Monday, January 26, 2009

TVXOHOF, 01/2009-D: ST. ELIGIUS HOSPITAL

The mantra for the fourth week of TV Crossover Hall Of Fame inductees is Location, Location, Location!

For this week's Classic TV entry into the anniversary class of the Hall Of Fame for January, 2009, we're celebrating what could be the greatest TV location of all - St. Eligius Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, as seen in 'St. Elsewhere'.

Actually, 'St. Elsewhere' is just the starting point for this teaching hospital. If there is such a thing as a center of the TV Universe, it just may be this building. So many TV shows can be linked to it directly, or through varied degrees of separation.

My crossover compadres, the Westphallians, have mapped it all out on a grid as to how almost all shows lead to St. Eligius. I don't agree with the premise that the TV Universe exists only in Tommy Westphall's head, thus making 'St. Elsewhere' the only true TV show in their version of Toobworld. But if you toss that aside, all of their descriptions of how the shows all connect is invaluable.

Here's just a partial list of TV shows that are linked to 'St. Elsewhere' directly:

'Cheers'
'The White Shadow'
'Homicide: Life On The Street'
'Chicago Hope'
'Tattinger's'/'Nick And Hillary'
'The Bob Newhart Show'
'Bewitched'

I set myself a time limit of a minute to come up with connections off the top of my head; I'm sure there are more to be found if I put some serious thought into it. And that's just a list of the direct connections. Spreading out from there we could list so many more, several hundred in fact!

Check out their graph and the key that accompanies it; you should be lost in there for a while.....

BCnU!
Toby O'B


2 comments:

Terence Towles Canote said...

When it comes to St. Elsewhere, I can't help but think of the Z. Z. Topp sequence. Which begs the question, do the Z. Z. Topp videos take place in Toobworld?

Toby O'B said...

At least those first three do, in which they're ghosts helping people. (I even have them make an unnamed cameo appearance in my Toobworld novel, which I'll probably never get around to finishing!)