
'mythic' enough to be recognised from a few
character traits or descriptions without being
directly named. A prominent example occurs
within The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,
Volume One, wherein a character who is clearly
intended in appearance and description by
other characters to be Dr. Fu Manchu appears
as a significant villain; however, as this
character was not in the public domain at
the time of writing and the rights still held
by the estate of his creator Sax Rohmer, he
is not directly named as such in the work
and is only referred to as 'the Devil Doctor'.
Something similar occurs in The League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, wherein
a character named "Jimmy" is clearly intended
to be Ian Fleming's character James Bond,
though here he is satirized as being an inept
and unfavorable antagonist, likely to parody
Sean Connery's appearance in the 2003 film
adaptation. Another example in The League
of Extraordinary Gentlemen is when a character
is named to be the Anti-Christ, yet, despite
never being named, is shown to be an evil
Harry Potter.
The TV show Once Upon a Time is set in a world
in which all fairy tales coexist, including
Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, and even
Alice in Wonderland. The Shrek film series
is built on the same concept, and even includes
references to then-copyrighted elements like
Peter Pan.
Television series
Crossovers between established shows
Crossovers involving principals can also occur
when the characters have no prior relationship,
but are related by time period, locale or
profession. For example, the Law and Order
series afford a commonality of setting which
lends itself to crossovers, and they are frequent
within the Law & Order franchise.
Following the cancellation of the ABC soap
opera One Life to Live and its high rated
finale, several characters crossed over into
the network's remaining soap opera General
Hospital, remaining in the same timeline as
their former show.
Between related shows
Though most common on shows of the same production
company, crossovers have also occurred because
shows share the same distributor or television
network. A notable example of this kind of
link is that between Murder, She Wrote and
Magnum, P.I. These shows were made by different
companies, but owned by Universal Studios
and broadcast on CBS. Another case is that
of Mad About You and Friends, which share
the character of Ursula Buffay. Neither show
shares any production or distribution commonality,
but rather an actress, a setting and a schedule.
Mad About You and Friends share another type
of "network crossover." On rare occasions,
networks have chosen to theme an entire night's
programming around a crossover "event." In
one case, a New York City blackout caused
by Paul Reiser's character on Mad About You
was experienced by the characters on Friends.
Such "event nights" can also be linked by
a single character's quest across multiple
shows on the same evening. ABC attempted this
kind of "event night" crossover with its Friday
night programming during the 1997 season.
There, they proposed that the title character
of Sabrina the Teenage Witch should chase
her cat, Salem, through Boy Meets World, You
Wish and Teen Angel because it had run away
with a "time ball" that was displacing each
show through time.
Dan Schneider used the show he was producing
Zoey 101 to promote his new show ICarly by
making characters from Zoey 101 go to ICarly.com
or use the song Leave It All To Me, the ICarly
theme song as a ringtone.
Narrative rationales for crossovers
On other occasions, crossovers between established
shows can occur without a network or production
commonality, but simply because there is some
narrative rationale for the crossover. The
appearance of detective John Munch on Fox's
The X-Files happened merely because the episode
revolved around a crime scene in Baltimore,
a logical place for characters on The X-Files
to have encountered Munch. Munch would also
appear on the TV series Law & Order on NBC
in which it had one episode which began on
that series in New York City and concluded
in Baltimore on Homicide: Life on the Street.
Later, when Homicide went off the air in 1999,
Detective Munch ends up leaving Baltimore
to move to New York, and becoming a permanent
character on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims
Unit until October 2013.
A two-part crossover episode between CSI:
Crime Scene Investigation with Without a Trace
aired on November 8, 2007. The first hour
was on CSI and the second hour was on Without
a Trace. While both series are on the same
network in the United States, spreading two
parts of a story across two different shows
can cause problems in international markets
where they have been separately sold to different
broadcasters. For example, in the United Kingdom,
Without a Trace was shown on Channel 4 and
CSI on Channel 5, meaning the two companies
had to come to a special agreement to show
both episodes. Another CSI crossover occurred
in 2009 when Raymond Langston from CSI: Crime
Scene Investigation appeared both in CSI:
Miami and CSI: NY, traveling to Miami and
New York to track a human trafficking and
organ harvesting ring. ER had a crossover
with Third Watch which corresponded with a
peak in viewership for the latter show, with
17.2 million viewers.
In 2013, the Canadian crime drama series Republic
of Doyle and Murdoch Mysteries produced a
crossover, which was complicated by the shows'
incompatible historical settings; Murdoch
Mysteries is a historical series set in the
1890s, while Republic of Doyle is set in the
present day. The problem was solved by having
the actors cross over as relatives of their
primary characters; Allan Hawco appeared on
the November 25, 2013 episode of Murdoch Mysteries
as Jacob Doyle, a 19th-century ancestor of
his regular character Jake Doyle, while Yannick
Bisson appeared on a January 2014 episode
of Republic of Doyle as Bill Murdoch, a 21st-century
descendant of his regular character William
Murdoch.
Crossovers in children's television
Disney Channel's Suite Life franchise has
featured three crossovers: in 2007, That's
So Suite Life of Hannah Montana featured characters
from Hannah Montana and That's So Raven taking
a vacation at the Tipton Hotel; Hannah Montana/Miley
Stewart also eats cake off Zack, which recurs
in the 2009 crossover Wizards on Deck with
Hannah Montana, in which characters from Wizards
of Waverly Place and Hannah Montana come on
aboard the S.S. Tipton.
Another type of crossover involves characters
from an off the air series resurfacing in
a newer series. This occurred in a 2010 episode
of the Nickelodeon sitcom iCarly; the episode
"iStart a Fan War" featured recurring characters
from two Nickelodeon series: Drake & Josh
characters Eric Blonowitz, Craig Ramirez,
Gavin Mitchell, and Zoey 101 character Stacey
Dillsen. A crossover between Victorious and
Drake & Josh also occurred, with Helen DuBois,
portrayed by Yvette Nicole Brown making an
appearance. An episode titled "iParty with
Victorious" was a crossover between iCarly
and Victorious. This means all four shows
exist in the same universe. However, in an
episode of Victorious, Tori referred to Drake
and Josh as a TV show, suggesting the previous
appearance was an actor of a character from
a show within a show.
The main characters of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters
make a crossover appearance in the Rugrats
episode, "Ghost Story". This is because both
shows were created/produced by Klasky Csupo
and distributed also by Nickelodeon.
Special usages
Promotional cameos
Crossovers can take the form of a promotional
cameo appearance, used to draw attention to
another work of fiction, with little rational
explanation in the context of the hosting
show's narrative. When not clearly presented
as parody, this is frequently scorned by fans
as blatant commercialism. A notable example
of this is The Simpsons episode A Star Is
Burns, in which the character of Jay Sherman
appeared. It originally aired on March 5,
1995 on FOX right before The Critic began
its second season, its first season having
aired on ABC. This episode was largely condemned
by fans of The Simpsons as existing to promote
The Critic, an animated series considered
inferior by comparison. Even Simpsons creator
Matt Groening objected, preferring to remove
his name from the credits of that particular
episode in protest.
The character Dan Tanna from the detective
series Vega$ appeared in an episode of Charlie's
Angels one week prior to the debut of Vega$.
However, it is not considered a spin-off because
Dan Tanna was introduced in the pilot that
was aired as an ABC TV Movie of the Week on
the evening of Tuesday, April 25, 1978. The
crossover was simply used to reintroduce the
Dan Tanna character and to promote the debut
of Vega$ as an ongoing series. Additionally,
the cast of The Love Boat appeared in the
fourth season premier of Charlie's Angels.
In 2010, as a nod to the 50th anniversary
of Coronation Street, characters in fellow
established TV soap EastEnders made reference
to watching the special anniversary episode.
EastEnders had celebrated its own 25th anniversary
earlier in the same year.
Spin-offs
In its simplest and most common form, a television
crossover involves a starring character on
a parent show appearing on a spin-off or vice
versa because of established character relationships.
An obvious example of this type of crossover
occurred when Cliff Huxtable of The Cosby
Show visited his daughter, Denise, on A Different
World. Another example of this is The Bionic
Woman, which was a spin-off from The Six Million
Dollar Man. Jaime Sommers was a tennis pro
who was nearly killed in a skydiving accident,
but her life was saved by Oscar Goldman and
Dr. Rudy Wells who surgically implanted her
with bionic parts similar to those of Steve
Austin. Steve Austin and Jaimie Sommers often
crossovered, while the characters Oscar Goldman
and Rudy Wells appeared regularly in both
shows. Another example would be the appearances
made by Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters
to Angel in Los Angeles from Sunnydale.
More complex multi-production franchises can
utilize crossovers of characters to serve
as a device in establishing continuity in
a shared fictional universe. This crossover
is common in the Star Trek universe, where
minor guest stars from one series have appeared
as featured guest stars later ones. A good
example of this crossover is that of the Klingons
Kor, Koloth and Kang. After the passage of
about a century of narrative time, the three
onetime adversaries of Captain Kirk appeared
together in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
episode, "Blood Oath" - as the Klingons and
Federation had become allies in the century
between, the former villains are now portrayed
as heroes. Another Klingon, Arne Darvin, appeared
as a secondary character in "The Trouble with
Tribbles", but was the principal villain of
DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations". Intended
as a celebration of the franchise's 30th anniversary,
"Trials and Tribble-ations" was actually a
crossover in and of itself; using then brand-new
bluescreen techniques, the episode places
the DS9 cast inside the TOS episode, interacting
with Kirk, Spock and the rest of the Enterprise
crew.
The distinction between "spin-off" and "crossover"
is sometimes narrow. The two terms can become
especially conflated if two shows are linked
by a guest star with a single appearance.
There is debate, for instance over whether
Out of the Blue is a spin-off of Happy Days,
or whether the star of Out of the Blue merely
crossed over into Happy Days.
Parodic crossovers
Often, the problems of bringing together two
shows with different narrative ambitions make
the writing of a crossover burdensome. Such
difficulties are encountered by situation
comedies that wish to crossover with dramatic
television programmes. The satirical crossover—ranging
in length from a cameo to a full comedy sketch
or episode—is an extremely popular way of
circumventing this problem. By various means,
such crossovers typically avoid outcry from
fans by being obvious parody or homage. However,
on rare occasion, the humor of such crossovers
can be used by one show make a narrative point
by capitalizing on the audience's experience
of the other programme.
Such tongue-in-cheek crossovers typically
fall into one of several broad categories.
Parodic crossovers can be directly established
as being outside of the continuity of one
or all of the properties being crossed over.
A good example is the crossover between The
Simpsons and The X-Files, which was largely
accepted as being outside of standard X-Files
continuity.
One episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy
& Mandy shows that after Mandy smiles, she,
along with Billy and Grim, are transformed
into The Powerpuff Girls with a cameo by Professor
Utonium.
They can occur by virtue of a dream sequence,
in which the characters of one show will appear
as part of a dream had by a character on another
show. This method was perhaps used most famously
to explain to audiences that the entirety
of Newhart had been the dream of Bob Newhart's
character on The Bob Newhart Show. It has
more recently been used to demonstrate that
cast members of The Young And The Restless
appeared in a dream of a character onThe King
of Queens.
Parodic crossovers can take the form of "gag"
cameos by characters of one property appearing
on another. Characters from King of the Hill
have appeared on The Simpsons to comment on
a peewee football game. Gag cameos may also
include the appearance of an actor from another
show, but not necessarily the character that
the actor played. For instance, on the ABC/CBS
show Family Matters during the closing credits
of the episode "Scenes From a Mall", a scene
which was shown earlier in the episode featuring
Reginald VelJohnson is re-played, but this
time with one of the child actors stating
that he "looks like that fat guy from Fresh
Prince," referring to James Avery who played
Judge Phillip Banks on NBC's The Fresh Prince
of Bel-Air. To the obvious surprise of the
studio audience and VelJohnson, Avery walked
onto the set with an angry look, being in
on the staged joke himself. Ended the episode,
VelJohnson and Avery hugged and smilingly
greeted the public.
Crossovers of this type can also be completely
wordless. This type of crossover is more common
on animated programmes, such as when Bender
found and ate Bart Simpson's shorts on Futurama,
or Milhouse had a talking Bender doll on The
Simpsons. This would seem to be another case
when a popular franchise is acknowledged as
fiction and not a crossover of the stories.
Perhaps the most obvious parodic crossover
is found when characters from two series interact
outside of either series. This occurs most
commonly on a sketch comedy show or as a humorous
interlude on an award telecast. Such crossovers
may sometimes involve the real actors — for
example, a sketch on Royal Canadian Air Farce
saw Yasir and Sarah from Little Mosque on
the Prairie buying the gas station from Corner
Gas, with all characters in the sketch being
portrayed by the shows' real actors — although
they may also feature one genuine star from
the show amid a cast comprised otherwise of
the sketch show's own stable of actors. Such
crossovers are generally immediately apparent
as parodies to the audience — and in no
way considered a part of either show's continuity
— due to the need for the hosting show to
approximate the sets and costumes of the satirized
programmes quickly and inexpensively. When
Patrick Stewart appeared in a Star Trek: The
Next Generation/The Love Boat crossover on
Saturday Night Live, for instance, few Star
Trek fans would have been fooled by the visual
design into believing the event "counted"
as an episode of the show. However, there
are some cases of this type of parody having
some canonical resonance with viewers. For
instance, the British charity appeal, Comic
Relief often contains parodic crossovers of
a technically higher quality than the typical
sketch show. Many of these Relief sketches
are produced by the cast and crew of the actual
programmes being parodied, and hence appear
to be "normal" episodes. A good example of
this is the sketch, "BallyKissDibley", an
11-minute piece in which the leads of Ballykissangel
appeared on the sets of The Vicar of Dibley,
alongside most of Dibley's cast. Since the
sketch derived its humor from all actors remaining
in character, the extent to which these parodies
"count" as part of either show's canon is
more open to interpretation than most sketch
crossovers.
Parodic crossovers can be used to lend verisimilitude
to the fictional world of a programme. Characters
from a fictional television series may appear
on a stylized version of an established non-fictional
television series, such as game shows or reality
shows. These crossovers between celebrity
hosts and fictional characters are quite common
on situation comedies. Mama's Family once
appeared on Family Feud and the townsfolk
of The Vicar of Dibley have had their heirlooms
valuated on Antiques Roadshow, for instance.
In such cases, it is generally the non-fictional
show which ends up being the most satirized,
due to a need to compress the experience to
its most recognizable elements. However, these
crossovers can happen on dramatic television,
such as when Blue Peter provided narrative
exposition on The Sarah Jane Adventures. Rarely,
brief crossovers between two fictional programmes
can be used for this same purpose. In the
episode, "Army of Ghosts", Peggy Mitchell
was seen in a fictionalized scene from EastEnders
in order to demonstrate the degree to which
the titular ghosts had permeated the popular
culture of Doctor Who's Britain. Here, too,
time constraints caused the satire of the
guest programme and not the host programme.
Retroactive crossovers
Sometimes, crossovers occur even when there
was no explicit intent to create them. Viewer
interpretation can play into the size and
complexity of crossovers. These sorts of crossovers
involve no creation of additional material,
but merely result from inferences drawn about
existing filmed episodes. Usually they are
a product of narrative ambiguity. Perhaps
the best example of this was caused by the
unusual ending to St. Elsewhere. One interpretation
of the ending scene of the final episode has
been that the entire run of the program was
a figment of autistic character, Tommy Westphall's,
imagination. This leads itself to a broad
interpretation of the events of that series.
Because the show had direct crossovers with
twelve different programmes, and each one
of these twelve had numerous other crossovers,
linkages can be found from Elsewhere to 280
other shows, comprising what has been called
"the Tommyverse".
Unofficial crossovers
In contrast with legal crossovers, unofficial
crossovers are created solely because of the
artistic pleasure derived by its producers.
Generally, unofficial crossovers take the
form of fan-written fiction and fan art, but
it is increasingly prevalent in amateur films
and audio. Whereas official crossovers are
frequently stymied by such concerns as copyright,
royalties payments, quality of writing and
ownership of the characters, unofficial crossovers
are unfettered by such concerns, so long as
property holders do not exercise their right
to enjoin the distribution of such material.
A good example would be the unauthorised live
action fan film Batman: Dead End, which brings
together the properties of Batman, Alien and
Predator in one setting.
Unofficial crossovers can also occur in a
"what-if" scenario. The most notable is an
episode of Family Guy entitled "Lois Kills
Stewie" which turned out to be a simulation
along with the previous episode "Stewie Kills
Lois". Stewie Griffin is confronted by Stan
Smith and Avery Bullock from American Dad!
while hacking into the central power grid
at the CIA in a latest plan for world domination.
Stewie mistakes Stan for Joe Swanson, due
to notable similarities between the two shows.
Stewie threatens to turn off all the electricity
in the world until Stan and Bullock fulfill
his demands of being "President of the World",
which they do. Even though this never really
happened, this is considered by some to mark
the first official appearance of American
Dad! characters in a Family Guy episode. Roger
makes frequent cameo appearances in Family
Guy, while Brian makes cameos on American
Dad!. Roger, Rallo Tubbs, and Klaus Heissler
were seen in the final Family Guy Star Wars
spoof, "It's A Trap!", as an Imperial Officer,
Nien Nunb, and Admiral Ackbar, respectively.
Stewie also appears as an interactive hallucination
of Booth on Bones when the agent has issues
over possibly becoming a sperm donor, with
David Boreanaz repaying the favor in Road
to the North Pole.
Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds introduces
the famous detective to the scene of London
occupied by Martian invaders, as depicted
by H. G. Wells, the crossover facilitated
by the fact that both works, set in late Victorian
London, are now in the public domain and can
be freely used and modified.
Fan fiction crossovers between different science
fiction movies and series are often created,
such as Star Wars vs. Star Trek or Babylon
5 vs. Stargate. M.U.G.E.N. is a fighting game
engine that features many fan-created and
fictional characters and stages from various
television series, movies, as well as other
video games.
See also
List of fictional crossovers
Amalgam Comics
Canon
Callback
Continuity
Fanfiction
Fictional character
Fictional universe
Intercompany crossover
Shared universe
List of television spin-offs
Tommy Westphall
Wold Newton family
References
External links
Thoughts On Crossovers In General An essay
musing on the numerous elements necessary
to a successful crossover.
World Newton Universe Crossover Chronology
Crossovers which build upon and take place
in Philip José Farmer's World Newton continuity.
"On Crossovers", Jess Nevins' history of the
fictional crossover
