Do you guys like Crossovers?

[lbf522]

I remember watching the crossover between The Six Million Dollar Man & Bionic Woman and Captain Marvel and Isis.

I like crossover if its well written, moves the plot along and not done too often. How do you guys feel about them?

 

[Daniel Avery]

For it to really "work," the viewer usually has to be an avid viewer of both series. And yes, it has to be done sparingly because it hurts the "rerun-ability" of the two shows. I know a lot of early crossovers were done in an effort to get viewers of a popular series to "sample" a new, possibly struggling series. Now, however, it seems to be treated as an all-purpose gimmick.

 

[DallasFanForever]

I like them if they are done right and make sense. If done right, it can really help both shows and the characters involved as well. The appeal for me in a crossover is getting to see something that we wouldn’t ordinarily see. It can have a big event feel to it.

 

[Seaviewer]

I remember watching the crossover between The Six Million Dollar Man & Bionic Woman and Captain Marvel and Isis.

I like crossover if its well written, moves the plot along and not done too often.

I like them if they are done right and make sense. If done right, it can really help both shows and the characters involved as well. The appeal for me in a crossover is getting to see something that we wouldn’t ordinarily see. It can have a big event feel to it.

Can't put it any better than that.

 

[Monzo]

Crossovers have become so exaggerated that I hardly enjoy them anymore. Triple crossovers on Chicago and FBI franchises as an example.

Grey's Anatomy and Station 19 have too many crossovers for my liking. At Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice it was the exception, at GA's second spinoff it is the rule.

The Arrowverse had the worst crossovers. I get why those series that were set in the same world (Arrow, The Flash, Legends Of Tomorrow) had crossovers, but then Supergirl, Batwoman and Black Lightning got into the mix. It was very confusing and no fun at all.

 

[Rove]

I became aware via this site that the character of JR was frequenting Knots Landing in California. I felt like I was missing out on something as our region didn't air Knots. I'm curious to know if Knots heavily promoted "Special Guest Star" Larry Hagman in an upcoming episode to boost the ratings.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Arguably, the only reason JR (and Bobby and Kristen) crossed over was FOR the publicity and ratings. The crossovers rarely "worked" story-wise, since the Dallas characters were "bigger" (more dramatic) than the Knots characters and brought that largeness to a show that tried to be smaller-scale. So while these characters felt shoe-horned in for an episode, the network was going to promote the heck out of it and try to get people to sample "quiet, little Knots Landing", even if the majority of samplers were fooled into thinking they would be watching "Californian Dallas" and instead got Californian Scenes From A Marriage.

Part of the "Crossover Fatigue" among viewers comes from how show-runners have embraced crossover plots as their attempt to show off how clever they are. Rather than making the crossover a logical outgrowth of storytelling, they become an exercise in show-runner ego massage. How spectacular can we make this one? Gotta be bigger than the last one! When the stories are more complex than they need to be, viewers tend to lose interest.

I often wonder how those superhero shows on the CW will be viewed in reruns, what with all the crossovers and characters that regularly appear on multiple shows. If you only want to watch one of the shows, will it make a lick of sense? Would you need to seek out key episodes of other shows and view them in order to know what was going on with the original show you were watching?

 

[Seaviewer]

Grey's Anatomy and Station 19 have too many crossovers for my liking. At Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice it was the exception, at GA's second spinoff it is the rule.

I'd argue that the relationship between GA and S19 goes far beyond crossovers; the two shows seem to run permanently alongside each other with events frequently impacting both. I think I'd find this enjoyable if we were able to see them the way they are obviously intended, but sadly S19 is well ahead here and the new season of Grey's is sadly MIA.

 

[lbf522]

I agree in regards to JR, Bobby, Lucy, and Kristin crossing over Knots Landing. Some plots were silly like Karen saying to JR, "Looks like we are enemies" like he should be afraid of her.

 

[Angela Channing]

I thought the How To Get Away With Murder crossover with Scandal worked well mainly because they focused on the lead characters from both those shows rather than trying to integrate the entire cast of both show into the storyline.

 

[Daniel Avery]

the two shows seem to run permanently alongside each other with events frequently impacting both. I think I'd find this enjoyable if we were able to see them the way they are obviously intended, but sadly S19 is well ahead here and the new season of Grey's is sadly MIA.

....and this very issue will handicap both shows (especially Station 19, as it is the lesser-known of the two shows) when it comes time to syndicate the reruns. I can't imagine most channels will be willing (much less able) to air the two shows back to back AND in story-dictated order. The main reason the big four nighttime soaps did not do well in syndication was because local stations and even some cable networks have trouble airing the episodes in order...and soaps make no sense if the episodes are not aired in order.

 

[Seaviewer]

I agree in regards to JR, Bobby, Lucy, and Kristin crossing over Knots Landing. Some plots were silly like Karen saying to JR, "Looks like we are enemies" like he should be afraid of her.

In fairness, despite what Gary and Val may have told her, she had no personal experience of how ruthless he could be - plus they were on her home turf.

 

[lbf522]

I can buy that but that is a bold reaction to someone you just met two seconds ago.

 

[the-lost-son]

Crossovers might give the feeling of something special taking place, but I can only think of a very limited number of crossovers which really worked.

Probably the only one for me is Gary returning to Dallas every now and then.
It felt natural because he was the Ewing's son.
I haven't seen knots landing but judging from the YouTube clips it worked the other way at least partially when JR came to the cul-de-sac. He was always stucking his nose in Gary's business.

I'm not a fan of crossovers because it hardly contributes anything to the show's development.

Magnum /Jessica Fletcher or Matlock/Mark Sloane investigating - but now together isn't really that groundbreaking. Big character's developments are impossible because viewers of one of the shows are maybe not watching.

As stated - it was mostly done to generate some buzz and get the audience to watch two shows.

I' m not a huge Marvel fan because of its predictability. But judging by the media hype when one super hero appears in another movie than his own - it seems to be working in that industry at least. Each to his own.

 

[Karin Schill]

Yes I do like crossovers but they only work if you watch both shows. I remember my frustration when I was watching Dynasty for the first time and Fallon & Jeff suddenly disappeared and then Blake came back talking about attending their second wedding and yet I wasn't able to watch it since the Swedish TV channel didn't broadcast The Colbys at all but only Dynasty.

 

[Ceindreadh]

It depends. It's one thing if I'm already watching both shows, but I resent having to watch an episode of a show that I don't normally watch, just to get the resolution of a storyline. Usually I don't bother watching the other show, I'll just search out a recap online to save me the trouble.

And it's not so bad now, because most stations will be airing both shows anyway, but I remember back in the David E. Kelley heydays of the 90s, he used to have crossovers between a lot of his shows, and most of the time only one of the shows would be airing in my area, so it could be months or even years before I'd see the second half of a lot of storylines.

 

[Jimmy Todd]

Several of the Dallas/Knots Landing crossovers I found enjoyable. I liked when Gary visited his family in Dallas. I also liked when Bobby visited Knots Landing when Valene was sick and Gary was falling apart("The Loudest Word"). It made sense that he would come at that time. Also, when JR came by in the fourth season when Valene's book was published was a hoot because JR was having so much fun at poor Val's expense.
Dynasty/The Colbys crossovers felt awkward and forced to me. Dynasty was in its nadir, and its sister show was a bore to me.
The only other crossovers I remember and liked were The SixMillion Dollar Man/Bionic Woman and when Laverne DeFazio guest starred on Happy Days.

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

Depends. In the UK, the dramas Casualty and Holby City are set in the same hospital. So it isn’t unusual for staff from upstairs (Holby City) to be seen down in the Emergency Department (Casualty) or the other way around. Or even the ED being seen on Holby City. And that has been happening from 1998, since some Holby City characters and characters debuted on Casualty, prior to the launch of Holby City in 1999. Despite Casualty being filmed in Bristol and then Cardiff, while Holby City is filmed at Elstree in Hertfordshire. Most crossovers have been cases of characters from one show appearing on the other. Other cases have been major crossovers, starting on one show and concluding on the other. But they also did a storyline where a character from Holby City was romantically involved with a Casualty character and that was about fourteen crossover episodes between the two shows, culminating in the near death of one of the characters and the explosion of one of the Casualty regulars. As well as some storyline sharing and multiple instances of a character from one show transferring to the other. Henrik Hanssen from Holby City has guested in fourteen episodes of Casualty. And characters have been regulars on both…Mike Barratt, Nick Jordan, Connie Beauchamp, Lofty and Fletch. The character crossovers increased in the last decade.

Although it was fun on Holby City when they were still accepting patients from the ED, when it had been blown up on Casualty and I guess they didn’t notice.

And there was a third series, Holby Blue. Charlie Fairhead has been in the first episodes of all three shows. Jac Naylor has also appeared on all three shows.

 

[Daniel Avery]

The (American) daytime soap General Hospital did something similar to this with a spin-off show called General Hospital: Night Shift, which aired on SoapNet. It was set in the same hospital of the mother show, had several of the GH characters appear in regular roles, and used some of the same sets. The show could not have been made without all the "borrowing" from the parent show, but tried to stand on its own, story-wise, since they did not borrow the GH writers.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I liked it when THE WALTONS visited Walnut Grove and then they were all killed in the Nellie's restaurant massacre.

Or was that just a very pleasant dream?