TVXOHOF, 09/2011: SUSAN HARRIS

So focused have I been on getting the Petrie Chronology completed before October 3rd, that I've totally forgotten about the TV Crossover Hall of Fame for September. It occurred to me after I got out of the Steely Dan concert last night; I don't know why. So I better rectify that before the month is over.....

It has been the tradition that September is the month we induct somebody from behind the scenes - producers, writers, etc - who has been instrumental in solidifying the connections of the TV Universe. In the past, the honorees (hopefully they'd see themselves as such) were Norman Lear, Dick Wolf, Anthony Zuiker, Russell T. Davies, Jamie Tarses, Aaron Spelling, Wm. T. Orr, Brandon Tartikoff, Gene Roddenberry, and Hanna & Barbera.

Save for Jamie Tarses (and Lucille Ball, who was inducted in April of 2002 as part of a 4-month consecutive run of Lucy that year in the Hall), it's been a good ol' boys network. So this year, we're doffing our Toob caps to another woman who's been a big influence on the Toobworld mosaic:

SUSAN HARRIS

Here's a quick Wikipedia nugget about the writer/producer:
Susan Harris (born October 28, 1940) is an American television comedy writer and producer.

Harris created numerous TV series: 'Soap', 'Benson', 'The Golden Girls', 'Empty Nest', 'Nurses', and 'The Golden Palace'. She also wrote or co-wrote all of the episodes of 'Soap' and appeared on two episodes of that show as a hooker named Babette. Her most successful show was 'The Golden Girls'.

'Soap' and 'Benson' were the first to forge a link for Toobworld as the character of Benson was originally working for the Tate family before he was spun off into his own show. But it's with that next batch of shows that Ms. Harris really delivered on the crossover aspect that is the building block of our little patch o' Toob. All four of those shows were set in Miami and were somehow inter-connected, mostly through appearances by Sophia Petrillo in them. 'The Golden Palace' was a sequel to 'The Golden Girls'; the doctor in 'Empty Nest' was a neighbor to the 'Girls', and he worked at the same hospital which was the location for 'Nurses'.

And for that effort, we're saluting Susan Harris as our newest member in the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame.

Excelsior!