Television Crossover Universe

THE TELEVISION CROSSOVER CROSSOVER UNIVERSE  LAUNCHED JANUARY 10, 2011 CELEBRATING FOUR YEARS This is the final of the anniversary postings, and my favorite of the most recent era of posts.  This was originally written for the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia introduction, but I modified it as an expansion on the methodology that I also talk about in the TVCU's first blog post from January 10, 2011, THE SECRET ORIGIN OF THE TELEVISION CROSSOVER UNIVERSE:  WHAT IT IS AND HOW IT CAME TO BE.  You should read that post, and read this post, as requirements before being able to talk about the TVCU. I hope you enjoyed revisiting with me my favorite posts, our readers' favorites, our oldest, and our newest, with new added reflective introductions.  Now back to writing the books. I promise, though, starting next week, you will start seeing new TVCU Crew Reviews, Quickies, and new full chronologies and updates of older posts.  You can help me out by letting me know...

Something that always surprises me when I try to discuss what I write about is that a lot of people do not understand what a fictional crossover is. I felt that before reading the Television Crossover Universe, I had best explain what it is. The term crossover can be used in a very general way, or in a more specific way. In a broader sense, a crossover can be any combination of two separate series. This can include mashups. An example of this would be a story or even a picture with Dirty Harry Potter, combining the character of Dirty Harry played by Clint Eastwood with the boy wizard from the J.K. Rowling books. It can also be a story that couldn’t possibly exist within the canon of the series involved. One example was the Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue animated special. This combined many famous cartoon characters, but presented them all as toys brought to life. For my purposes, what I consider to be a valid crossover is one where two series are combined in a way that demons...

I first became aware of the fictional crossover/shared reality concept when I was five years old. As my family was about to embark on a drive from Massachusetts to California, my father gave me my first comic book to keep me occupied, and it was an issue of the Marvel Comics adaptation of Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics. This is the first time I was able to comprehend what was going on here, on a significant level. All these characters from their own cartoons were appearing together, as part of the same reality, thus placing all their previous cartoons in the same reality. From that point on, I started becoming more aware. As I started reading more comics, I noticed how all the DC characters lived in one world while the Marvel characters lived on another, and I mostly only bought team and team-up books. Of course, once Superman met Spider-Man, my mind was blown again. I also started to notice cartoon events like the annual networks previews shows that would combine all their cart...

PAST I've just submitted my first book, the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia, to the publisher.  It's estimated to be released in early to mid October.  It takes a similar approach to this blog, but is focused only on horror and goes into much greater detail than these blog posts usually do.  If you are a fan of posts on this site covering topics like Scooby-Doo!, H.P. Lovecraft, Zombies, or other horror related material, you just might like the book. PRESENT In the next few months, I'll be updating some of the older blog posts here and writing new ones as well. FUTURE I'm already working on the next book.  It's similar to the last one, but instead of horror, I will be writing about cartoons.  I'm shooting for a 2016 release.  If you are a fan of posts on this site covering topics like My Little Pony, Offspring of Zed, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or other animation related material, you just might like the book.  (Note that the Zed theory will...

TVCU?  HCU?  Looniverse?  Cartoon Universe?  What? To help those who may be new, here is a brief review of some of the terms you may see used to describe shared realities. Cartoon Universe--This is the reality of my next book, the Cartoon Crossover Encyclopedia.  The Cartoon Universe is not exactly the same as the Looniverse, but it is very similar.  If you see a blog post with an entry that mentions the Cartoon Universe, you should assume in that case that the Cartoon Universe and Looniverse are one and the same.  And if you see an entry that mentions the Cartoon Universe, you are getting a sneak peek at my second book. Doctor Who Universe--This is the universe that Doctor Who takes place in, and anything connected to Doctor Who. HCU--Abbreviation for Horror Crossover Universe. Horror Crossover Universe--This was the name of my first book and the name of the reality described in the book in its early draft.  The finished book is called ...