Fictional crossover
Encyclopedia
A fictional crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fiction
al characters
, setting
s, or universes
into the context of a single story
. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright
holders, or because of unauthorized efforts by fan
s, or even amid common corporate ownership. Crossprogramming is a term used in broadcast programming.
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 that currently enjoy copyright protection
.
A crossover story may try to explain its own reason for the crossover, such as "they live next door" (one example being the casts from Golden Girls and Empty Nest) or "a dimensional rift brought them together" (a common explanation for science fiction
properties that have different owners). 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. Others can be from the same company, making it legal. Examples of this are Final Fantasy
and Kingdom Hearts
which are both from Square Enix
, and CSI:NY and Miami.
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 book
s frequently interact with one another since they live in the same "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
frequently collaborate. In comic book terminology, these "guest star" roles are common enough that they are not considered crossovers. 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 (almost) all the stories in the shared universe.
The earliest crossover event was Gardner Fox
's Zatanna's Search, which took place in Hawkman
#4 (October/November 1964), Detective Comics
#336 (February 1965), The Atom #19 (June/July 1965), Green Lantern
#42 (January 1966), Detective Comics #355 (September 1966), and Justice League of America #51 (February 1967). 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 (such as the introduction of Spider-Man
's black suit which would later become the villain Venom
). 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 (and two bookend special issues). 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.
The Aliens Versus Predator franchise was a success that continued into many games and two movies and even an Aliens Versus Predator Versus The Terminator.
The Simpsons and Futurama had two crossover mini-series in which the Futurama characters become trapped in a Simpson comic book and then upon escaping cause characters from The Simpsons, as well as many other literary characters, to be brought into the Futurama universe, this being the only way, according to editor Bill Morrison, "in which fictional characters (could) interact with "real" ones."
Archie Comics
once released a crossover between Sonic the Hedgehog
and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, in which Enchantra, an enemy of Sabrina
, brought Sonic
to Sabrina's hometown from Mobius and brainwashed him into fighting Sabrina herself.
The Comic strip Betty Boop and Felix
is a crossover with Betty Boop
and Felix the Cat
.
The comic crossovers from Raj Comics
are very famous in India, where the super heroes are crossovered due to a common enemy, most of the crossovers has occurred between Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruva
however there are crossovers like Kohram where all the heroes in Raj Universe meet to finish Haru an extremely powerful enemy. Also the series 'Nagayan', entire series of 8 comics, had crossover of Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruva.
's Bruno
and Peter Zale's Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet
in 1998.
) had a Vs. crossover with each other.
Board James [AVGN] makes a cameo in Doug Walker's Kickassia. Most of the reviewers of TGWTG all team up to find A gauntlet in Suburban Knights
's The Grim Adventures of the Kids Next Door. It features 4 crossovers - Ed, Edd n Eddy
, Codename: Kids Next Door
, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and one phrase of Scooby-Doo
, which are all licensed Cartoon Network series The cast of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien and Generator Rex
will team up in Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes United
. Most of the last episodes of the Lilo & Stitch: The Series
(a spinoff of the movie of the same name
) had crossovers with various other Disney
cartoons, including The Proud Family
, Kim Possible
, Recess
and American Dragon Jake Long, although one might count them as mere cameos, as each plotline took place exclusively in Lilo's hometown in Hawaii
. The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour trilogy is another example, as Jimmy Neutron and Timmy Turner switch universes. Another crossover is The Rugrats Go Wild when 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
, and Batman and Robin
(as well as The Addams Family
and a year prior to having their own H-B series). 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 most popular H-B characters (at that time) for a regular series. Another example of a crossover in the 1980s was the Transformers episode "Only Human" which featured characters from the G.I. Joe universe.
However, not all crossovers are necessarily composed of characters under common ownership. Two of the most notable cartoon crossovers consisted of characters from different companies. Disney's famous movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit
, a landmark in animation, 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 (to keep things from getting too iffy legally, Mickey and Bugs' lines were written so that each of them said exactly the same number of words in the movie). The film also includes cameos of characters from MGM (e.g. Droopy). And of course, 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
uttering (or, rather, stuttering) his famous "That's All, Folks!" line as Tinker Bell ends the scene with a magical fade-out.
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 (from Disney's DuckTales
), Winnie the Pooh, Tigger
, Slimer (from The Real Ghostbusters
and Extreme Ghostbusters), Michelangelo (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
), Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Alvin and the Chipmunks
, The Smurfs
, ALF (from his short-lived cartoon spinoff
), Garfield
, and the trio of Baby Kermit
, Baby Piggy
, and Baby Gonzo
(from Jim Henson's Muppet Babies
). 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 crossoveer the characters of his various stories and characters such as Captain Harlock
, Galaxy Express 999
, and Queen Millenia, all of which were originally written as separate self contained stories. Harlock and 999 crossover in the Galaxy Express 999 movies with the exception of two very different versions of Queen Emeraldas
in each of the respective anime series. Also in the Maetel Legend
, Queen Promethium is revealed to be have been the Yukino Yaoi, protagonist from Queen Millenia. 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.
Turtles Forever
is another example of a crossover. The storyline involves the modern-day (2003 cartoon) ninja turtles, the 1980s cartoon turtles and eventually the original Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle counterparts. 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.
made the very first crossover video game featured Weekly Shōnen Jump
Characters called Famicom Jump: Hero Retsuden
for the Famicom in 1988. Also, at same time and the same year, Konami
released a Platform game featuring all Konami characters including: Simon Belmont from Castlevania
& Mikey from the Warner Bros. Movie The Goonies
Konami Wai Wai World
for the Famicom. 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 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. Namco x Capcom
, however, is a fighting/RPG from Monolith Soft
featuring characters from the Capcom and Namco
universe. Also, the new creation from Koei, Warriors Orochi
crosses characters from both the Samurai Warriors
series and the Dynasty Warriors
series. The Namco
-developed Soul series, particularly Soulcalibur II, Soulcalibur IV
, and Soulcalibur Legends
feature characters from outside of Namco's titles (Link from Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series, Necrid
, Heihachi Mishima
from Tekken, and Todd McFarlane
's Spawn
), the Star Wars
(Darth Vader
, Yoda
, and Starkiller
), and Lloyd Irving (from Tales of Symphonia
), universe respectively.
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
, released in Japan two months before Super Smash Bros. Brawl, was the first time that Mario
and Sonic (as well as their associated characters) appeared in a game together.
In the RPG field, Kingdom Hearts mixes Disney and Final Fantasy
characters together. Also, Crash Bandicoot
and Spyro the Dragon join forces in Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy
. The two characters have continued to make slight cameos in each other's games since.
In 1993, a video game was released based on the RoboCop versus The Terminator comic book. While the Super Nintendo
version used the style of the comic, the Sega Genesis version utilized a darker style, closer to that of the respective movies.
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. Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!
features Wario
of Nintendo fame, and Bomberman
of Hudson
fame, battling against each other. Nicktoons Unite!
is a video game similar to the Jimmy Timmy Power Hour, but the shows SpongeBob SquarePants
and Danny Phantom
are included in the crossover. There is also Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
, which features many famous characters from both sides like Liu Kang
and Sub-Zero for the Mortal Kombat side, and characters like Batman
and Superman
for the DC side. The story explains the merging of the two worlds and the struggle from both sides to overcome the other one: howewer the game is not considered canon for both companies.
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
.
And Crave recently made a game called "Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion" where the most popular Cartoon Network toons came together to
brawl.
, certain 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
sequence 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. The works of James Branch Cabell
, William Faulkner
, Margaret Laurence
, 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.
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
such as Heracles
, from the Arabian Nights, from Fairy Tales such as Grimm's Snow White
, western literature such as Peter Pan
, silent movies such as Popeye
and Felix the Cat
(cartoons) and western films actor Tom Mix
.
Other examples include many characters from seemingly unrelated works, which are set into a fictional reality of an actual location. Two examples include Irvine Welsh and Bret Eaton Ellis, whose main characters in their most noted works, American Psycho (Ellis),and Trainspotting (Welsh) appear in several other works. One is noted in the film The Rules of Attraction
when Sean Bateman answers the phone and asks "Patrick?" who in Ellis' universe is Patrick Bateman, protagonist of 'American Psycho'. Sean is in that book but not in the movie.
Robert A. Heinlein
also made use of this approach, with several of his last works of fiction bringing together key characters who had recurred in various of his previously disjoint timelines. Robert B. Parker
has done this as well, with his series Spenser: For Hire
, Jesse Stone
and Sunny Randall characters making occasional cameo appearances in one anothers' series.
'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 (which has also been explored and developed by other authors) also utilize and interweave numerous otherwise unrelated fictional characters into a rich family history by speculating familial connections between them (such as a blood-relationship between Sherlock Holmes
and Tarzan
). Roger Zelazny
's novel A Night in the Lonesome October
cross-overs Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Frankenstein, Jack the Ripper and the Cthulhu Mythos, although he never specifically identifies them as such ("The Count", "The Good Doctor", "Jack", etc.).
Occasionally, authors will include into crossovers classic fictional characters whose copyright is still held by the original authors (or at least their estates), but who are nevertheless considered iconic or 'mythic' enough to be recognised from a few character traits or descriptions without being directly named (thus not requiring royalties payments to be made to the copyright holder). A prominent example occurs within the first volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 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'.
western
television program
s. Perhaps the biggest such crossover was seen in the episode "Hadley's Hunters" from the fourth season of Maverick
. It featured the lead characters of Cheyenne, Bronco
, Lawman
and Sugarfoot
, along with signature props from Colt .45
and even the non-Warner's western Wanted: Dead or Alive. While seeing so many crossovers in one episode is rare today, the Law and Order
franchise rivals the old ABC/Warner's westerns in terms of frequency. Like them, the Law and Order series afford a commonality of setting which lends itself to crossovers.
Though most common on shows of the same production company
, they have also occurred because shows share the same distributor or television network
. A good 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
. A more unusual case is that of Mad About You
and Friends
, which are conjoined by the character of Ursula Buffay. Neither show shares any production or distribution commonality whatsoever, but, rather, an actress (Lisa Kudrow
), a setting (New York City
) and a schedule (Friends initially followed Mad About You on NBC
's Thursday night schedule). Also, on The King of Queens
, characters from Everybody Loves Raymond
appear occasionally in cameos with Doug and the rest of the cast.
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 their case, a New York City blackout
caused by Paul Reiser
's character on Mad About You was experienced by the characters on Friends and Madman of the People
. But 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. Another ABC crossover was featured on a Saturday morning cartoon
—it featured none of the characters from any of the series featured in the Disney's One Saturday Morning block, but a common "villain" named S.T.U.A.R.T. appeared on Doug, Recess
and Pepper Ann
. Sometimes the crossovers between adjoining shows can be even more subtle than these examples, such as when characters at the end of an episode of Spin City
decided to watch a broadcast of a fictional sports telecast, Sports Night
, which led immediately into an episode of the sitcom of the same name.
Some crossovers involve when one character interacts with another character from different shows. For example in an episode of George Lopez
, "George Gets Cross-over Freddie", George thinks that his son Max is having an online conversation with a pedophile when it really is Zoey (from the sitcom Freddie
) who is Freddie niece. Later on in the show, George and Ernie invite the pedophile (who is really Freddie and Chris) to Los Angeles to pick a fight with them, but ends when Freddie and George show pictures of their families and make up. A week after this episode aired, George, Ernie, and Max are invited to Chicago by Freddie to meet his family in the episode "Freddie Gets Cross-over George".
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
(from NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street
) 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 (as New York City Detective Munch) on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
. Crossing Jordan
was set in the same fictional universe as fellow NBC series Las Vegas
; in the season two episode "What Happens in Vegas Dies in Boston", a case takes Jordan and Woody (Jerry O'Connell
) to Las Vegas, where Woody got very well-acquainted with the Montecito Casino's host Sam Marquez (Vanessa Marcil
), and the long-distance relationship lasted for a while; O'Connell appeared in five episodes of Las Vegas, while Marcil appeared as Sam in two Crossing Jordan episodes.
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. Likewise, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation had a two-way crossover with the show Two and a Half Men
in the episodes "Fish in a Drawer
" of Two and a Half Men, broadcast on May 5, 2008, and "Two and a Half Deaths
" of CSI, which aired three days later. 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, also CSI: NY
made a crossover with Cold Case in which Stella became suspect of a murder in Philadelphia. ER
had a crossover with Third Watch
which involved a series high for the latter show – 17.2 million viewers.
In some cases, there have been crossover episodes which take place before their series had debuted. One example can be found in the Singapore
an sitcom Living with Lydia
, where the titular character (played by Lydia Shum
) recalls coming to Singapore in 1979 to be a "Singapore Girl
". But thanks to a mistake at a nightclub, she hooks up with a gigolo who would later become another popular television character with a series that would bear its name, Phua Chu Kang
, who she later turns down. At the end of the episode both meet again in the present day, acknowledging their brief encounter.
Crossovers are not entirely common in children's television, however there have been a few crossovers involving series of this genre. 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 (the main setting of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody); Hannah Montana/Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus
) also eats cake off of Zack, so that's how she remembers Zack and Cody in the 2009 crossover episode "Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana
", in which characters from Wizards of Waverly Place
and Hannah Montana come on aboard the S.S. Tipton. Characters from The Suite Life on Deck also appear in a crossover with fellow Disney sitcom I'm in the Band
(an unusual crossover given the two series air on different networks, The Suite Life series on Disney Channel, and I'm in the Band on Disney XD) in the 2010 episode "Weasels on Deck". "Wizards On Deck with Hannah Montana
", which premiered on July 17, 2009 on Disney Channel, was viewed by more than 9.3 million viewers, becoming the number one program of the night across both cable and broadcast television, and ranks as one of the highest-rated episodes for a Disney Channel original series. Characters from Shake It Up! appear in a crossover with fellow Disney sitcom Good Luck Charlie
in the 2011 episode "Charlie Shakes It Up!", which premiered on June 5, 2011.
Another unusual type of crossover 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 and Gavin Mitchell (played by Scott Halberstadt
, Alec Medlock and series staff writer Jake Farrow
, respectively) and Zoey 101
character Stacey Dillsen (played by Abby Wilde
); this was possible because all three series were created by the same producer, Dan Schneider
(although Drake & Josh and Zoey 101 both ended their runs within a year of iCarly' s 2007 debut); this episode however retcon
s the episode "iGet Pranky" (both episodes aired during the show's fourth season) that establishes that Drake & Josh exists as a television series in the iCarly universe. And on June 11, 2011, the two of Dan Schenider's shows iCarly and Victorious
came together in "iParty with Victorious
".
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 (from The Critic
) appeared. This episode was largely condemned by fans of The Simpsons as existing to promote The Critic. Even Simpsons creator Matt Groening
objected, preferring to remove his name from the credits of that particular episode in protest.
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 (which celebrated its 25th Anniversary earlier on in the year).
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 appearances made by Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters to Angel
in Los Angeles from Sunnydale.
Sometimes, spin-off crossovers do not involve principals, but rather supporting cast members. For instance, the main link between Green Acres
, Petticoat Junction
and The Beverly Hillbillies
is Sam Drucker
.
Depending on the complexity of the franchise, though, the crossover can be even more indirect, serving to suggest the size of the fictional world. This sort of crossover is somewhat common to the Star Trek
universe, where minor guest stars from one series have appeared as featured guest stars later on. A good example of this kind of crossover is that of the Klingon
s Kor (from the Original Series
episode "Errand of Mercy
"), Koloth (from "The Trouble with Tribbles") and Kang (from "Day of the Dove"). 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 (after hijacking the Defiant
, Darvin had gone back in time hoping to kill Kirk and become a hero to the Klingons, and it's up to Sisko
& Co. to stop him and preserve the timeline) inside the TOS episode, interacting with Kirk, Spock
and the rest of the Enterprise
crew.
One of the more dramatic examples of a crossover occurred in the two-part season four finale of the revived science-fiction series Doctor Who
. Earlier characters Jack Harkness
and Sarah Jane Smith
returned to guest star in the episodes "The Stolen Earth
" and "Journey's End
", accompanied by several characters from their respective series (Gwen Cooper
and Ianto Jones
from Torchwood
, and Luke Smith and the Xylok computer "Mr. Smith" from The Sarah Jane Adventures
.) A similar thing happened in The Sarah Jane Adventures episodes when the Tenth Doctor appears in Series 3 and the Eleventh Doctor in Series 4.
Star Trek affords an easy understanding of yet another kind of spin-off crossover: that of crossover by implication. By making the various ships and devices to be of roughly the same visual design, the implication is that all of series take place in the same universe. This kind of crossover occurs in other shows when shared characters are mentioned but do not actually appear, as when Michael Stivic
was referenced on Gloria
.
This type of crossover is also common with Tokusatsu
shows from Japan. One of the most common crossovers stars characters from programs under the banner of Super Sentai
. Each year, the current Sentai team meets up with the Sentai team that came before them and unite between a common villain, such as Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger
vs. Abaranger. During an Anniversary year, Sentai warriors from various teams come together to help the current team, such as GoGo Sentai Boukenger vs. Super Sentai
. These adventures are produced under V-Cinema
, direct to video. These team-ups are not limited to Super Sentai. The multiple series of Kamen Rider
and Ultraman
have instances of current and past heroes meeting with each other. Several of these times occur in theatrical films, such as Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker
and Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers. Rarely, these heroes will crossover with each other, like in Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider
and a recent team-up between Kamen Rider Decade
and Samurai Sentai Shinkenger
.
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.
Often, the problems of bringing together two shows with different narrative ambitions makes 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.
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 sort 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".
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.
In the film I Am Legend
, a billboard can be seen in Times Square
depicting a crossover film of Batman and Superman, with a release date of May 15, 2010.
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.
"Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds" introduces the famous detective to the scene of London occupied by Martian invaders, 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.
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al characters
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
, setting
Setting (fiction)
In fiction, setting includes the time, location, and everything in which a story takes place, and initiates the main backdrop and mood for a story. Setting has been referred to as story world or milieu to include a context beyond the immediate surroundings of the story. Elements of setting may...
s, or universes
Fictional universe
A fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm ....
into the context of a single story
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
holders, or because of unauthorized efforts by fan
Fandom
Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...
s, or even amid common corporate ownership. Crossprogramming is a term used in broadcast programming.
Official crossovers
Crossovers happen in various media mostly because of some intent by the 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 that derives from 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
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
with those that currently enjoy copyright protection
Copyright protection
The term copyright protection may refer to two things:* The monopoly granted to authors by copyright, as in "The 1996 act provided additional copyright protection," or "Permission is not granted to use these images, which are protected by copyright."...
.
A crossover story may try to explain its own reason for the crossover, such as "they live next door" (one example being the casts from Golden Girls and Empty Nest) or "a dimensional rift brought them together" (a common explanation for science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
properties that have different owners). 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
Continuity (fiction)
In fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of persons, plot, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer over some period of time...
. Still others intentionally make the relations between two or more fictional universes confusing, as with The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
and Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
, where each show is fiction in the other. Others can be from the same company, making it legal. Examples of this are Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy
is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
and Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts
is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square in 2002 for the PlayStation 2 video game console. The first game in the Kingdom Hearts series, it is the result of a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company. The game combines characters and settings from Disney...
which are both from Square Enix
Square Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
, and CSI:NY and Miami.
Comics
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
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
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
, DC
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
or Valiant
Valiant Comics
Valiant Comics is a comic book imprint published by various publishers since its inception with Voyager Communications, Inc. in 1989, later Acclaim Comics, Inc. Its assets were purchased from the bankruptcy of the Acclaim Entertaintment by Valiant Entertainment, Inc. in 2007.-Voyager...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s frequently interact with one another since they live in the same "universe
Shared universe
A shared universe is a fictional universe to which more than one writer contributes. Work set in a shared universe share characters and other elements with varying degrees of consistency. Shared universes are contrasted with collaborative writing, in which multiple authors work on a single story....
." For example, in the Marvel Comics universe, Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
has frequent dealings with another Marvel hero, Daredevil
Daredevil (Marvel Comics)
Daredevil is a fictional character, a superhero in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett, with an unspecified amount of input from Jack Kirby, and first appeared in Daredevil #1 .Living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood...
, just as in the DC Comics Universe, Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
and Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
frequently collaborate. In comic book terminology, these "guest star" roles are common enough that they are not considered crossovers. 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 (almost) all the stories in the shared universe.
The earliest crossover event was Gardner Fox
Gardner Fox
Gardner Francis Cooper Fox was an American writer best known for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. Comic-book historians estimate that he wrote over 4,000 comics stories....
's Zatanna's Search, which took place in Hawkman
Hawkman
Hawkman is a fictional superhero who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Dennis Neville, the original Hawkman first appeared in Flash Comics #1, published by All-American Publications in 1940....
#4 (October/November 1964), Detective Comics
Detective Comics
Detective Comics is an American comic book series published monthly by DC Comics since 1937, best known for introducing the iconic superhero Batman in Detective Comics #27 . It is, along with Action Comics, the book that launched with the debut of Superman, one of the medium's signature series, and...
#336 (February 1965), The Atom #19 (June/July 1965), Green Lantern
Green Lantern
The Green Lantern is the shared primary alias of several fictional characters, superheroes appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The first Green Lantern was created by writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell in All-American Comics #16 .Each Green Lantern possesses a power ring and...
#42 (January 1966), Detective Comics #355 (September 1966), and Justice League of America #51 (February 1967). This story dealt with Zatanna
Zatanna
Zatanna Zatara is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Murphy Anderson, Zatanna first appeared in Hawkman vol. 1 #4...
attempting to reconnect with her father, Zatara
Zatara
Giovanni "John" Zatara is a fictional character in the DC Universe. He first appeared in Action Comics #1 , and was created by writer and artist Fred Guardineer. He is a stage magician who also practices actual magic...
, and seeking the aid of Hawkman, Batman, Robin
Robin (comics)
Robin is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, originally created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson, as a junior counterpart to DC Comics superhero Batman...
, The Atom, Green Lantern, and Elongated Man
Elongated Man
The Elongated Man is a fictional comic book superhero in the DC universe. He is a reserve member of the Justice League. His first appearance was in The Flash vol. 1, #112...
along the way.
The first major crossover event was spearheaded by the Marvel Editor-in-Chief at the time, Jim Shooter
Jim Shooter
James Shooter is an American writer, occasional fill-in artist, editor, and publisher for various comic books. Although he started professionally in the medium at the extraordinarily young age of 14, he is most notable for his successful and controversial run as Marvel Comics' ninth...
. As a way to further toy sales he devised the Secret Wars
Secret Wars
Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars is a twelve-issue comic book crossover limited series published from May 1984 to April 1985 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Jim Shooter with art by Mike Zeck and Bob Layton...
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 (such as the introduction of Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
's black suit which would later become the villain Venom
Venom (comics)
Eddie Brock is a fictional character created by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane. A comic book supervillain, Brock's earliest appearance is a cameo in Web of Spider-Man #18 before making his first full appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #299 as Venom...
). Jim Shooter later perfected his crossover at Valiant Comics with the Unity
Unity (Comics)
Unity is a company-wide crossover story published by Valiant Comics in the summer of 1992.-Overview:The Unity story comprises eighteen issues and nine comic book series, published by Valiant during August and September 1992. It tells of Erica Pierce, the Mothergod, trying to rewrite reality and...
event. Unity brought all the Valiant characters together to defeat Mothergod
Mothergod
Mothergod is a fictional character from Valiant Comics. She was exposed to the same energies that turned Phil Seleski into Solar, and she gained the same energy and matter manipulation powers...
but was told within the existing Valiant Comics titles (and two bookend special issues). 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
Turok
Turok is a fictional American comic book character initially in comics from Western Publishing published through licensee Dell Comics. He first appeared in Four Color Comics #596 , then graduated to his own title, Turok, Son of Stone...
, the birth of Magnus Robot Fighter and the death of a major Valiant hero.
The Aliens Versus Predator franchise was a success that continued into many games and two movies and even an Aliens Versus Predator Versus The Terminator.
The Simpsons and Futurama had two crossover mini-series in which the Futurama characters become trapped in a Simpson comic book and then upon escaping cause characters from The Simpsons, as well as many other literary characters, to be brought into the Futurama universe, this being the only way, according to editor Bill Morrison, "in which fictional characters (could) interact with "real" ones."
Archie Comics
Archie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...
once released a crossover between Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)
Sonic the Hedgehog is an ongoing series of American comic books published by Archie Comics, featuring Sega's mascot video game character of the same name. The comic book series debuted in the United States as a 4 part mini-series published between November 1992 and February 1993...
and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, in which Enchantra, an enemy of Sabrina
Sabrina Spellman
Sabrina J. Spellman is the title character—a half-mortal and a half-witch—from the comic book Sabrina, the Teenage Witch which was later adapted in 1969 by Filmation as a segment from The Archie Comedy Hour . The character was created by writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo...
, brought Sonic
Sonic the Hedgehog (character)
, trademarked Sonic The Hedgehog, is a video game character and the main protagonist of the Sonic video game series released by Sega, as well as in numerous spin-off comics, cartoons, and a feature film. The first game was released on June 23, 1991, to provide Sega with a mascot to rival Nintendo's...
to Sabrina's hometown from Mobius and brainwashed him into fighting Sabrina herself.
The Comic strip Betty Boop and Felix
Betty Boop and Felix
Betty Boop and Felix was a newspaper comic strip starring Betty Boop and Felix the Cat, which ran from November 19, 1984 to 1988. It was written by Mort Walker’s sons Brian, Morgan, Greg and Neal, who signed their work as “The Walker Brothers.”...
is a crossover with Betty Boop
Betty Boop
Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick. She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She has also been featured in...
and Felix the Cat
Felix the Cat
Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created in the silent film era. His black body, white eyes, and giant grin, coupled with the surrealism of the situations in which his cartoons place him, combine to make Felix one of the most recognized cartoon characters in film history...
.
The comic crossovers from Raj Comics
Raj Comics
Raj Comics is an Indian comic book line published by a division of Raja Pocket Books.Raj Comics' best-known characters include Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruva, Doga, Parmanu, Shakti, Bhokal and Super Indian.-History:...
are very famous in India, where the super heroes are crossovered due to a common enemy, most of the crossovers has occurred between Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruva
Super Commando Dhruva
Super Commando Dhruva is a fictional superhero in comic books published by Raj Comics. The character first appeared in "Pratishodh Ki Jwala" and was created by writer and artist Anupam Sinha...
however there are crossovers like Kohram where all the heroes in Raj Universe meet to finish Haru an extremely powerful enemy. Also the series 'Nagayan', entire series of 8 comics, had crossover of Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruva.
Webcomics
Webcomics creators sometimes produce crossovers; one of the first was a two week sequence between Christopher BaldwinChristopher Baldwin
Christopher Baldwin is an American illustrator and author of several webcomics, the most significant being Bruno, a look at the life of an introspective young woman set in the real world....
's Bruno
Bruno (webcomic)
Bruno is a webcomic written and drawn by Christopher Baldwin from January 1, 1996 to February 14, 2007. Its storylines revolve around the life of an introspective young woman, set in the real world. Her unusual name comes from the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno...
and Peter Zale's Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet
Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet
Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet is a comic strip by Peter Zale about a technically adept young woman who works at a technology firm. It was the first comic strip to make the leap from the Internet to newspaper syndication...
in 1998.
Webshows
Angry Video Game Nerd (James Rolfe) and Nostalgia Critic (Doug WalkerDoug Walker
Doug Walker is the name of:*That Guy with the Glasses, alter ego of internet humorist Doug Walker*Doug Walker , musician*Douglas Walker, former Scottish sprinter*Douglas Walker...
) had a Vs. crossover with each other.
Board James [AVGN] makes a cameo in Doug Walker's Kickassia. Most of the reviewers of TGWTG all team up to find A gauntlet in Suburban Knights
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 NetworkCartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
's The Grim Adventures of the Kids Next Door. It features 4 crossovers - Ed, Edd n Eddy
Ed, Edd n Eddy
Ed, Edd n Eddy is an original animated television series created by Danny Antonucci and produced by Canadian-based a.k.a. Cartoon. It premiered on Cartoon Network on January 4, 1999. Ed, Edd n Eddy was one of Cartoon Network's longest running and most successful franchises and the longest-running...
, Codename: Kids Next Door
Codename: Kids Next Door
Codename: Kids Next Door, also known as Kids Next Door or by its acronym KND, is an American animated television series created by Tom Warburton and produced by Curious Pictures in Santa Monica, California.. The series debuted on Cartoon Network on December 6, 2002 and aired its final episode on...
, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and one phrase of Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo is an American media franchise based around several animated television series and related works produced from 1969 to the present day. The original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, was created for Hanna-Barbera Productions by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears in 1969...
, which are all licensed Cartoon Network series The cast of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien and Generator Rex
Generator Rex
Generator Rex is an American animated television series for Cartoon Network and is created by "Man of Action" . John Fang of Cartoon Network Studios serves as supervising director. It is inspired by the comic M. Rex, published by Image Comics in 1999...
will team up in Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes United
Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes United
"Ben 10/Generator: Rex: Heroes United" is a crossover special between Ben 10: Ultimate Alien and Generator Rex. Taking the form of an extended episode of Generator Rex, the crossover was written by Man of Action, the creators behind both shows. Heroes United is set to air on November 25, 2011 on...
. Most of the last episodes of the Lilo & Stitch: The Series
Lilo & Stitch: The Series
Lilo & Stitch: The Series is the animated television spinoff of the feature film, Lilo & Stitch and the follow-up to Stitch! The Movie.-Plot:...
(a spinoff of the movie of the same name
Lilo & Stitch
This article is about the movie. For the television series, see Lilo & Stitch: The Series.Lilo & Stitch is a 2002 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released on June 21, 2002...
) had crossovers with various other Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
cartoons, including The Proud Family
The Proud Family
The Proud Family is an American animated television series that premiered on Disney Channel from September 15, 2001 to August 19, 2005.-Production:...
, Kim Possible
Kim Possible
Kim Possible is an American animated television series about a teenage crime fighter who has the task of dealing with worldwide, family, and school issues every day. The show is action-oriented, but also has a light-hearted atmosphere and often lampoons the conventions and clichés of the...
, Recess
Recess (TV series)
Recess is an American animated television series created by Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere and produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. The series focuses on six elementary school students and their interaction with other classmates and teachers...
and American Dragon Jake Long, although one might count them as mere cameos, as each plotline took place exclusively in Lilo's hometown in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour trilogy is another example, as Jimmy Neutron and Timmy Turner switch universes. Another crossover is The Rugrats Go Wild when the Rugrats
Rugrats
Rugrats is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The series premiered on August 11, 1991, and aired its last episode on June 8, 2004....
are stranded on an island where The Wild Thornberrys
The Wild Thornberrys
The Wild Thornberrys is an American animated television series that aired on Nickelodeon. It was rerun in the USA on Nickelodeon and occasionally The N until 2009 and Nicktoons until 2007...
were at the time.
During the 1970s and 1980s, crossovers were particularly common among the Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
properties. Some of the earliest examples happened on The New Scooby-Doo Movies
The New Scooby-Doo Movies
The New Scooby-Doo Movies is the second incarnation of the Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. It premiered on September 9, 1972 and ran for two seasons on CBS as the only hour-long Scooby-Doo series...
, which featured appearances by characters from Harlem Globetrotters
Harlem Globetrotters (TV series)
Harlem Globetrotters was a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera and CBS Productions, featuring animated versions of players from the basketball team, Harlem Globetrotters....
, Josie and the Pussycats
Josie and the Pussycats (TV series)
Josie and the Pussycats is an American animated television series, based upon the Archie Comics comic book series of the same name created by Dan DeCarlo....
, Jeannie, Speed Buggy
Speed Buggy
Speed Buggy is a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on CBS from September 8, 1973 to August 30, 1975.-Production:...
, and Batman and Robin
The Adventures of Batman
The Adventures of Batman is an animated series produced by Lou Schiemer's Filmation studios. It showcased the 12-minute Batman segments from The Batman/Superman Hour, sometimes broken up by and surrounding another cartoon from Filmation's fast growing stream of superhero stars...
(as well as The Addams Family
The Addams Family (1973 animated series)
The Addams Family is an animated adaptation of the Charles Addams cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1973.-Scooby-Doo appearance:...
and a year prior to having their own H-B series). Later, the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10
Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10
Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 is an anthology series of ten animated films for television produced by Hanna-Barbera for syndication and ran from 1987 to 1988 featuring Hanna-Barbera's popular animated characters in feature-length adventures. Originally, the televised movies were distributed through...
set of "movies" involved several crossovers, including such combinations as The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones
The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones
The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones is an animated TV movie, featuring the first meeting between the characters from The Flintstones and The Jetsons...
. This was taken to an extreme in the 1977-79 series Laff-A-Lympics
Laff-A-Lympics
Laff-A-Lympics was the co-headlining segment, with Scooby-Doo, of the package Saturday morning cartoon series Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The show was a spoof of the Olympics and the ABC television series Battle of the Network Stars, which debuted one...
, which was essentially a gathering of the most popular H-B characters (at that time) for a regular series. Another example of a crossover in the 1980s was the Transformers episode "Only Human" which featured characters from the G.I. Joe universe.
However, not all crossovers are necessarily composed of characters under common ownership. Two of the most notable cartoon crossovers consisted of characters from different companies. Disney's famous movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
, a landmark in animation, had characters from various companies, most notably Disney and Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
and Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
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
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
and Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
were shown parachuting together (to keep things from getting too iffy legally, Mickey and Bugs' lines were written so that each of them said exactly the same number of words in the movie). The film also includes cameos of characters from MGM (e.g. Droopy). And of course, 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
Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
uttering (or, rather, stuttering) his famous "That's All, Folks!" line as Tinker Bell ends the scene with a magical fade-out.
Another cartoon crossover would occur in 1990, Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue is an animated drug prevention television special starring many of the popular cartoon characters from American weekday, Sunday morning and Saturday morning television at the time of this film's release...
. This cartoon featured popular characters from children's Saturday morning cartoons, banding together to promote an anti-drug message. ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
aired this half-hour special one Saturday morning with characters from all their networks, including Huey, Dewey, and Louie (from Disney's DuckTales
DuckTales
DuckTales is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. Based on Carl Barks' Uncle Scrooge comic book series, it premiered on September 18, 1987 and ended on November 28, 1990 with a total of four seasons and 100 episodes...
), Winnie the Pooh, Tigger
Tigger
Tigger is a fictional tiger-like character originally introduced in A. A. Milne's book The House at Pooh Corner. Like other Pooh characters, Tigger is based on one of Christopher Robin Milne's stuffed animals...
, Slimer (from The Real Ghostbusters
The Real Ghostbusters
The Real Ghostbusters is an American animated television series based on the 1984 film Ghostbusters. The series ran from 1986 to 1991, and was produced by Columbia Pictures Television, DiC Enterprises, and Coca-Cola Telecommunications. "The Real" was added to the title after a dispute with...
and Extreme Ghostbusters), Michelangelo (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 TV series)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an American animated television series produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson. The pilot was shown during the week of December 28, 1987 in syndication as a five part miniseries and began its official run on October 1, 1988...
), Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Alvin and the Chipmunks
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Alvin and the Chipmunks is an American animated music group created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. in 1958. The group consists of three singing animated anthropomorphic chipmunks: Alvin, the mischievous troublemaker, who quickly became the star of the group; Simon, the tall, bespectacled intellectual;...
, The Smurfs
The Smurfs
The Smurfs is a comic and television franchise centred on a group of small blue fictional creatures called Smurfs, created and first introduced as a series of comic strips by the Belgian cartoonist Peyo on October 23, 1958...
, ALF (from his short-lived cartoon spinoff
Alf: The Animated Series
ALF: The Animated Series was an animated cartoon spin-off based on the live-action Sitcom series ALF. It premiered on September 26, 1987 and ran for 26 episodes.-Synopsis:...
), Garfield
Garfield
Garfield is a comic strip created by Jim Davis. Published since June 19, 1978, it chronicles the life of the title character, the cat Garfield ; his owner, Jon Arbuckle; and Arbuckle's dog, Odie...
, and the trio of Baby Kermit
Kermit the Frog
Kermit the Frog is puppeteer Jim Henson's most famous Muppet creation, first introduced in 1955. He is the protagonist of many Muppet projects, most notably as the host of The Muppet Show, and has appeared in various sketches on Sesame Street, in commercials and in public service announcements over...
, Baby Piggy
Miss Piggy
Miss Piggy is a Muppet character who was primarily played by Frank Oz on The Muppet Show. In 2001, Eric Jacobson began performing the role, although Oz did not officially retire until 2002....
, and Baby Gonzo
Gonzo the Great
Gonzo the Great is a puppet character, one of Jim Henson's Muppets. He was developed and performed by Dave Goelz. The character made his first appearance in a 1970 Christmas special entitled "The Great Santa Claus Switch". Known as a "Whatever" , he is considered one of The Frackles...
(from Jim Henson's Muppet Babies
Muppet Babies
Jim Henson's Muppet Babies is an American animated television series that aired from September 15, 1984 to November 2, 1991 on CBS. The show portrayed childhood versions of the Muppets living together in a large nursery in the care of a human woman called Nanny...
). 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
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
and Barbara Bush
Barbara Bush
Barbara Pierce Bush is the wife of the 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush, and served as First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. She is the mother of the 43rd President George W. Bush and of the 43rd Governor of Florida Jeb Bush...
, and would be distributed to schools and video stores free of charge nationwide.
Manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
artist Leiji Matsumoto
Leiji Matsumoto
is a well-known creator of several anime and manga series. His wife is also known as a manga artist.-Space opera:Matsumoto is famous for his space operas such as Space Battleship Yamato...
has been known to crossoveer the characters of his various stories and characters such as Captain Harlock
Captain Harlock
is a fictional character created by manga artist Leiji Matsumoto.Harlock is the archetypical romantic hero, a space pirate with an individualist philosophy of life. He is as noble as he is taciturn, rebellious, stoically fighting against totalitarian regimes, whether they be earthborn or alien...
, Galaxy Express 999
Galaxy Express 999
is a manga written and drawn by Leiji Matsumoto, as well as various anime films and TV series based on it. It is set in a space-faring, high-tech future in which humans have learned how to transfer their minds into mechanical bodies, thus achieving practical immortality.The manga won the...
, and Queen Millenia, all of which were originally written as separate self contained stories. Harlock and 999 crossover in the Galaxy Express 999 movies with the exception of two very different versions of Queen Emeraldas
Queen Emeraldas
is a four-episode Japanese anime OVA that continues the Harlock franchise created by Leiji Matsumoto. The anime was adapted from Matsumoto's 1978 manga of the same name. Queen Emeraldas is the story of the pirate spaceship, Queen Emeraldas, which is captained by the mysterious and beautiful...
in each of the respective anime series. Also in the Maetel Legend
Maetel Legend
is a 2000 anime OVA based on characters created by Leiji Matsumoto, about how the planet La Maetelle becomes the planet Andromeda, or "Planet Maetel," the mechanized world....
, Queen Promethium is revealed to be have been the Yukino Yaoi, protagonist from Queen Millenia. Matsumoto has also created various crossovers with Space Battleship Yamato
Space Battleship Yamato
is a Japanese science fiction anime series featuring an eponymous spacecraft. It is also known to English-speaking audiences as Space Cruiser Yamato; an English-dubbed and heavily edited version of the series was broadcast on North American and Australian television as Star Blazers...
, an anime on which he served as director, although the rights to Yamato is actually owned by Yoshinobu Nishizaki.
Turtles Forever
Turtles Forever
Turtles Forever, also known as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles Forever or TMNT: Turtles Forever is a 2009 made-for-tv animated movie that was produced by 4Kids Entertainment...
is another example of a crossover. The storyline involves the modern-day (2003 cartoon) ninja turtles, the 1980s cartoon turtles and eventually the original Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle counterparts. The adult parody-oriented series Drawn Together
Drawn Together
Drawn Together is an American animated television series, which ran on Comedy Central from October 27, 2004 to November 14, 2007. The series was created by Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein, and uses a sitcom format with a TV reality show setting...
features many crossovers; while some are regular cameos, such as Peter
Peter Griffin
Peter Griffin is a fictional character and the protagonist of the animated comedy series Family Guy and the patriarch of the Griffin family. He is voiced by cartoonist Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family in the 15-minute short on December 20, 1998....
and Lois Griffin
Lois Griffin
Lois Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. She is voiced by writer Alex Borstein and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family in the 15-minute short on December 20, 1998. Lois was created and designed by series creator Seth MacFarlane...
from Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
, others involve a personality twist, such as the homicidal
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
version of Bambi
Bambi (character)
Bambi, a young roe deer, is the main character in Felix Salten's Bambi, A Life in the Woods and in the Disney films based on the book. Bambi has starred in two movies, Bambi and Bambi II, has had cameos in several Disney cartoons, and has been parodied on occasion by other animation companies...
from the eponymous film
Bambi
Bambi is a 1942 American animated film directed by David Hand , produced by Walt Disney and based on the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Austrian author Felix Salten...
or the gay
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
version of Elmer Fudd
Elmer Fudd
Elmer J. Fudd/Egghead is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters, and the de facto archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon . His aim is to hunt Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring...
from the Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
franchise.
Video games
BandaiBandai
is a Japanese toy making and video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third-largest producer of toys . Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs...
made the very first crossover video game featured Weekly Shōnen Jump
Weekly Shonen Jump
is a weekly shōnen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of July 2, 1968, and it is still circulating. One of the longest-running manga magazines in Japan, it has a circulation of 2.8 million copies...
Characters called Famicom Jump: Hero Retsuden
Famicom Jump: Hero Retsuden
is a 1988 console role playing game for the Family Computer published by Bandai. The game commemorates the 20th anniversary of Shueisha's manga anthology Weekly Shonen Jump....
for the Famicom in 1988. Also, at same time and the same year, Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
released a Platform game featuring all Konami characters including: Simon Belmont from Castlevania
Castlevania
Castlevania, known as in Japan, is a video game series created and developed by Konami. The series debuted in Japan on September 26, 1986, with the release of for the Family Computer Disk System , followed by an alternate version for the MSX 2 platform on October 30...
& Mikey from the Warner Bros. Movie The Goonies
The Goonies
The Goonies is a 1985 American adventure-comedy film directed by Richard Donner. The screenplay was written by Chris Columbus from a story by executive producer Steven Spielberg. The premise surrounds a band of pre-teens who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon hoping to save...
Konami Wai Wai World
Konami Wai Wai World
, "wai wai" being a Japanese onomatopoeia for a noisy, crowded area, is a 1988 Family Computer platform video game released only in Japan by Konami. The game itself stars various Konami created characters as well as Mikey and King Kong, who appeared in two Konami-produced, movie-based...
for the Famicom. The King of Fighters, Marvel vs. Capcom, and many other franchises from third-party developers such as Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
and SNK
SNK Playmore
SNK Playmore Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. SNK is an acronym of , which was SNK's original name. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986....
bring these licenses together. The 2.5D
2.5D
2.5D , 3/4 perspective and pseudo-3D are terms used to describe either:* 2D graphical projections and techniques which cause a series of images or scenes to fake or appear to be three-dimensional when in fact they are not, or* gameplay in an otherwise three-dimensional video game that is...
fighting game series, Super Smash Bros., brings Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
characters together for a massive fight. The third game in the series, Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl, known in Japan as , often abbreviated as SSBB or simply as Brawl, is the third installment in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games, developed by an ad hoc development team consisting of Sora, Game Arts and staff from other developers, and published by...
introduces the first non-Nintendo characters with the inclusion of Solid Snake
Solid Snake
Metal Gear, initially released in 1987, introduces Solid Snake, the rookie recruit of the elite special-forces unit FOXHOUND. Snake is sent by team leader Big Boss into the rogue nation Outer Heaven to rescue his missing teammate Gray Fox and discover who or what the "METAL GEAR" mentioned is, and...
and Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog (character)
, trademarked Sonic The Hedgehog, is a video game character and the main protagonist of the Sonic video game series released by Sega, as well as in numerous spin-off comics, cartoons, and a feature film. The first game was released on June 23, 1991, to provide Sega with a mascot to rival Nintendo's...
, of Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
's Metal Gear
Metal Gear (series)
is a series of stealth video games created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. The first game, Metal Gear, was released in 1987 for the MSX2. The player takes control of a special forces operative Solid Snake who is assigned to find the eponymous superweapon "Metal Gear", a...
series and Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
's Sonic the Hedgehog series respectively. Namco x Capcom
Namco x Capcom
is an action RPG/tactical RPG hybrid game for the PlayStation 2 console, developed by Monolith Soft and featuring characters from games produced by companies Namco and Capcom.- Storyline :...
, however, is a fighting/RPG from Monolith Soft
Monolith Soft
is a Japanese entertainment company that has created video games for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, Nintendo DS, and cell phones. The company was founded in 1999 by producer Hirohide Sugiura after he left Square Co. and accepted an investment from Namco...
featuring characters from the Capcom and Namco
Namco
is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
universe. Also, the new creation from Koei, Warriors Orochi
Warriors Orochi
, is a PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 hack and slash video game developed by Koei and Omega Force. It is a crossover of two of Koei's popular video game series, Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors...
crosses characters from both the Samurai Warriors
Samurai Warriors
is the first title in the series of video games created by Koei's Omega Force team based loosely around the Sengoku period of Japanese history and it is a spinoff of the Dynasty Warriors series...
series and the Dynasty Warriors
Dynasty Warriors
is a series of tactical action video games created by Omega Force and Koei. The award-winning series is a spin-off of Koei's turn-based strategy Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, based loosely around the Chinese classical novel of the same name. The first game titled Dynasty Warriors,...
series. The Namco
Namco
is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
-developed Soul series, particularly Soulcalibur II, Soulcalibur IV
Soulcalibur IV
is the fourth installment in Namco's Soul series of fighting games. The game was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on July 29, 2008, in North America, on July 31, 2008, in Japan, Europe, and Australia, and on August 1, 2008, in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.The game is notable for...
, and Soulcalibur Legends
Soulcalibur Legends
is an action-adventure game for the Wii console. It is a spin-off of Namco Bandai's successful Soul fighting game series and primarily features two of its most popular characters: Ivy and Siegfried. It was released on November 20, 2007 in North America and was released in Japan on December 13,...
feature characters from outside of Namco's titles (Link from Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series, Necrid
Necrid
is a playable character in the Soul series of weapon-based fighting video games. Designed by comic book artist and toy designer Todd McFarlane through a collaboration with Namco, the character first appeared in video game console ports of Soulcalibur II and later as part of an action figure set...
, Heihachi Mishima
Heihachi Mishima
is one of the main characters in the Tekken fighting game series. He is one of only four characters to have appeared in every game in the series and he makes two appearances within the series as the final boss...
from Tekken, and Todd McFarlane
Todd McFarlane
Todd McFarlane is a Canadian cartoonist, writer, toy designer and entrepreneur, best known for his work in comic books, such as the fantasy series Spawn....
's Spawn
Spawn (comics)
Spawn is a fictional comic book superhero who appears in a monthly comic book of the same name published by Image Comics. Created by writer/artist Todd McFarlane, Spawn first appeared in Spawn #1...
), the Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
(Darth Vader
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a central character in the Star Wars saga, appearing as one of the main antagonists in the original trilogy and as the main protagonist in the prequel trilogy....
, Yoda
Yoda
Yoda is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe, appearing in the second and third original films, as well as all three prequel trilogy films. A renowned Jedi master, Yoda made his first on-screen appearance in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back where he is responsible for...
, and Starkiller
Starkiller
Starkiller, also known as Galen Marek and the Apprentice, is the main character of the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed project , who first appeared in the game Soulcalibur IV. He is voiced by Sam Witwer, who also gave his likeness to the character...
), and Lloyd Irving (from Tales of Symphonia
Tales of Symphonia
is a video game first released for the Nintendo GameCube and later for the PlayStation 2 in Japan. It debuted in Japan on August 29, 2003, selling 953,000 copies, in Canada and the United States on July 13, 2004, and in Europe on November 19, 2004. The game received a Japanese-only PlayStation 2...
), universe respectively.
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, known in Japan as , is a sports video game developed by the Sega Sports R&D Department of Sega Japan. It was published by Nintendo for Japan and by Sega for North America, Europe and all other regions. The game is officially licensed by the International Olympic...
, released in Japan two months before Super Smash Bros. Brawl, was the first time that Mario
Mario
is a fictional character in his video game series, created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation...
and Sonic (as well as their associated characters) appeared in a game together.
In the RPG field, Kingdom Hearts mixes Disney and Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy
is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
characters together. Also, Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot (character)
Crash Bandicoot, or simply Crash, is a video game character and the primary protagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series of video games. Introduced in the 1996 video game Crash Bandicoot, Crash is an Eastern Barred Bandicoot that was genetically enhanced by the series antagonist Doctor Neo Cortex and...
and Spyro the Dragon join forces in Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy
Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy
Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy are two platform games published by Vivendi Universal Games and developed by Vicarious Visions for the Game Boy Advance...
. The two characters have continued to make slight cameos in each other's games since.
In 1993, a video game was released based on the RoboCop versus The Terminator comic book. While the Super Nintendo
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
version used the style of the comic, the Sega Genesis version utilized a darker style, closer to that of the respective movies.
Super Robot Wars
Super Robot Wars
is a series of tactical role-playing video games produced by Banpresto, which is now a Japanese division of Namco Bandai. The main feature of the franchise is having a story that crosses over several popular mecha anime, manga and video games, allowing characters and mecha from different titles to...
are turn-based strategy games featuring a variety of Japanese mecha
Mecha
A mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...
series from many generations, such as Mazinger Z
Mazinger Z
, known briefly as Tranzor Z in United States, is a Super Robot manga and anime series created by Go Nagai. The first manga version was serialized in Shueisha Weekly Shōnen Jump from October 1972 to August 1973, and it later continued in Kodansha TV Magazine from October 1973 to September 1974. In...
, Gundam
Gundam
The is a metaseries of anime created by Sunrise studios that features giant robots called "Mobile Suits" ; usually the protagonist's MS will carry the name Gundam....
, Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise
The franchise is an umbrella of Japanese media properties generally owned by the anime studio Gainax. It has grossed over 150 billion yen since 1995. The central works of the franchise feature an apocalyptic mecha action story which revolves around the efforts by the paramilitary organization...
, and GaoGaiGar. Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!
Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!
Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!, known in Japan as , is a Game Boy game published in 1994 by Nintendo and developed by Hudson Soft. It is a crossover between Nintendo's Wario franchise and Hudson's signature Bomberman franchise. It is much more of a Bomberman game than a Wario game despite Wario...
features Wario
Wario
is a fictional character in Nintendo's Mario series. The character was designed as another antagonist to Mario , and first appeared in the 1992 Game Boy title Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins as the main antagonist and final boss...
of Nintendo fame, and Bomberman
Bomberman
Bomberman is a strategic, maze-based computer and video game franchise originally developed by Hudson Soft. The original game was published in 1983 and new games in the series are still being published to this day. Today, the commercially successful Bomberman is featured in over 70 different games...
of Hudson
Hudson Soft
, formally known as , is a majority-owned subsidiary of Konami Corporation is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. It was founded on May 18, 1973...
fame, battling against each other. Nicktoons Unite!
Nicktoons Unite!
Nicktoons Unite!, known as SpongeBob SquarePants and Friends: Unite! in Europe, is a 2005 video game featuring characters and levels from SpongeBob SquarePants, Danny Phantom, The Fairly OddParents, and The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.Before it came out, a video game called Nicktoons:...
is a video game similar to the Jimmy Timmy Power Hour, but the shows SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom"...
and Danny Phantom
Danny Phantom
Danny Phantom is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon, produced by Billionfold Studios. The show was about a teenage half-ghost boy, who frequently saves his town and the world from ghost attacks, while attempting to keep his ghost half a secret...
are included in the crossover. There is also Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is a crossover fighting game from Midway Games and Warner Bros. Games. The eighth game in the Mortal Kombat series, MK vs. DC was released on November 16, . MK vs. DC contains characters from both the Mortal Kombat franchise and the DC Universe...
, which features many famous characters from both sides like Liu Kang
Liu Kang
Liu Kang is a video game character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. First appearing in the series' first title, Liu Kang is portrayed as a Shaolin monk who enters the Mortal Kombat tournament to save his world, Earthrealm, from being destroyed due to having lost nine consecutive...
and Sub-Zero for the Mortal Kombat side, and characters like Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
and Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
for the DC side. The story explains the merging of the two worlds and the struggle from both sides to overcome the other one: howewer the game is not considered canon for both companies.
More recently, there has been a collaboration between Capcom and Namco, which will result in the upcoming Street Fighter X Tekken
Street Fighter X Tekken
is an upcoming crossover fighting game being developed by Capcom. The game was announced at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International by Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono. The game is set to release on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and PlayStation Vita sometime in March 2012. The game...
and Tekken X Street Fighter
Tekken X Street Fighter
Tekken X Street Fighter is an upcoming crossover fighting game being produced by Namco Bandai Games. It crosses the universes of Tekken and Street Fighter into one game creating a roster from both franchises....
.
And Crave recently made a game called "Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion" where the most popular Cartoon Network toons came together to
brawl.
Literature
In literatureLiterature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, certain authors also engage in crossovers by including characters from different novels they have written in one particular volume; L. Frank Baum
L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
did this regularly, and Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
frequently uses this device - particularly in his Eternal Champion
Eternal Champion
The Eternal Champion is a fictional creation of the author Michael Moorcock and is a recurrent feature in many of his novels.-About the Eternal Champion:...
sequence of novels, which establish a vast 'multiverse
The Multiverse
The Multiverse is a series of parallel universes in many of the science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories written by Michael Moorcock. Central to these works is the concept of an Eternal Champion who has potentially multiple identities across multiple dimensions...
' populated by numerous different characters, many of whom appear in different novels and even different genres. Kim Newman
Kim Newman
Kim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...
is another author who frequently uses this device. The works of James Branch Cabell
James Branch Cabell
James Branch Cabell, ; April 14, 1879 – May 5, 1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. Cabell was well regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis. His works were considered escapist and fit well in the culture of the 1920s, when his...
, William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
, Margaret Laurence
Margaret Laurence
Jean Margaret Laurence, CC was a Canadian novelist and short story writer, one of the major figures in Canadian literature.- Early years :...
, Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
, Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler, CC was a Canadian Jewish author, screenwriter and essayist. A leading critic called him "the great shining star of his Canadian literary generation" and a pivotal figure in the country's history. His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Barney's Version,...
, Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
and Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
also 'crossover' with each other, linking different characters and settings together over a number of different works.
Brazilian writer Monteiro Lobato
Monteiro Lobato
José Bento Renato Monteiro Lobato was one of Brazil's most influential writers, mostly for his children's books set in the fictional Sítio do Picapau Amarelo but he had been previously a prolific writer of fiction, a translator and an art critic...
also created solid and imaginative crossovers, using elements and characters from Brazilian folklore such as the Cuca and Saci
Saci (Brazilian folklore)
The Saci is considered the most popular character in Brazilian folklore. He is a one-legged black or mulatto youngster with holes in the palms of his hands, who smokes a pipe and wears a magical red cap that enables him to disappear and reappear wherever he wishes...
, from Greek Mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
such as Heracles
Heracles
Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...
, from the Arabian Nights, from Fairy Tales such as Grimm's Snow White
Snow White
"Snow White" is a fairy tale known from many countries in Europe, the best known version being the German one collected by the Brothers Grimm...
, western literature such as Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
, silent movies such as Popeye
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...
and Felix the Cat
Felix the Cat
Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created in the silent film era. His black body, white eyes, and giant grin, coupled with the surrealism of the situations in which his cartoons place him, combine to make Felix one of the most recognized cartoon characters in film history...
(cartoons) and western films actor Tom Mix
Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...
.
Other examples include many characters from seemingly unrelated works, which are set into a fictional reality of an actual location. Two examples include Irvine Welsh and Bret Eaton Ellis, whose main characters in their most noted works, American Psycho (Ellis),and Trainspotting (Welsh) appear in several other works. One is noted in the film The Rules of Attraction
The Rules of Attraction (film)
The Rules of Attraction is a 2002 satirical dark comedy film directed by Roger Avary, based on the novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis. It stars James van der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon, Ian Somerhalder, Jessica Biel, and Kip Pardue.-Plot:...
when Sean Bateman answers the phone and asks "Patrick?" who in Ellis' universe is Patrick Bateman, protagonist of 'American Psycho'. Sean is in that book but not in the movie.
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
also made use of this approach, with several of his last works of fiction bringing together key characters who had recurred in various of his previously disjoint timelines. Robert B. Parker
Robert B. Parker
Robert Brown Parker was an American crime writer. His most famous works were the novels about the private detective Spenser. ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire based on the character in the late 1980s; a series of TV movies based on the character were also...
has done this as well, with his series Spenser: For Hire
Spenser: For Hire
Spenser: For Hire is a mystery television series based on Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels. The series, developed for TV by John Wilder, differs from the novels, mostly in its lesser degree of detail....
, Jesse Stone
Jesse Stone
Jesse Stone was an American rhythm and blues musician and songwriter whose influence spanned a wide range of genres...
and Sunny Randall characters making occasional cameo appearances in one anothers' series.
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 into their works; a prominent example of this occurs in Loren D. EstlemanLoren D. Estleman
Loren D. Estleman is an American writer of detective and Western fiction. He writes with a manual typewriter....
's novel Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula, in which Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
and Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
are brought together and pitted against each other. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, publication of which began in 1999. The series spans two six-issue limited series and a graphic novel from the America's Best Comics imprint of Wildstorm/DC, and a third miniseries...
by Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
and Kevin O'Neill
Kevin O'Neill (comics)
Kevin O'Neill is an English comic book illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .-Early career:...
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
Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
's Wold Newton family
Wold Newton family
The Wold Newton family is a literary concept derived from a form of crossover fiction developed by the science fiction writer Philip José Farmer...
sequences (which has also been explored and developed by other authors) also utilize and interweave numerous otherwise unrelated fictional characters into a rich family history by speculating familial connections between them (such as a blood-relationship between Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
and Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
). Roger Zelazny
Roger Zelazny
Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for his The Chronicles of Amber series...
's novel A Night in the Lonesome October
A Night in the Lonesome October
A Night in the Lonesome October is a satirical novel by Roger Zelazny published in 1993, near the end of his life. It was his last book.The book is divided in 32 chapters, each representing one "night" in the month of October . The story is told in the first-person, akin to journal entries...
cross-overs Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Frankenstein, Jack the Ripper and the Cthulhu Mythos, although he never specifically identifies them as such ("The Count", "The Good Doctor", "Jack", etc.).
Occasionally, authors will include into crossovers classic fictional characters whose copyright is still held by the original authors (or at least their estates), but who are nevertheless considered iconic or 'mythic' enough to be recognised from a few character traits or descriptions without being directly named (thus not requiring royalties payments to be made to the copyright holder). A prominent example occurs within the first volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, wherein a character who is clearly intended in appearance and description by other characters to be Dr. Fu Manchu
Fu Manchu
Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century...
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
Sax Rohmer
Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward , better known as Sax Rohmer, was a prolific English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr...
, he is not directly named as such in the work and is only referred to as 'the Devil Doctor'.
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. Such crossovers were characteristic of early Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
s. Perhaps the biggest such crossover was seen in the episode "Hadley's Hunters" from the fourth season of Maverick
Maverick (TV series)
Maverick is a western television series with comedic overtones created by Roy Huggins. The show ran from September 22, 1957 to July 8, 1962 on ABC and stars James Garner as Bret Maverick, a cagey, articulate cardsharp. Eight episodes into the first season, he was joined by Jack Kelly as his brother...
. It featured the lead characters of Cheyenne, Bronco
Bronco (TV series)
Bronco is a Western series on ABC from 1958 through 1962. It was shown by the BBC in the United Kingdom. The program starred Ty Hardin as Bronco Layne, a former Confederate officer who wandered the Old West, meeting such well-known individuals as Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid, Jesse James,...
, Lawman
Lawman (tv series)
Lawman is an American Western television series originally telecast from 1958 to 1962 starring John Russell as Marshal Dan Troop and featuring Peter Brown as Deputy Marshal Johnny McKay on the ABC Television Network. The series was set in Laramie, Wyoming during the mid to late 1870s. Warner Bros....
and Sugarfoot
Sugarfoot
Sugarfoot is the title of a TV western that aired from 1957 to 1961. The series featured Will Hutchins as fledgling frontier lawyer Tom Brewster and Jack Elam as sidekick Toothy Thompson...
, along with signature props from Colt .45
Colt .45 (TV series)
Colt .45 is an American Western television series shown on ABC between 1957 and 1960. The half-hour show derives from the 1950 Warner Brothers film of the same name starring Randolph Scott and formed part of the William T...
and even the non-Warner's western Wanted: Dead or Alive. While seeing so many crossovers in one episode is rare today, the Law and Order
Law & Order franchise
The Law & Order franchise is a number of related American television series created by Dick Wolf and originally broadcast on NBC, all of which deal with some aspect of the criminal justice system...
franchise rivals the old ABC/Warner's westerns in terms of frequency. Like them, the Law and Order series afford a commonality of setting which lends itself to crossovers.
Though most common on shows of the same production company
Production company
A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...
, they have also occurred because shows share the same distributor or television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
. A good example of this kind of link is that between Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
and Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I. is an American television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network....
. These shows were made by different companies, but owned by Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
and broadcast on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. A more unusual case is that of Mad About You
Mad About You
Mad About You is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from September 23, 1992 to May 24, 1999. The show starred Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a newly married couple in New York City. Reiser played Paul Buchman, a documentary film maker. Hunt played Jamie Stemple Buchman, a public relations specialist...
and Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
, which are conjoined by the character of Ursula Buffay. Neither show shares any production or distribution commonality whatsoever, but, rather, an actress (Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Valerie Kudrow is an American actress, best known for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the television sitcom Friends, for which she received many accolades including an Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards...
), a setting (New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
) and a schedule (Friends initially followed Mad About You on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Thursday night schedule). Also, on The King of Queens
The King of Queens
The King of Queens is an American sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007.This show was produced by Hanley Productions and CBS Productions , CBS Paramount Television ,and CBS Television Studios in association with Columbia TriStar Television , and Sony Pictures...
, characters from Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody Loves Raymond is an American television sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005. Many of the situations from the show are based on the real-life experiences of lead actor Ray Romano, creator/producer Phil Rosenthal and the show's writing staff...
appear occasionally in cameos with Doug and the rest of the cast.
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 their case, a New York City blackout
Power outage
A power outage is a short- or long-term loss of the electric power to an area.There are many causes of power failures in an electricity network...
caused by Paul Reiser
Paul Reiser
Paul Reiser is an American stand-up comedian, actor, television personality, author, screenwriter and musician. He is most widely known for his role on the long-running television sitcom Mad About You.-Early life:...
's character on Mad About You was experienced by the characters on Friends and Madman of the People
Madman of the People
Madman of the People was a short-lived sitcom broadcast on the American network NBC from 1994 to 1995. It had the Thursday 9:30 timeslot, part of Must See TV. It starred veteran character actor Dabney Coleman as Jack "Madman" Buckner, an outspoken newspaper columnist who had written a popular...
. But event nights can also be linked by a single character's quest across multiple shows on the same evening. ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
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
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (TV series)
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch is an American sitcom based on the Archie comic book series of the same name.The show stars Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman, a teenager with magical powers, who lives with her aunts Hilda and Zelda , and their magical talking cat Salem...
should chase her cat, Salem
Salem Saberhagen
Salem Saberhagen is a character from the American comic Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, who also appeared in all other adaptations of the original, including the 1969 animated version by Filmation in which Salem is an American Shorthair breed, and has no other name except "Salem". In addition, unlike...
, through Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the...
, You Wish and Teen Angel
Teen Angel (TV series)
Teen Angel is an American fantasy sitcom that aired during ABC's TGIF Friday night lineup from 1997 to 1998. The series was created by Simpsons writers/producers Al Jean and Mike Reiss.-Synopsis:...
because it had run away with a "time ball" that was displacing each show through time. Another ABC crossover was featured on a Saturday morning cartoon
Saturday morning cartoon
A Saturday morning cartoon is the colloquial term for the animated television programming that has typically been scheduled on Saturday mornings on the major American television networks from the 1960s to the present; the genre's peak in popularity mostly ended in the 1990s while the popularity of...
—it featured none of the characters from any of the series featured in the Disney's One Saturday Morning block, but a common "villain" named S.T.U.A.R.T. appeared on Doug, Recess
Recess (TV series)
Recess is an American animated television series created by Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere and produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. The series focuses on six elementary school students and their interaction with other classmates and teachers...
and Pepper Ann
Pepper Ann
Pepper Ann is an American animated series created by Sue Rose and aired on ABC. It debuted on September 13, 1997.Pepper Ann starred cartoon adolescents and charted their ups and downs at Hazelnut Middle School. It aired as part of the Disney's One Saturday Morning block...
. Sometimes the crossovers between adjoining shows can be even more subtle than these examples, such as when characters at the end of an episode of Spin City
Spin City
Spin City is an American sitcom television series that aired from September 17, 1996 until April 30, 2002 on the ABC network. Created by Gary David Goldberg and Bill Lawrence, the show was based on a fictional local government running New York City, and originally starred Michael J. Fox as Mike...
decided to watch a broadcast of a fictional sports telecast, Sports Night
Sports Night
Sports Night is an American television series about a fictional sports news show also called Sports Night. It focuses on the friendships, pitfalls, and ethical issues the creative talent of the program face while trying to produce a good show under constant network pressure...
, which led immediately into an episode of the sitcom of the same name.
Some crossovers involve when one character interacts with another character from different shows. For example in an episode of George Lopez
George Lopez
George Lopez is an American comedian, actor, and talk show host. He is mostly known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom George Lopez. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including the Mexican American culture...
, "George Gets Cross-over Freddie", George thinks that his son Max is having an online conversation with a pedophile when it really is Zoey (from the sitcom Freddie
Freddie
Freddie is a television sitcom created by, and starring, Freddie Prinze, Jr. that aired from October 5, 2005 to April 12, 2006. Freddie is inspired by Prinze Jr.'s real life, growing up in a house filled with women...
) who is Freddie niece. Later on in the show, George and Ernie invite the pedophile (who is really Freddie and Chris) to Los Angeles to pick a fight with them, but ends when Freddie and George show pictures of their families and make up. A week after this episode aired, George, Ernie, and Max are invited to Chicago by Freddie to meet his family in the episode "Freddie Gets Cross-over George".
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
John Munch
Sergeant John Munch is a fictional character played by actor Richard Belzer. Munch first appeared on Homicide: Life on the Street. Upon that series' cancellation, the character was transplanted to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the first spin-off of the Law & Order franchise...
(from NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
) on Fox's The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
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
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
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 (as New York City Detective Munch) on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...
. Crossing Jordan
Crossing Jordan
Crossing Jordan is an American television crime/drama series that aired on NBC from September 24, 2001 to May 16, 2007. It stars Jill Hennessy as Jordan Cavanaugh, M.D., a crime-solving forensic pathologist employed in the Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Medical Examiner's Office...
was set in the same fictional universe as fellow NBC series Las Vegas
Las Vegas (TV series)
Las Vegas was an American television series broadcast by NBC from September 22, 2003 to February 15, 2008. The show focuses on a team of people working at the ficticional Montecito Resort & Casino dealing with issues that arise within the working environment, ranging from valet parking and...
; in the season two episode "What Happens in Vegas Dies in Boston", a case takes Jordan and Woody (Jerry O'Connell
Jerry O'Connell
Jeremiah "Jerry" O'Connell is an American actor, best known for his roles in the TV series Sliders, Andrew Clements in My Secret Identity, Vern Tessio in the film Stand by Me, Charlie Carbone in Kangaroo Jack, and Detective Woody Hoyt on the drama Crossing Jordan...
) to Las Vegas, where Woody got very well-acquainted with the Montecito Casino's host Sam Marquez (Vanessa Marcil
Vanessa Marcil
Vanessa Marcil is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Brenda Barrett Corinthos on General Hospital, Gina Kincaid on Beverly Hills, 90210 and Sam Marquez on Las Vegas....
), and the long-distance relationship lasted for a while; O'Connell appeared in five episodes of Las Vegas, while Marcil appeared as Sam in two Crossing Jordan episodes.
A two-part crossover episode between CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
with Without a Trace
Without a Trace
Without a Trace is an American television drama which originally ran on CBS from September 26, 2002 to May 19, 2009. The series was set in New York City and concerned a fictitious FBI Missing Persons Unit.-Premise:...
aired on November 8, 2007. The first hour was on CSI and the second hour was on Without a Trace. Likewise, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation had a two-way crossover with the show Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men is an American television sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 22, 2003. Starring Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones, the show was originally about a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper; his uptight brother, Alan; and Alan's growing son, Jake...
in the episodes "Fish in a Drawer
Fish in a Drawer
"Fish in a Drawer" is the seventeenth episode of the fifth season of Two and a Half Men and the 113th episode overall. The episode was written by Evan Dunsky, Sarah Goldfinger, Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar, the writers of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, who swapped shows with the writing...
" of Two and a Half Men, broadcast on May 5, 2008, and "Two and a Half Deaths
Two And a Half Deaths
"Two and a Half Deaths" is the sixteenth episode in the eighth season of the American crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation which is set in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It was written by Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn in a crossover between CSI and Two and a Half Men...
" of CSI, which aired three days later. Another CSI crossover occurred in 2009 when Raymond Langston
Raymond Langston
Raymond "Ray" Langston, M.D. is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, portrayed by Laurence Fishburne. He joined the show in the ninth season, after the departure of Gil Grissom, played by William Petersen...
from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation appeared both in CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....
and CSI: NY
CSI: NY
CSI: NY is an American police procedural television series that premiered on September 22, 2004, on CBS. The show follows the investigations of a team of NYPD forensic scientists and police officers as they unveil the circumstances behind mysterious and unusual deaths as well as other crimes...
, traveling to Miami and New York to track a human trafficking and organ harvesting ring, also CSI: NY
CSI: NY
CSI: NY is an American police procedural television series that premiered on September 22, 2004, on CBS. The show follows the investigations of a team of NYPD forensic scientists and police officers as they unveil the circumstances behind mysterious and unusual deaths as well as other crimes...
made a crossover with Cold Case in which Stella became suspect of a murder in Philadelphia. ER
ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
had a crossover with Third Watch
Third Watch
Third Watch is an American television drama series which first aired on NBC from 1999 to 2005 for a total of 132 episodes, broadcast in 6 seasons of 22 episodes each....
which involved a series high for the latter show – 17.2 million viewers.
In some cases, there have been crossover episodes which take place before their series had debuted. One example can be found in the Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
an sitcom Living with Lydia
Living with Lydia
Living With Lydia is a Singaporean TV sitcom that was produced by MediaCorp and aired on Channel 5 from 2001 to 2005.-Overview:...
, where the titular character (played by Lydia Shum
Lydia Shum
Lydia Shum Din-Ha, also known as Lydia Sum , was a Hong Kong comedienne, MC, and actress known for her portly figure, signature dark rimmed glasses and bouffant hairstyle. She was affectionately known to peers and fans as Fei-fei...
) recalls coming to Singapore in 1979 to be a "Singapore Girl
Singapore Girl
Singapore Girl is a consistent visual advertising slogan applied to depictions of stewardesses of Singapore Airlines dressed in the distinctive "Sarong Kebaya" SIA uniform since 1972 and remains a prominent element of SIA's marketing....
". But thanks to a mistake at a nightclub, she hooks up with a gigolo who would later become another popular television character with a series that would bear its name, Phua Chu Kang
Phua Chu Kang
Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd, also known as PCK Pte Ltd or Phua Chu Kang for short , was a Singaporean sitcom on MediaCorp TV Channel 5. The show debuted in Singapore in 1997. A sequel, Phua Chu Kang Sdn...
, who she later turns down. At the end of the episode both meet again in the present day, acknowledging their brief encounter.
Crossovers are not entirely common in children's television, however there have been a few crossovers involving series of this genre. Disney Channel's Suite Life franchise has featured three crossovers: in 2007, "That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana
That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana
That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana is a crossover episode of the Disney Channel sitcoms That's So Raven, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, and Hannah Montana. In the United States it aired on July 28, 2006 as a three-part special and served as TV movie. The Crossover was watched by 7.1 million...
" featured characters from Hannah Montana
Hannah Montana
Hannah Montana is an American television series, which debuted on March 24, 2006 on the Disney Channel. The series focuses on a girl who lives a double life as an average teenage school girl named Miley Stewart by day and a famous pop singer named Hannah Montana by night, concealing her real...
and That's So Raven
That's So Raven
That's So Raven is an American cable television teen sitcom/fantasy series. The show premiered on the Disney Channel on January 17, 2003, and ended on November 10, 2007. The show spawned Disney Channel's first spin-off series: Cory in the House...
taking a vacation at the Tipton Hotel (the main setting of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody); Hannah Montana/Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus
Miley Ray Cyrus is an American actress and pop singer-songwriter. She achieved wide fame for her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana....
) also eats cake off of Zack, so that's how she remembers Zack and Cody in the 2009 crossover episode "Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana
Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana
Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana is a trilogy of crossover episodes between three Disney Channel original sitcoms which premiered in the United States on July 17, 2009. The crossover spanned across episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place, The Suite Life on Deck, and Hannah Montana...
", in which characters from Wizards of Waverly Place
Wizards of Waverly Place
Wizards of Waverly Place is a Disney Channel Original Series that premiered on October 12, 2007. It won "Outstanding Children's Program" at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards in 2009...
and Hannah Montana come on aboard the S.S. Tipton. Characters from The Suite Life on Deck also appear in a crossover with fellow Disney sitcom I'm in the Band
I'm in the Band
I'm in the Band, is a live-action sitcom airing on Disney XD in the United States and on Family Channel in Canada. The pilot episode was taped on July 14, 2009, with a "sneak preview" airing on November 27, 2009; the show subsequently joined Disney XD's regular schedule on February 20, 2010, with...
(an unusual crossover given the two series air on different networks, The Suite Life series on Disney Channel, and I'm in the Band on Disney XD) in the 2010 episode "Weasels on Deck". "Wizards On Deck with Hannah Montana
Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana
Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana is a trilogy of crossover episodes between three Disney Channel original sitcoms which premiered in the United States on July 17, 2009. The crossover spanned across episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place, The Suite Life on Deck, and Hannah Montana...
", which premiered on July 17, 2009 on Disney Channel, was viewed by more than 9.3 million viewers, becoming the number one program of the night across both cable and broadcast television, and ranks as one of the highest-rated episodes for a Disney Channel original series. Characters from Shake It Up! appear in a crossover with fellow Disney sitcom Good Luck Charlie
Good Luck Charlie
Good Luck Charlie is an original Disney Channel television sitcom, which premiered April 4, 2010. The series was created by Phil Baker and Drew Vaupen, who wanted to create a program that would appeal to entire families, as opposed to children only...
in the 2011 episode "Charlie Shakes It Up!", which premiered on June 5, 2011.
Another unusual type of crossover occurred in a 2010 episode of the Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
sitcom iCarly
ICarly
iCarly is an American sitcom that focuses on a girl named Carly Shay who creates her own web show called iCarly with her best friends Sam and Freddie. The series was created by Dan Schneider, who also serves as executive producer. It stars Miranda Cosgrove as Carly, Jennette McCurdy as Sam, Nathan...
; the episode "iStart a Fan War" featured recurring characters from two Nickelodeon series: Drake & Josh
Drake & Josh
Drake & Josh is an American sitcom that premiered on the Nickelodeon television network on January 11, 2004, which follows the lives of two stepbrothers. It stars Drake Bell and Josh Peck as stepbrothers Drake Parker and Josh Nichols, respectively. Both actors had played roles in The Amanda Show,...
characters Eric Blonowitz, Craig Ramirez and Gavin Mitchell (played by Scott Halberstadt
Scott Halberstadt
Scott Halberstadt is an American film and television actor.-Film:Halberstadt appeared in the film Grandma's Boy as a tester who challenges Jeff to Dance Dance Revolution. He was the pimply casino employee in Smokin' Aces...
, Alec Medlock and series staff writer Jake Farrow
Jake Farrow
Jacob "Jake" Farrow is a television writer and actor. He is most famous for the role of Gavin Mitchell on the TV series Drake & Josh. He is also known for voicing "Rex Powers" a puppet/dummy character on Victorious....
, respectively) and Zoey 101
Zoey 101
Zoey 101 is an American television series that ran from January 9, 2005 to May 2, 2008 starring Jamie Lynn Spears as teenager Zoey Brooks, produced for Nickelodeon and syndicated worldwide. The show was initially filmed at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, then at stages in Valencia,...
character Stacey Dillsen (played by Abby Wilde
Abby Wilde
Abby Wilde is an American actress and singer. She is known for her role as Stacey Dillsen on Zoey 101 and iCarly.-Life and career:...
); this was possible because all three series were created by the same producer, Dan Schneider
Dan Schneider (TV producer)
Daniel James "Dan" Schneider is an American songwriter, actor, writer, and producer of films and television. He is the co-president of his own production company called Schneider's Bakery....
(although Drake & Josh and Zoey 101 both ended their runs within a year of iCarly
Retcon
Retroactive continuity is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work. Retcons are done for many reasons, including the accommodation of sequels or further derivative works in a series, wherein newer authors or creators want to revise the in-story history to allow a course...
s the episode "iGet Pranky" (both episodes aired during the show's fourth season) that establishes that Drake & Josh exists as a television series in the iCarly universe. And on June 11, 2011, the two of Dan Schenider's shows iCarly and Victorious
Victorious
Victorious is an American sitcom created by Dan Schneider for Nickelodeon. The series revolves around aspiring singer Tori Vega , a teenager who attends a performing arts high school called Hollywood Arts High School, after taking her older sister Trina's place in a showcase while getting into...
came together in "iParty with Victorious
IParty with Victorious
"iParty with Victorious" is a 2011 three-part crossover episode of iCarly with Victorious. Although it is a crossover, the episode only counts as an iCarly episode. The episode aired on June 11, 2011, at 8/7c...
".
Promotional cameos
Crossovers can take the form of a promotional cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
, 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
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode A Star Is Burns
A Star is Burns
"A Star Is Burns" is the eighteenth episode of The Simpsons sixth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 5, 1995. In the episode, Springfield decides to hold a film festival, and famed critic Jay Sherman is invited to be a judge...
, in which the character of Jay Sherman (from The Critic
The Critic
The Critic is an American prime time animated series revolving around the life of film critic Jay Sherman, voiced by actor Jon Lovitz. It was created by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, both of whom had worked as writers on The Simpsons. The Critic had 23 episodes produced, first broadcast on ABC in 1994,...
) appeared. This episode was largely condemned by fans of The Simpsons as existing to promote The Critic. Even Simpsons creator Matt Groening
Matt Groening
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....
objected, preferring to remove his name from the credits of that particular episode in protest.
In 2010, as a nod to the 50th anniversary of Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
, characters in fellow established TV soap Eastenders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
made reference to watching the special anniversary episode (which celebrated its 25th Anniversary earlier on in the 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-offSpin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
or vice versa because of established character relationships. An obvious example of this type of crossover occurred when Cliff Huxtable of The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...
visited his daughter, Denise, on A Different World. Another example of this is the appearances made by Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters to Angel
Angel (TV series)
Angel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999...
in Los Angeles from Sunnydale.
Sometimes, spin-off crossovers do not involve principals, but rather supporting cast members. For instance, the main link between Green Acres
Green Acres
Green Acres is an American television series starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm...
, Petticoat Junction
Petticoat Junction
Petticoat Junction is an American situation comedy produced by Filmways which originally aired on CBS from 1963 to 1970. The series is one of three interrelated shows about rural characters created by Paul Henning; the others are The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres.The setting for the series...
and The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1971, starring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer, Jr....
is Sam Drucker
Sam Drucker
Sam Drucker was the operator of the general store in Hooterville in the fictional world of the 1960s American sitcoms Petticoat Junction and Green Acres and made several guest appearances on The Beverly Hillbillies, created by Paul Henning...
.
Depending on the complexity of the franchise, though, the crossover can be even more indirect, serving to suggest the size of the fictional world. This sort of crossover is somewhat common to the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
universe, where minor guest stars from one series have appeared as featured guest stars later on. A good example of this kind of crossover is that of the Klingon
Klingon
Klingons are a fictional warrior race in the Star Trek universe.Klingons are recurring villains in the 1960s television show Star Trek: The Original Series, and have appeared in all five spin-off series and eight feature films...
s Kor (from the Original Series
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
episode "Errand of Mercy
Errand of Mercy (TOS episode)
"Errand of Mercy" is an episode of Star Trek. It was originally broadcast on March 23, 1967. It is episode #26, production #27, written by Gene L. Coon and directed by John Newland. This episode marks the first appearance of the Klingons....
"), Koloth (from "The Trouble with Tribbles") and Kang (from "Day of the Dove"). After the passage of about a century of narrative time, the three onetime adversaries of Captain Kirk
James T. Kirk
James Tiberius "Jim" Kirk is a character in the Star Trek media franchise. Kirk was first played by William Shatner as the principal lead character in the original Star Trek series. Shatner voiced Kirk in the animated Star Trek series and appeared in the first seven Star Trek movies...
appeared together in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe...
episode, "Blood Oath
Blood Oath (DS9 episode)
"Blood Oath" is the 39th episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.-Overview:Three legendary Klingon warriors come to the station to meet with Dax before going off on a vengeance crusade.-Plot:...
" - 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 (after hijacking the Defiant
USS Defiant
The USS Defiant is a fictional starship in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the feature film Star Trek: First Contact...
, Darvin had gone back in time hoping to kill Kirk and become a hero to the Klingons, and it's up to Sisko
Benjamin Sisko
Benjamin Lafayette Sisko, played by Avery Brooks, is the main character of the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.-Early life and career:...
& Co. to stop him and preserve the timeline) inside the TOS episode, interacting with Kirk, Spock
Spock
Spock is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by Leonard Nimoy in the original Star Trek series, Spock also appears in the animated Star Trek series, two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, seven of the Star Trek feature films, and numerous Star Trek...
and the rest of the Enterprise
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
The USS Enterprise, NCC-1701, is a fictional starship in the Star Trek media franchise. The original Star Trek series depicts her crew's mission "to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before" under the command of Captain James...
crew.
One of the more dramatic examples of a crossover occurred in the two-part season four finale of the revived science-fiction series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. Earlier characters Jack Harkness
Jack Harkness
Captain Jack Harkness is a fictional character played by John Barrowman in Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood. He first appeared in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child" and reappeared in the remaining episodes of the 2005 series as a companion of the ninth incarnation of the...
and Sarah Jane Smith
Sarah Jane Smith
Sarah Jane Smith is a fictional character played by Elisabeth Sladen in the long-running British BBC Television science-fiction series Doctor Who and its spin-offs K-9 and Company and The Sarah Jane Adventures....
returned to guest star in the episodes "The Stolen Earth
The Stolen Earth
"The Stolen Earth" is the twelfth episode of the fourth series and the 750th overall episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode was written by show runner and head writer Russell T Davies and is the first of a two-part crossover story; the concluding episode is...
" and "Journey's End
Journey's End
Journey's End is a 1928 drama, the seventh of English playwright R. C. Sherriff. It was first performed at the Apollo Theatre in London by the Incorporated Stage Society on 9 December 1928, starring a young Laurence Olivier, and soon moved to other West End theatres for a two-year run...
", accompanied by several characters from their respective series (Gwen Cooper
Gwen Cooper
Gwen Cooper is a fictional character in the BBC television programme Torchwood, a spin-off to the long-running show Doctor Who, portrayed by Welsh actress Eve Myles. The series' lead female character, Gwen has featured in every episode of the sci-fi programme to date as well as two crossover...
and Ianto Jones
Ianto Jones
Ianto Jones is a fictional character in the BBC television series Torchwood, played by Welsh actor Gareth David-Lloyd. A series regular, Ianto appears in every episode of the programme's first three series, as well as two crossover episodes of Torchwoods parent show, Doctor Who...
from Torchwood
Torchwood
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...
, and Luke Smith and the Xylok computer "Mr. Smith" from The Sarah Jane Adventures
The Sarah Jane Adventures
The Sarah Jane Adventures is a British science fiction television series, produced by BBC Cymru Wales for CBBC, created by Russell T Davies and starring Elisabeth Sladen...
.) A similar thing happened in The Sarah Jane Adventures episodes when the Tenth Doctor appears in Series 3 and the Eleventh Doctor in Series 4.
Star Trek affords an easy understanding of yet another kind of spin-off crossover: that of crossover by implication. By making the various ships and devices to be of roughly the same visual design, the implication is that all of series take place in the same universe. This kind of crossover occurs in other shows when shared characters are mentioned but do not actually appear, as when Michael Stivic
Michael Stivic
Michael Casimir Stivic is a fictional character on the long running American television sitcom of the 1970s, All in the Family. He was the live-in son-in-law of the series's lead character, the bigoted and undereducated Archie Bunker, who frequently called him "Meathead". Michael was the husband...
was referenced on Gloria
Gloria (TV series)
Gloria is an American situation comedy that lasted one season on CBS, from September 1982 to September 1983. It stars Sally Struthers, reprising her role as Gloria Stivic, the daughter of Archie Bunker on the hugely successful 1970s sitcom All in the Family...
.
This type of crossover is also common with Tokusatsu
Tokusatsu
is a Japanese term that applies to any live-action film or television drama that usually features superheroes and makes considerable use of special effects ....
shows from Japan. One of the most common crossovers stars characters from programs under the banner of Super Sentai
Super Sentai
The is the name given to the long-running Japanese superhero team genre of shows produced by Toei Co., Ltd., Toei Agency and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi...
. Each year, the current Sentai team meets up with the Sentai team that came before them and unite between a common villain, such as Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger
Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger
is the twenty-eighth production of the Super Sentai television series produced by Toei. The action footage from the show was used for the American series Power Rangers S.P.D..The opening catchphrase of the series is .-Story:...
vs. Abaranger. During an Anniversary year, Sentai warriors from various teams come together to help the current team, such as GoGo Sentai Boukenger vs. Super Sentai
GoGo Sentai Boukenger vs. Super Sentai
is a direct-to-video tokusatsu movie. The DVD was released in February 2007. The movie celebrates the 30 year anniversary of the Super Sentai Series.-Plot:...
. These adventures are produced under V-Cinema
V-Cinema
Japanese is the direct-to-video industry that appeared in Japan in the 1980s. The term is a trademark of Toei Company but is widely used in the West to describe any Japanese direct-to-video release. In Japan the term used is...
, direct to video. These team-ups are not limited to Super Sentai. The multiple series of Kamen Rider
Kamen Rider Series
The is a metaseries of manga and tokusatsu television programs and films created by manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. The various Kamen Rider media generally feature a motorcycle-riding superhero with an insect motif who fights supervillains often referred to as...
and Ultraman
Ultra Series
The is the collective name for all the shows produced by Tsuburaya Productions featuring Ultraman, his many brethren, and the myriad Ultra Monsters. The Ultra Series is one of the prominent tokusatsu superhero genre productions from Japan, along with Toei produced series Kamen Rider, Super...
have instances of current and past heroes meeting with each other. Several of these times occur in theatrical films, such as Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker
Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker
is the film adaptation of the 2009 Kamen Rider Series Kamen Rider Decade. The film was released in Japanese theaters on August 8, 2009, alongside the Samurai Sentai Shinkenger film, Samurai Sentai Shinkenger The Movie: The Fateful War. The catchphrases for the movie are and...
and Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers. Rarely, these heroes will crossover with each other, like in Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider
Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider
is the name of a television special that aired July 21, 1993 featuring clips from the various series from over the years, interviews with two of the stars, and finally a team-up between Tsuburaya Productions' Ultraman and Toei Company's Kamen Rider. It was also released on VHS and Laserdisc in...
and a recent team-up between Kamen Rider Decade
Kamen Rider Decade
is the title of the first of the 2009 editions of the long-running Kamen Rider Series of tokusatsu dramas. Decade, as its title suggests, is the tenth of the Heisei Rider Series, having begun with Kamen Rider Kuuga in 2000...
and Samurai Sentai Shinkenger
Samurai Sentai Shinkenger
is the title of Toei Company's thirty-third entry in its long-running Super Sentai Series of Japanese tokusatsu television series. It premiered on February 15, 2009, the week following the finale of Engine Sentai Go-onger, and ended on February 7, 2010...
.
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
Out of the Blue (1979 TV series)
Out Of The Blue is an American fantasy sitcom that aired on ABC during the fall of 1979. It is chiefly notable as having featured a Mork & Mindy crossover, and for the controversy surrounding its status as a spin-off of Happy Days....
is a spin-off of Happy Days
Happy Days
Happy Days is an American television sitcom that originally aired from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984, on ABC. Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in mid-1950s to mid-1960s America....
, 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 makes 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
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
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
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
or homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
. However, on rare occasion, the humor of such crossovers can be used by one show make a narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
point by capitalizing on the audience's experience of the other programme.
Such tongue-in-cheek
Tongue-in-cheek
Tongue-in-cheek is a phrase used as a figure of speech to imply that a statement or other production is humorously intended and it should not be taken at face value. The facial expression typically indicates that one is joking or making a mental effort. In the past, it may also have indicated...
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 SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
and The X-FilesThe X-FilesThe X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
, which was largely accepted as being outside of standard X-Files continuity. - One episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy shows that after Mandy smiles-Mandy, Billy and Grim are transformed into The Powerpuff GirlsThe Powerpuff GirlsThe Powerpuff Girls is an American animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera for Cartoon Network...
with a cameo by Professor Utonium - They can occur by virtue of a dream sequenceDream sequenceA dream sequence is a technique used in storytelling, particularly in television and film, to set apart a brief interlude from the main story. The interlude may consist of a flashback, a flashforward, a fantasy, a vision, a dream, or some other element. Commonly, dream sequences appear in many...
, 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 NewhartNewhartNewhart is a television situation comedy starring comedian Bob Newhart and actress Mary Frann as an author and wife who owned and operated an inn located in a small, rural Vermont town that was home to many eccentric characters. The show aired on the CBS network from October 25, 1982 to May 21, 1990...
had been the dream of Bob NewhartBob NewhartGeorge Robert Newhart , known professionally as Bob Newhart, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Noted for his deadpan and slightly stammering delivery, Newhart came to prominence in the 1960s when his album of comedic monologues The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart was a worldwide...
's character on The Bob Newhart ShowThe Bob Newhart ShowThe Bob Newhart Show is an American situation comedy produced by MTM Enterprises, which aired 142 original episodes on CBS from September 16, , to April 1, . Comedian Bob Newhart portrayed a psychologist having to deal with his patients and fellow office workers...
. It has more recently been used to demonstrate that cast members of The Young And The RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
appeared in a dream of a character onThe King of QueensThe King of QueensThe King of Queens is an American sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007.This show was produced by Hanley Productions and CBS Productions , CBS Paramount Television ,and CBS Television Studios in association with Columbia TriStar Television , and Sony Pictures...
. - Parodic crossovers can take the form of "gagJokeA joke is a phrase or a paragraph with a humorous twist. It can be in many different forms, such as a question or short story. To achieve this end, jokes may employ irony, sarcasm, word play and other devices...
" cameos by characters of one property appearing on another. Characters from King of the Hill have appeared on The SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
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 MattersFamily Matters (TV series)Family Matters is an American sitcom about a middle-class African-American family living in Chicago, Illinois, which ran on national television for nine full seasons. The series was a spin-off of Perfect Strangers, but revolves around the Winslow family...
during the closing credits of the episode "Scenes From a Mall" (Season 5, Episode 12), a scene which was shown earlier in the episode featuring Reginald VelJohnsonReginald VelJohnsonReginald VelJohnson is an American actor of film, stage and television, well known for his role as Carl Winslow on the sitcom Family Matters, where he was the only cast member to appear in every single episode. He also portrayed LAPD Sgt...
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 AveryJames L. Avery, Sr.James L. Avery, Sr. is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of the patriarch and attorney Philip Banks in the TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, whom Will Smith's character affectionately called "Uncle Phil." This character was ranked #34 in TV Guides "50 Greatest TV Dads of All...
who played Judge Phillip Banks on NBC's The Fresh Prince of Bel-AirThe Fresh Prince of Bel-AirThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from September 10, 1990 to May 20, 1996. The show stars Will Smith as a fictionalized version of himself, a street-smart teenager from West Philadelphia who is sent to move in with his aunt and uncle in their...
. 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 (but with the cameras filming still), VelJohnson and Avery hugged and smiling they greeted to 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 SimpsonBart SimpsonBartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
's shorts on FuturamaFuturamaFuturama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
, or MilhouseMilhouse Van HoutenMilhouse Mussolini Van Houten is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Pamela Hayden. He is Bart Simpson's best friend in Mrs. Krabappel's fourth grade class at Springfield Elementary School....
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 comedySketch comedyA sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
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 FarceRoyal Canadian Air FarceAir Farce Live, also credited as Air Farce, previously Royal Canadian Air Farce, and Air Farce—Final Flight! for the final season, was a Canadian comedy series starring the comedy troupe The Royal Canadian Air Farce that previously starred in an eponymous radio show on CBC radio from 1973 to 1997...
saw Yasir and Sarah from Little Mosque on the PrairieLittle Mosque on the PrairieLittle Mosque on the Prairie is a Canadian sitcom on CBC, created by Zarqa Nawaz and produced by WestWind Pictures. It is filmed in Toronto, Ontario and Indian Head, Saskatchewan...
buying the gas station from Corner GasCorner GasCorner Gas is a Canadian television sitcom created by Brent Butt. The series ran for six seasons from 2004 to 2009. Re-runs still air on CTV and The Comedy Network in Canada; it formerly aired on WGN America in the United States....
, 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 StewartPatrick StewartSir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century...
appeared in a Star Trek: The Next GenerationStar Trek: The Next GenerationStar Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
/The Love BoatThe Love BoatThe Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
crossover on Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, for instance, few Star Trek fans would have been fooled by the visual design into believing the event "counted" as an episode of their show. However, there are some cases of this type of parody having some canonicalCanon (fiction)In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
resonance with viewers. For instance, the British charity appeal, Comic Relief often contains parodic crossovers of a technically higher quality than the normal 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 BallykissangelBallykissangelBallykissangel is a BBC television drama set in Ireland, produced in-house by BBC Northern Ireland. The original story revolved around a young English Roman Catholic priest as he became part of a rural community. It ran for six series, which were first broadcast on BBC One in the UK from 1996 to 2001...
appeared on the sets of The Vicar of DibleyThe Vicar of DibleyThe Vicar of Dibley is a British sitcom created by Richard Curtis and written for its lead actress, Dawn French, by Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer, with contributions from Kit Hesketh-Harvey. It aired from 1994 to 2007...
, alongside most of Dibleys 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 verisimilitudeVerisimilitudeVerisimilitude is the quality of realism in something .-Competing ideas:The problem of verisimilitude is the problem of articulating what it takes for one false theory to be closer to the truth than another false theory...
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 showGame showA game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
s or reality shows. These crossovers between celebrity hosts and fictional characters are quite common on situation comediesSituation comedyA situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
. Mama's FamilyMama's FamilyMama's Family is an American television sitcom that premiered on NBC on January 22, 1983. It was cancelled in May 1984, but NBC would continue to air reruns until September 1985. In September 1986, Mama's Family returned in first-run syndication, where it aired for an additional four seasons,...
once appeared on Family FeudFamily FeudFamily Feud is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Two families compete against each other in a contest to name the most popular responses to a survey question posed to 100 people...
and the townsfolk of The Vicar of Dibley have had their heirloomHeirloomIn popular usage, an heirloom is something, perhaps an antique or some kind of jewelry, that has been passed down for generations through family members....
s valuated on Antiques RoadshowAntiques RoadshowAntiques Roadshow is a British television show in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom to appraise antiques brought in by local people. It has been running since 1979...
, 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 PeterBlue PeterBlue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having first aired in 1958. It is shown on CBBC, both in its BBC One programming block and on the CBBC channel. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time...
provided narrative expositionExposition (literary technique)At the beginning of a narrative, the exposition is the author's providing of some background information to the audience about the plot, characters' histories, setting, and theme. Exposition is considered one of four rhetorical modes of discourse, along with argumentation, description, and narration...
on The Sarah Jane AdventuresThe Sarah Jane AdventuresThe Sarah Jane Adventures is a British science fiction television series, produced by BBC Cymru Wales for CBBC, created by Russell T Davies and starring Elisabeth Sladen...
. Rarely, brief crossovers between two fictional programmes can be used for this same purpose. In the episode, Army of GhostsArmy of Ghosts"Army of Ghosts" is the twelfth and penultimate episode in the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who which was first broadcast on 1 July 2006...
, Peggy MitchellPeggy MitchellMargaret Ann "Peggy" Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders. Peggy was initially played by Jo Warne when she first appeared on 30 April 1991, featuring in the series on a recurring basis over several weeks. Peggy was reintroduced in 1994, recast and was then played by...
was seen in a fictionalized scene from EastEndersEastEndersEastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
in order to demonstrate the degree to which the titular ghosts had permeated the popular culture of Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
s BritainUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Here, too, time constraints caused the satire of the guest programme (EastEnders) and not the host programme (Doctor Who). - Star Wrek is a comedy crossover between Star TrekStar TrekStar Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
and Babylon 5Babylon 5Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
. - Steve UrkelSteve UrkelSteven Quincy Urkel, generally known as Steve Urkel or simply Urkel, is a fictional character on the ABC/CBS sitcom Family Matters, portrayed by Jaleel White...
from Family Matters appeared on the episode "Stephanie Gets Framed" on the sitcom Full HouseFull HouseFull House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and...
.
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 sort 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
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
. One interpretation of the ending scene of the final episode, has been that the entire run of the program was a figment of autistic
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
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 filmsFan film
A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film, television program, comic book or a similar source, created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally been amateurs, but some of the more notable films have actually been produced by...
and audio
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
. 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
Injunction
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
the distribution of such material.
A good example would be the unauthorised live action fan film Batman: Dead End
Batman: Dead End
Batman: Dead End is a fan film made by Sandy Collora that premiered July 19, 2003 at the San Diego Comic-Con, and on the internet shortly thereafter.-Plot:...
, which brings together the properties of Batman, Alien
Alien (film series)
The Alien film series is a science fiction horror film franchise, focusing on Lieutenant Ellen Ripley and her battle with an extraterrestrial lifeform, commonly referred to as "the Alien"...
and Predator
Predator (film)
Predator is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by John McTiernan, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, and Kevin Peter Hall. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox....
in one setting.
In the film I Am Legend
I Am Legend (film)
I Am Legend is a 2007 post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. It is the third feature film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel of the same name, following 1964's The Last Man on Earth and 1971's The Omega Man. Smith plays virologist Robert...
, a billboard can be seen in Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
depicting a crossover film of Batman and Superman, with a release date of May 15, 2010.
Unofficial crossovers can also occur in a "what-if" scenario. The most notable is an episode of Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
entitled "Lois Kills Stewie" which turned out to be a simulation along with the previous episode "Stewie Kills Lois". Stewie Griffin
Stewie Griffin
Stewie Griffin is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy. Once obsessed with world domination and matricide, Stewie is the youngest child of Peter and Lois Griffin, and the brother of Chris and Meg....
is confronted by Stan Smith
Stan Smith (American Dad!)
Stan Smith is a character from the animated television series American Dad!. Stan is a Central Intelligence Agency officer. Although once a case officer, he is now a weapons expert. Stan is voiced by the series' creator and executive producer, Seth MacFarlane.-Summary:Stan Smith born 12 February,...
and Avery Bullock from American Dad!
American Dad!
American Dad! is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane and owned by Underdog Productions and Fuzzy Door Productions. It is produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television...
while hacking into the central power grid at the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
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
Brian Griffin
Brian Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. He is voiced by Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family, in a 15-minute short on December 20, 1998. Brian was created and designed by MacFarlane himself...
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
Admiral Ackbar
Admiral Ackbar is a fictional character in the Star Wars science fiction saga. A member of the amphibious Mon Calamari species, Ackbar was the foremost military commander of the Rebel Alliance who led major combat operations against the Galactic Empire and was later integral in the formation of the...
, respectively. Stewie also appears as an interactive hallucination of Booth on Bones
Bones (TV series)
Bones is an American crime drama television series that premiered on the Fox Network on September 13, 2005. The show is based on forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology, with each episode focusing on an FBI case file concerning the mystery behind human remains brought by FBI Special Agent...
when the agent has issues over possibly becoming a sperm donor.
"Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds" introduces the famous detective to the scene of London occupied by Martian invaders, depicted by H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
- 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 crossovers in fiction
- Amalgam ComicsAmalgam ComicsAmalgam Comics was a publishing imprint shared by DC Comics and Marvel Comics, in which the two comic book publishers merged their characters into new ones . These characters first appeared in a series of twelve comic books which were published in 1996, between issues 3 and 4 of the Marvel vs...
- canon (fiction)Canon (fiction)In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
- Callback (comedy)Callback (comedy)A callback, in terms of comedy, is a joke which refers to one previously told in the set. The second joke is often presented in a different context than the one which was used in the initial joke. Callbacks are usually used at or near the end of a set, as the aim is to create the biggest laugh at...
- Continuity (fiction)Continuity (fiction)In fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of persons, plot, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer over some period of time...
- Fanfiction
- fictional characterFictional characterA character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
- fictional universeFictional universeA fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm ....
- Intercompany crossoverIntercompany crossoverIn comic books, an intercompany crossover is a comic or series of comics where characters published by one company meet those published by another...
- shared universeShared universeA shared universe is a fictional universe to which more than one writer contributes. Work set in a shared universe share characters and other elements with varying degrees of consistency. Shared universes are contrasted with collaborative writing, in which multiple authors work on a single story....
- Tommy WestphallTommy WestphallTommy Westphall, portrayed by Chad Allen, is a minor character from the drama television series St. Elsewhere, which ran on NBC from October 26, 1982, to May 25, 1988. Westphall, who is autistic, took on major significance in St. Elsewheres final episode, "The Last One," where the common...
- Wold Newton familyWold Newton familyThe Wold Newton family is a literary concept derived from a form of crossover fiction developed by the science fiction writer Philip José Farmer...
External links
- Poobala.com's Crossover Spin-Offs Master Page for an extensive list of TV crossovers and shared realities.
- Crossover Feedback Loop
- Thoughts On Crossovers In General (Kathryn Andersen) An essay musing on the numerous elements necessary to a successful crossover (primarily aimed at fan-written fiction).
- Wold Newton Universe Crossover Chronology Crossovers which build upon and take place in Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton continuity.
- "On Crossovers", Jess NevinsJess NevinsJohn J. Nevins, MA/MS, is an American author and librarian, born 30 July 1966 and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the author of the World Fantasy Award-nominated Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana , and other works on Victoriana and pulp fiction...
' history of the fictional crossover - Episode "Scenes From a Mall" in Internet Movie Database.