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Westphall, who is autistic, played an increased role in St. Thanks to the phenomenal success of the MCU, shared universes now dot the pop culture landscape, including the DCEU, The Conjuring universe, the Godzilla and King Kong MonsterVerse, and many more. I spent a shift sitting bedside with my daughter in the emergency room during a three-day-long stay once, watching the same sainted nurse come and go as an endless tide of needy patients washed in. And I was very upset. As a special tribute to recently deceased writer Dwayne McDuffie, CBR is pleased to present one of the most well-known texts from his time writing about the art of comics in "Six Degrees of St. Dedicated fans attempting to chase down every connection toSt. Why was it necessary for St. So Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Mayberry R.F.D., and Make Room for Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show are gone. We're often considered and thought of as robot-like people who have no emotions and who only see other people as objects. "You know, I still have the snow globe," he said. [11], NewsRadio episode "Daydream" (season 3 episode 7) ends with Jimmy James staring into a snow globe that appears to contain a miniature version of the WNYX office, thus seeming to indicate that Jimmy James has imagined the entire episode.[12]. WebNo, you missed the point. And because I cant tell you I have a better idea of how it couldve ended, I can live with that one. How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, 17 SoCal hiking trails that are blooming with wildflowers (but probably not for long! The Tommy Westphall universe hypothesis is an idea discussed among some television fans, it makes the claim that not only does St. Elsewhere, including all its characters, are revealed to have been the dream of a minor character named Tommy Westphall, an autistic boy who possesses a snow globe containing a replica of the hospital where the series took place. . One prominent critic, Professor Brian Weatherson, argues that just because St. It is underfunded, understaffed, crowded, and running on fumes. Howie goes to the morgue, slides me out, says something to me and pushes me back in. More than puzzling, some people found it to be an actual puzzle. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. It is underfunded, understaffed, crowded, and running on fumes. Christina Pickles, whose character of Nurse Helen Rosenthal ended the series triumphantly by kicking a drug dependency, is the only one who believes that St. Elsewhere finale wasn't infamous enough with its twist ending, the closing bumper made for the finale showed Mimsie, the logo cat, unconscious and hooked up to an IV, Elsewhere seemed like an easy out. The hospital at its center, Boston's fictional St. Eligius, picked up its titular nickname because of its reputation as an aging, poorly-staffed dumping ground for hopeless patients, and the show's urgent, fly-on-the-wall visual style added to its air of gritty realism. Elsewhere was a show that got by largely on the strength of its ensemble, running for six seasons from 1982-88. Would you ever say "eat pig" instead of "eat pork"? In another, Dr. Morrison, played by David Morse, lost his wife in a freak household accident, then listened with a mixture of anguish and reverence to her heart beating after being transplanted into someone elses chest. CYNTHIA SIKES (Dr. Annie Cavanero): Part of me likes that whole thing because its sort of an Orson Welles-ian Rosebud [ending]. As Gow and Crowe assembled their chart, comics writer Dwayne McDuffie (Static Shock) wrote a blog entry for Slush.com in 2002 that made a similar observation. We went through this experience and I wanted it to be maintained as a real one, not a dream. I think other people will find it puzzling, odd, maybe unfulfilling in some way.. I said at the time we were shooting, This is a cheat. For me, it was a cheat. Death! is not a great place to work or convalesce. Gow and Crowe, who still periodically update the grid, assert that episodes with real people playing themselveslike Trebek did on Cheersare exempt, as are cartoons and feature films. Elsewhere. Theres also nothing standing in the way of the belief that perhaps the Tommy Westphall end sequence was itself a dream, negating the snow globe conceit. There are two very important reasons why the ending is not only justified but important and even critically needed for a show like St. Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. There is too much that is rich, that is still to be mined., Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Get ready for the 2023 Met Gala: Heres when, and how, to tune in live, Tucker Carlson, Don Lemon blasted at White House Correspondents dinner, Tom Jones review: PBS Masterpieces latest period drama is laid-back and enjoyable, Michael J. BONNIE BARTLETT (Ellen Craig): [The writers] wanted to do an ending to the show in a way so that it could never be brought back again. What world is Tommy imagining inside that snow globe, he wonders aloud. The fictional Morley cigarettes are particularly pervasive, as is Hudson University, an institution of higher learning mentioned on The Cosby Show, Law & Order, and Murder, She Wrote. This has led to dozens of shows using the same fake product, so in terms of the chart, "that's become an increasingly complex can of worms," said Crowe. In a 2003 article published on BBC News Online, St. This expands the Tommy Westphall universe ever outward, to the point where over 400 shows now reside under its umbrella. Law & Order creator Dick Wolf is close friends with Fontana and frequently crossed Homicide characters over into his own series. The problem that I see with the ending is that they explained away the whole show as the daydreams of an autistic child's imagination. Syndication used to be the method by which we would see old scripted shows, and a shows rep needed to be good enough for you to stop flipping channels if you happened to land on an episode (ooh! He sits there, all day long, in his own world, staring at that toy. The stories speak for themselves. St. According to the duo's notes, the only other non-US shows in the "Tommyverse" are "The 'Degrassi' shows (Canada), 'The Office' (UK), the 'Doctor Who' shows (UK), 'Luther' (UK), 'Jo' (France) and 'Paris Section Criminelle' (France)," which "is the only show not in English in the Tommyverse.". The thing is, autism was - and still is - Official crossovers between the "St. Embedded hyperlinks in a thesis or research paper. But now, viewers are picking shows out to binge watch, and they want to know that their time investment is going to have some payoff. For a constant stream of entertainment news and discussion, follow HuffPost Entertainment on Viber. rev2023.4.21.43403. St. When we read it, we all had reservations about it. This will become important very shortly. The whole circus is overseen by Dr. Donald Westphall (Ed Flanders), with Dr. Daniel Auschlander (Norman Lloyd) and Dr. Mark Craig (Daniels) rounding out the experienced older set of doctors helping the residents learn the ropes. Nobody is too interested in that, though. This is because it's pretty easy to connectSt. Canceled. The series was also known for one of its more playful aspects: it was prone to dropping references and callbacks to other TV series. The thing is, autism was - and still is - largely not understood what goes on in a person's brain. The John Larroquette Show once mentioned Yoyodyne, a manufacturing client of law firm Wolfram and Hart; That kind of anguish you just cant transmit. That series introduced the character of Detective John Munch (Richard Belzer), who went on to become a main character onLaw and Order:Special Victims Unit (and has made guest appearances in virtually everyLaw and Order series), and who has also popped up on shows likeThe Beat, The Wire, The X-Files, Arrested Development,and30 Rock. Through six years, I never put anything in my dressing room. The series is (implied to be) a figment of Tommy Westphall's imagination, existing in the snowglobe that he is focused on. Elsewhere characters got the business from Carla while drinking at Cheers, the bar from, uh, Cheersand therefore, Frasier, a spinoff, must also exist somewhere in that snow globe. Elsewhere was an aberration. I think the final years story line reflected it, she said, referring to the takeover and makeover of St. Eligius by a wealthy corporation at the outset of the final season. It seems to imply that the events of the show were all imagined by the mind of a non-verbal young boy. There are no villains in this piece. ", Grandfather: "He's been sitting there ever since you left this morning, just like he does every day. would not look or feel the same without its influence and success. When I read it, I thought it was amazing: Only these people could come up with this idea And I thought it was very touching. Specific to the Westphall Hypothesis, even if we accept that St. The Marvel Cinematic Universe might seem like a huge landscape of interconnected shows and TV movies, but the Tommy Westphall universe has it beat. One prominent critic, Professor Brian Weatherson, argues that just because St. Marriage! Illustration by HuffPost's Alissa Scheller. And then I saw it and I thought, Its too much. In 1988, though, St. If the show were not great, if we had not had as many nominations, we probably wouldnt even be talking about it. Much of the humor between characters is gallows humor. , the magic was in the tone, as it was with another show by the same production company. And most of the connections on the grid are characters, even though something like Morley cigarettes (a fictional brand) has a lot of individual connections, they just add to the connective tissue in certain ways. Tommy's father, still being portrayed by Ed Flanders (aka "Donald Westphall") arrives at the apartment wearing a hard hat. Scan this QR code to download the app now. 2023 Paste Media Group. And I dont think that set of circumstances will ever happen again. St. Elsewhere was a figment of Tommy Westphalls elaborate imagination, then wouldnt other television characters who appeared in the shows continuity exist only within Tommy's mind, as well? Six years . "The theory doesn't really depend on Tommy Westphall, but he's a good hook," Gow says. Autism news, information and support. It was not right for us to say, You should lose more money. . Ambiguous cut to black! Beginnings and endings are important in all forms of fiction, but Id argue especially so in scripted television. Elsewhere's finale, titled "The Last One," aired on May 25, 1988, and the bulk of its narrative was concerned with the requisite deaths, departures, transfers, and tying up of loose ends that one might expect. Somehow, a literal airplane has crashed into the hospital. As Dr. Fiscus struggles with the anxiety of leaving the hospital, his last patient at St. Eligius is the actress portraying a valkyrie in a Wagner opera who has, get this, laryngitis. Elsewhere writer Tom Fontana was quoted as saying "Someone did the math once and something like 90 percent of all [American] television took place in Tommy Westphall's mind. There are other possible interpretations of Tommy's "vision" which may suggest something other than the entire series being his dream. Executive producer Bruce Paltrow explained that the show cost MTM more to produce than what NBC paid to broadcast it--which is common--but that because the outlook for recouping those deficits through syndicated reruns is so bleak, the company didnt consider another year of expenditures worth its while. A few shows are outside of American television such as the British show, "Red Dwarf." The last year, I put in a rug and a lamp. I think there was a period when last rites were being performed when we could have rallied, he said, his tone clinically matter-of-fact. And because we were never a hit, we didnt have the firepower behind us to make the syndication business., Paltrow said he bears no grudge against the network or MTM for terminating St. Why did the Fairy Queen have to die for a poor deal? What is the rationale/justification for ending the series this way? It only takes a minute to sign up. was a show that got by largely on the strength of its ensemble, running for six seasons from 1982-88. Why did Sonny trust Carlo enough to introduce him to the family and then sour on him? Those two impressive achievements would have likely relegated the bizarre ending of St. St. I thought I knew what it meant, but it was so weird, especially for my younger mind, so I went running down the hallway and grabbed my mom and I was like, You have to read this. --Tom Fontana, former producer, St. The Birdman of St. I had no ideas of their plans to do that. More: Why The X-Files Season 12 Never Happened. Yet, none of those universes compare to the sheer enormity of the Tommy Westphall world, which traces back to the series finale of popular 1980s medical drama St. NBC Entertainment President Brandon Tartikoff is fond of defining quality television as something that starts with low ratings and ends with a cat meowing--a reference to programs produced by MTM Enterprises, which end with a kitten logo in a sly takeoff on MGMs roaring lion. My character died in the second-to-last episode, but I was in the last episode in a scene in which Howies character pays a visit to Dr. Axelrods corpse in the morgue. Is it safe to publish research papers in cooperation with Russian academics. "[Fontana] was fond of putting in references to previous shows he worked on, including bringing characters from St. MARK HARMON (Dr. Robert Caldwell): I didnt see it live. In the last episode's final two scenes, Donald Westphall having just returned to St. Eligius is shown in Dr. Auschlander's office pondering the recent death from stroke of his colleague and mentor. Please feel free to submit articles to enhance the knowledge, acceptance, understanding and research of Autism and ASD. What's he thinking about?". Heres how St. Share. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Elsewhere team enjoyed life on the series even when times were tough, which was always. Elsewhere to Homicide: Life on the Street, which shared a writer/producer in Tom Fontana. Elsewhere; by extension this hypothesis can be extended to include the science fiction program The X-Files and the Law & Order franchise (due to various crossovers with characters from Homicide, in particular Det. With the aria "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" (Doretta's Beautiful Dream) from Puccini's opera La Rondine playing, Tommy Westphall enters the office and runs to the window, where he looks at the snow falling outside St. In the closing moments of the episode, a boy named Tommy Westphall (Chad Allen), the son of medical director Dr. Donald Westphall, was seen peering into a snow globe. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? It was bold and shocking and upset some people. Elsewhere" and "Oz," and, as Gow tells it, "It was that little connection that spawned a thousand other connections -- references to fictional airlines, companies, nods from one series to another.". You can barely please half the people most of the time. DAVID MORSE (Dr. Jack Boomer Morrison): I felt two things. Elsewhere is not a great place to work or convalesce. But this television-changing theory doesn't stop there. The one where EW follows up with the cast. Most scripted television shows end in cancellation, so theres something special about the ones that get the chance to go out on their own terms. These strings go on across multiple decades of television, with I Love Lucy being the earliest example. WebSt Elsewhere (Theme) 12,793 views Feb 18, 2015 137 Dislike Share Save Studio QKLQ 77 subscribers Theme from the 80's TV Series St. Why did DOS-based Windows require HIMEM.SYS to boot? When NBCs hour-long hospital drama St. ", Father: "Well, we finally topped off the 22nd story. I thought it was an interesting choice to make I respect [the ambition]. How was your day up on the building? Fontana wrote a fictional "Weigert Corporation" as an intergral part of both "St. Elsewhere,[1] which ran on NBC from 1982 to 1988.[2]. Elsewhere, you see, fielded one of the most confoundingly weird finales in television history, a variation on the age-old "it was all a dream" trope that left viewers scratching their heads. Related: Crisis On Infinite Earths Solved DC Movies' Continuity Problem. ", This means cartoons and late-night shows are notably excluded, but it gets far more specific than that. St. "That really solidifies things. Fontanas favored conclusion was a literal apocalypse, where the staff of St. Eligius would be standing by in the year 2013 while a toxic gas cloud passed over, the result of a corporate war between foreign factions. They made a choice and the choice is interesting. [3][4] The following exchange occurs: Grandfather: "Good. EW gathered a dozen members of the cast for a photo shoot and asked them to reflect on the years they spent making this provocative, eccentric, beloved show, which you can check out in our third-annual Reunions Issue. [1][6] This hypothesis was originally put forward by comic book and TV writer Dwayne McDuffie in a 2002 blog post,[8] as a reductio ad absurdum argument against making strong statements about fictional continuity based upon guest appearances. was a solid drama that gave a boatload of great actors some steady work for a few years, but it will always be a peculiar show for that final detail. Of course, every party has a pooper, and there are those that consider the Tommy Westphall universe ridiculous. Elsewhere to end the way it did? Elsewhere" that the whole show had been in the character Westphall's dream. This ending was not serious to me. Elsewhere had been a product of Tommy Westphall's (an autistic boy) imagination, with elements of the above scene used as its own evidence. Elsewhere's characters. Dr Pepper includes an homage to Tommy Westphall's snowglobe in its 2021 advertising campaign. Making a splash: A deep dive into the live-action Little Mermaid with a new generation's Ariel. Not necessarily because the serieswhich had earned 13 Emmy Awards during its runwas ending, but because producers opted for a highly unconventional finale. You never knew what was going to happen next. As of this writing, 441 shows can be tied to St. WebThe problem that I see with the ending is that they explained away the whole show as the daydreams of an autistic child's imagination. The Show One TV writer wants to put a copy of the grid on her office wall and put 'YOU ARE HERE' on the show she writes for.". Tommy runs to see the snow falling outside the window, and that's when everything changes. Cheers spun off the long-running seriesFrasier, and that series had its events referenced or its characters cameo on shows likeCaroline in the City, The John Larroquette Show,and evenThe Simpsons. The episode marked the end of St. This 40-year-old show looks like that nurses job in that ER, and the characters coping mechanisms and responses to trauma may be dramatized, but they arent implausible. What is the Russian word for the color "teal"? Crisis On Infinite Earths Solved DC Movies' Continuity Problem, Star Wars' Next Show Needs To Fill The Biggest Gap In Anakin's Life, 1 Sorcerers Stone Problem Could Make The Harry Potter Remake Harder, Why Missy's Hair Is Shorter In Young Sheldon Season 6 Episode 18. Inside the globe was a tiny mock-up of St. Eligius, the medical center that was featured in the series. Elsewhere to a trivial mention in Fontanas biography, if not for the curiosity of a playwright named Keith Gow. Elsewhere's characters appear in Tommy's dream doesn't mean they don't also exist in the show's actual reality, and thus the ending is being interpreted wrong, and by extension the universe theory is invalid. All Rights Reserved, In the age of streaming in particular, I feel as if this is even more true than its been in the past. St. Was the fact that Tommy is considered Autistic symbolic in any way? Can I use my Coinbase address to receive bitcoin? Theyre more interested in the colossal mind-fuck that is the. The common thread running through the last season (besides a consistent plot about a special new artificial heart) is that St. Eligius is probably going to close, right around the same time the hospitals residents (read: the younger main cast members) are all ending their residencies and about to head out into the depressing world of medicine. Elsewhere was the designated comic relief for the first few episodes. I felt it wasnt serious. Even some of the more innocuous-seeming connections can lead to some shocking places takeThe John Larroquette Show, which all but the most dedicated TV fanatics could be forgiven for not remembering. The best music, movies, TV, books, comedy and more. Elsewhere visited the Cheers bar, the creators of Cheers offered no consent to have their series thought of as imaginary. Even if that's true though, thinking about it remains an amusing diversion. Via Wikipedia: The most common interpretation of this scene is that the entire series of events in the series St. Weatherson's fifth objection holds that the appearance of a person or event in a dream does not mean the person or event cannot exist in real life. 59K views 4 years ago. Elsewhere have appeared on other television shows and those shows' characters appeared on more shows, and so on, a "Tommy Westphall Universe" hypothesis (postulated by Dwayne McDuffie) argues that a significant amount of fictional episodic television exists within a fictional universe imagined by Tommy Westphall. As Gow told HuffPost, "St. Along with U.S.-based fan Ash Crowe, Gow began to develop a chart linking the series to other shows on television. It was all a dream! Even if you go to Alice in Wonderland, and he has the wonderful poem Life is But a Dream in it, still it was serious. In an interview withPaley Matters in 2018, Fontana who co-wrote the finale expressed his ongoing surprise and weird sense of pride at how that final scene has, well, snowballed into the mother of all pop culture fan theories. That's the nature of a hospital drama, that's why we tune in. Can you still use Commanders Strike if the only attack available to forego is an attack against an ally? I thought it was interesting. I tell you, the last episode, I never bought it. The show was a proving ground for actors you have seen in a million things before or since: Denzel Washington and Howie Mandel were easily the most recognizable, but there were also ringers like Mark Harmon, David Morse, Ed Begley Jr., Bruce Greenwood, Ronny Cox, and not only Mr. Feeny himself (William Daniels), but his wife (real and fictional) Bonnie Bartlett. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing this? Elsewhere. Television these daysor rather, television that jerks like me actually bother to write aboutbasically falls into two categories now: Heavily scripted and serialized prestige TV or reality show stuff that sounds like a made up show on 30 Rock. "Red Dwarf" is now included as well. Theyre more interested in the colossal mind-fuck that is the Tommy Westphall Universe. When NBCs hour-long hospital drama St. Elsewhere signed off after six seasons on May 25, 1988, more than a few viewers were saddened. Not necessarily because the serieswhich had earned 13 Emmy Awards during its runwas ending, but because producers opted for a highly unconventional finale. ED BEGLEY JR. (Dr. Victor Ehrlich): It was quite fitting for what they had done the previous six years. Be sure to join us next time as we look back on an even more esoteric final episode of an even more esoteric show: The Prisoner! Weatherson, in his sixth objection, offers the example of Michael Bloomberg playing the role of New York City Mayor both on Law & Order and in real life, which, if one accepts the logic of the hypothesis, indicates that real life is in the head of Tommy Westphall. Also, consider that each connection fromSt. Elsewhere" universe with other shows, then those shows with other shows, has created an elaborate web of American television. The Tommy Westphall universe hypothesis makes the claim that not only does St. Elsewhere through fictional crossovers and spin-offs, resulting in a large fictional universe taking place entirely within Tommy's mind. What symbolic value does either the globe or the snow have on the ending of the series? This year, Ken Lowe is revisiting some of the most influential TV shows that made it to an officially planned final episode. I remember reading about it in the paper that there was controversy over it. Crowe told HuffPost that if they were to start over today, they'd exclude fictional products as being the basis for counting a crossover, explaining, "since we started this, there's apparently been a real consolidation in fake-prop companies.". Does the 500-table limit still apply to the latest version of Cassandra? So you pick your horse and place your bet. Because a lot of autistic children are withdrawn, it seems as though they're in their own world.