The Tommy Westphall Universe

Scott Hardie | September 27, 2007
Here's the other conversation-starter that I mentioned.

If you haven't heard of him, Tommy Westphall is one of the most important characters in the history of American television. For a little-seen autistic adolescent, the son of a doctor in St. Elsewhere, that's quite a distinction. That hospital drama's final episode ended with the revelation that the entire show had taken place inside the boy's imagination. The hospital was a snow globe toy, and he imagined his father and other men as doctors who worked in it.

That's good merely for a chuckle, until you consider that St. Elsewhere crossed over with other shows canonically. If Drs. Turner and Ehrlich from that series appeared on Homicide: Life on the Street, then that show must also have taken place in Tommy's imagination. And if its own Det. Munch appeared on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and The X Files, then those shows must also have been Tommy's imagination. And if Mulder and Scully appeared in The Simpsons... you get the idea.

Just how many shows did this kid imagine? 282 at last count, everything from Degrassi Junior High to Star Trek to Gomer Pyle, USMC to The Hughleys. Here's the complete chart. All of these interconnected shows form a tapestry of American TV history.

How many crossovers can you recognize? There's a complete key available at the site that created the spreadsheet (link), along with video of the last segment of the St. Elsewhere finale with the Tommy Westphall scene at the end.

Some of the crossovers are specious. During the pilot episode of The X Files, Mulder and Scully walk through a graveyard, and the producers thought it would be a good in-joke to have them pass the tombstones of the Salingers, the parents of the orphaned children from Party of Five. But the whole Tommy Westphall Universe idea is in good humor anyway, so arguing about whether individual connections are canonical seems contrary.

Lori Lancaster | September 27, 2007
[hidden by request]

Jackie Mason | September 27, 2007
[hidden by request]

Amy Austin | September 27, 2007
I just really wish that his name was Timmy... so I could go "TIM-MAAYYY!!!"

Scott Hardie | September 27, 2007
Roseanne's ending was disappointing for a series I enjoyed at the time, but that show had too many jump-the-shark moments to count. Speaking of similar endings, didn't Newhart famously end with the revelation that the entire show was dreamed? And as the Wikipedia article mentions, one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine strongly implies that the entire Star Trek universe is the imagination of a pulp fiction writer in the 1950s. There are probably others on the list.

Jackie Mason | September 27, 2007
[hidden by request]