INNER TOOB

THE TV CROSSOVER HALL OF FAME

I've been mentioning the TV Crossover Hall of Fame during my last few blog entries.....

I started the Hall of Fame back in 1999 to pay tribute to those TV characters who were especially notable for linking the TV Universe more cohesively.

At the time, my requirements for qualifications felt like they were a lot more stringent: each character had to have made an appearance in three different TV venues (series, mini-series, TV movie, cartoon, commercial, etc.).

I later expanded my roster of applicants to include real world personalities appearing as themselves. (How could you not induct Jack Benny or Milton Berle?) Later I started including objects like the Titanic and the NY Ledger, and will soon include locations as well. (Yale University, the Hotel Edison, Hooterville)

I even made special allowances, such as for Susie MacNamara of 'Private Secretary'. She may have appeared in only one other show besides hers (an episode of 'The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour', years after her own show ended), but it's generally conceded to be the very first TV crossover.

These special allowances are usually inducted as my "birthday honors list"; figuring that on that day, what I say goes.

As the years passed, the induction process began to gel so that each month had its own theme.

JANUARY - Classic TV
FEBRUARY - Black History Month
MARCH - Real Life Personalities (starting in 2007)
[This used to be a catch-all month]
APRIL - April Fools
MAY - "Queen of the May"
JUNE - Puppets/Cartoons
JULY - Western
AUGUST - "We Know Drama"
[I used to combine July and August for one Summer Showcase when I ran the Tubeworld Dynamic page on AOL... just so I could take a month off for vacation!]
SEPTEMBER - The Creators
OCTOBER - Horror & Evil
NOVEMBER - Politics & Newsmakers
DECEMBER - Tis The Season!

And every so often I would also celebrate those who linked to the Multiverse, having counterparts in such other fictional universes as the movie universe, the theatrical universe, the literary universe, the musical universe...... Hell, even the universe of greeting cards!

Someday I hope to find a permanent home for the TV Crossover Hall of Fame online, But in the meantime, I'll just point out that there are 132 members currently in the Hall.

And it doesn't look like I'll be running out of candidates anytime soon!

BCnU!
Toby