Television Crossover Universe

 Charo, a Latino immigrant, is an American television institution and icon from the 1970s.  She's appeared in a lot of shows as herself, though probably not the shows you're thinking of.   January 15, 1951--Charo is born.   1970--The Name of the Game--Charo appeared in two episodes as herself.  Sandy, a young woman in the research dept of Howard Publications has wild romantic daydreams about her boss Glenn Howard that confuse her sense of reality, hampering Howard in an investigation. 1976--Charo and the Sergeant--A high-spirited entertainer, Charo Palmer, marries a U.S. Marine sergeant and tries to adapt to life as a military spouse.  Presumedly the marriage does not last considering her later appearances.   1977--The Brady Bunch Variety Show--Mike quits his job to let his family host a variety show.  Charo is one of the guest stars.  The Brady Bunch Variety Show is of course a spin-off of the Brady Bunch which has its ow...

 I'm running out of crossovers.  I used to have a rule.  Only series that had three crossovers get covered.  But I'm running out of ideas.  So now I'm also going to cover series that had a franchise, meaning they spun off movies or such from the original concept.  (In doing my due dilligence, I found that this series actually does have the crossovers to make it following my three crossover rule.) So today we're going to talk about Gilligan's Island.  With Gilligan, the skipper too.  The Millionaire and his wife.  The movie star, and the rest... okay, fine, the professor and Mary Ann.   William Gilligan was a mighty sailor man, or so the story goes.  However, he seemed on the island to be dimwitted at best. CPT Jonahs Grumy was the skipper.  He was brave and sure.  If not for the courage of the fearless two, the S.S. Minnow would be lost.   Thurston Howell III is a former multi-billionaire until after the sto...

1960--THE CHEVY MYSTERY SHOW--"Enough Rope"--Lt. Columbo (Bert Freed) investigating the murder of a psychologist's wife.   1961 to 1962--87TH PRECINCT--Another find from Gordon:   Two episodes were based on stories from Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series, airing in the ABC films, and one actually has an 87th Detective, Arthur Brown, that I could confirm. These books are set in a thinly-disguised New York, so we can say Arthur came out to visit for the wedding of Columbo's nephew (even if it appears he's an LA cop). A bunch of 87th stories have made it in to an 87th TV show or as TV movies or theatrical films (Akira Kurosawa even adapted one and used the music from Toho's H-Man, which should tickle Chris), and there was a Sixties comic and a Swedish graphic novel, too. The 1972 film Fuzz was set and filmed in Boston, but that can help hide the truth---the story had a recurring arch villian for the 87th who is a cross between Moriaryy and the Riddler, l...