The best music, movies, TV, books, comedy and more. Crisis On Infinite Earths Solved DC Movies' Continuity Problem, Star Wars' Next Show Needs To Fill The Biggest Gap In Anakin's Life, 1 Sorcerers Stone Problem Could Make The Harry Potter Remake Harder, Why Missy's Hair Is Shorter In Young Sheldon Season 6 Episode 18. "[Fontana] was fond of putting in references to previous shows he worked on, including bringing characters from St. ), Fontana did, however, recall that half of the viewer mail retrieved after the finale was positive, while the other half made loose reference to a desire to burn [the studio lot] to the ground.". When NBCs hour-long hospital drama St. Elsewhere signed off after six seasons on May 25, 1988, more than a few viewers were saddened. Not necessarily because the serieswhich had earned 13 Emmy Awards during its runwas ending, but because producers opted for a highly unconventional finale. The notion that appearances by the same character in two or more series tie those series together in the same fictional universe is also problematic. orGrey's Anatomy, then you've got one series to thank. Elsewhere, which established a defiant tradition of baiting the NBC censors, blurring the line between the real and the surreal, tantalizing the alert viewers with inside jokes and subtle references to literature, television and pop music lyrics, going precariously far out on a limb and then deliberately chopping it off. Elsewhere; by extension this hypothesis can be extended to include the science fiction program The X-Files and the Law & Order franchise (due to various crossovers with characters from Homicide, in particular Det. Elsewhere was the designated comic relief for the first few episodes. Elsewhere. What's he thinking about?". [3][4] The following exchange occurs: Grandfather: "Good. WebSt Elsewhere Closing Credits Season 5 Lorenzo F 1.61K subscribers 47 Share 14K views 2 years ago #bumpers #tvthemes #televisionthemes WELCOME TO MY VIDEOS of little-known, forgotten TV gems. In the last episode's final two scenes, Donald Westphall having just returned to St. Eligius is shown in Dr. Auschlander's office pondering the recent death from stroke of his colleague and mentor. So far, the included shows span from "I Love Lucy" in 1951, to today, with 26 listed shows still on the air. STEPHEN FURST (Dr. Elliot Axelrod): I thought it was kind of cool, actually. The hospital at its center, Boston's fictional St. Eligius, picked up its titular nickname because of its reputation as an aging, poorly-staffed dumping ground for hopeless patients, and the show's urgent, fly-on-the-wall visual style added to its air of gritty realism. St. It wasn't unusual to hear other famous TV doctors and the like paged over St. Eligius' PA system, characters from series likeThe White Shadow, M*A*S*H*, andThe Mary Tyler Moore Show appeared or were referred to, and one season 3 episode even took place partially within another Boston institution the titular bar fromCheers. And in the end, Fiscus patient does finally sing. He went on to create the acclaimed seriesHomicide:Life on the Street (in which a character fromSt. Suddenly, we're taken to a small apartment where Tommy sits on the floor, playing with a snow globe. Tommy's World: The TV Legacy of St. Elsewhere's "Tommy At one point I was the answer for a Trivial Pursuit question. English version of Russian proverb "The hedgehogs got pricked, cried, but continued to eat the cactus". The shows cast had seen ups and downs, additions and subtractions in its time, with Flanders character Westphall eventually stepping down as the hospitals head to become a doctor there. And the fat lady sings tonight: The last episode of St. If the show were not great, if we had not had as many nominations, we probably wouldnt even be talking about it. But the notion isn't necessarily dependent on Tommy imagining anything: The connections still exist, whether they're considered a dream within fiction or just an interconnected television universe. It seems to imply that the events of the show were all imagined by the mind of a non-verbal young boy. Elsewhere seemed like an easy out. Executive producer Bruce Paltrow explained that the show cost MTM more to produce than what NBC paid to broadcast it--which is common--but that because the outlook for recouping those deficits through syndicated reruns is so bleak, the company didnt consider another year of expenditures worth its while. This has led to dozens of shows using the same fake product, so in terms of the chart, "that's become an increasingly complex can of worms," said Crowe. Elsewhere characters Dr. Roxanne Turner and Dr. Victor Ehrlich appear on Homicide: Life on the Street. What world is Tommy imagining inside that snow globe, he wonders aloud. Elsewhere by the residents and the surrounding community, the place has a reputation as a rathole. lump on inside of buttocks cheek For all the latest TV news, reviews, lists and features, follow. Erasing the fiction of an entire medium is not what Tom Fontana had planned. Christina Pickles, whose character of Nurse Helen Rosenthal ended the series triumphantly by kicking a drug dependency, is the only one who believes that St. Here on EW.com, read what each of them had to say about the daring and polarizing ending that helped define the WTF? Yet, none of those universes compare to the sheer enormity of the Tommy Westphall world, which traces back to the series finale of popular 1980s medical drama St. , the magic was in the tone, as it was with another show by the same production company. St. Eligius is a teaching hospital in Bostons South End (the building that appears in the title sequence is actually an apartment building there). Elsewhere" and "Oz," and, as Gow tells it, "It was that little connection that spawned a thousand other connections -- references to fictional airlines, companies, nods from one series to another.". "You know, I still have the snow globe," he said. I thought it was terrible. Can my creature spell be countered if I cast a split second spell after it? Ambiguous cut to black! Why does the husband leave the family in The Others? CYNTHIA SIKES (Dr. Annie Cavanero): Part of me likes that whole thing because its sort of an Orson Welles-ian Rosebud [ending]. But [executive producers] Tom Fontana and John Masius and Bruce Paltrow didnt want just a normal ending. Elsewhere, the magic was in the tone, as it was with another show by the same production company, Hill Street Blues. Theyre more interested in the colossal mind-fuck that is the Tommy Westphall Universe. St. The original decision to include fictional product crossovers actually comes from the origins of the chart itself. If it were just a solid hospital show, it would be a popular back catalog binge watch, but its a part of TV history for two reasons: its novel approach to the hospital drama, and. Here's my son, I talk to him, I don't even know if he can hear me. We cant take that jump from seeing these people, Norman, Ed [Flanders] and Bill [Daniels], and this young boy for six years, and suddenly were supposed to believe that theyre these other people. Mandels character, though, gets the easiest metaphor of the episode. The most far-reaching regulation is that they "do not include any show that is not a narrative live-action program with a shared continuity from episode to episode. Offers may be subject to change without notice. WebNo, you missed the point. When youre finished, watch the cast reunion on Good Morning America and voice your own opinion on the finale in our poll. Those two impressive achievements would have likely relegated the bizarre ending of St. Elsewhere was never a huge ratings hit, but it had a loyal following, won awards, and remained well-regarded in the years following its final curtain call. More than puzzling, some people found it to be an actual puzzle. With the aria "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" (Doretta's Beautiful Dream) from Puccini's opera La Rondine playing, Tommy Westphall enters the office and runs to the window, where he looks at the snow falling outside St. World of his own. The whole circus is overseen by Dr. Donald Westphall (Ed Flanders), with Dr. Daniel Auschlander (Norman Lloyd) and Dr. Mark Craig (Daniels) rounding out the experienced older set of doctors helping the residents learn the ropes. As of this writing, 441 shows can be tied to St. Elsewhere, you see, fielded one of the most confoundingly weird finales in television history, a variation on the age-old "it was all a dream" trope that left viewers scratching their heads. Among Lloyds favorite sequences was one in which a stoned Dr. Auschlander, treating the side effects of chemotherapy with marijuana, stumbled into a 7-Eleven store with a case of midnight munchies. Review/Television; Ed Flanders as Dr. Westphal in, "Six Objections to the Westphall Hypothesis", "Director Ben Wheatley Talks 'High-Rise', 'Doctor Who', 'Free Fire' and More at TIFF", "NewsRadio (TV Series) Daydream (1996) Trivia", Other arguments against the Tommy Westphall Universe, Association for Science in Autism Treatment, Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, Maia Chung Autism and Disabilities Foundation (Jamaica), The Accidental Teacher: Life Lessons from My Silent Son, Aspergirls: Empowering Females with Asperger's Syndrome, Freaks, Geeks, and Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Everybody Is Different: A Book for Young People Who Have Brothers or Sisters With Autism, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tommy_Westphall&oldid=1148529078, Fictional characters on the autism spectrum, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 6 April 2023, at 18:38. Elsewhere's final episode, "The Last One", one interpretation of which is that the entire St. As a special tribute to recently deceased writer Dwayne McDuffie, CBR is pleased to present one of the most well-known texts from his time writing about the art of comics in "Six Degrees of St. The one where EW follows up with the cast. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Much of the humor between characters is gallows humor. St. And people say, Norman, youre either mad or senile or both--but you dont get a show like St. The series sported a large ensemble cast, with veteran actors Ed Flanders and Norman Lloyd anchoring the proceedings for most of its run as Dr. Donald Westphall and Dr. Daniel Auschlander, respectively, and it made household names of up-and-comers like Howie Mandel, Mark Harmon, and Denzel Washington, as well. How was your day up on the building? [3][5][6] According to Lindsey Freeman, the narrative framing of Tommy's imagination as within a snow globe occurs because, as an "oneiric and mnemonic gadget", a snow globe "often finds itself as a companion piece to the dream sequences found in television and movies". Remembering 'St. Elsewhere' 25 Years Later - HuffPost Through crossovers, spinoffs, cameos, or fictional brands or products appearing in more than one show, everything from. But for others, it was a stroke of inspiration. Elsewhere episode; Cheers spawned Frasier, a character who appeared on Wings; John Munch, the detective from Homicide, had mingled with the St. Eligius crew, and he has appeared on shows ranging from The X-Files to The Wire, effectively making him the Patient Zero of what's become known as The Tommy Westphall Universe theory. After six seasons of letting those within the hospital doing the hard work of being human and showing humanity it was our turn. Did the drapes in old theatres actually say "ASBESTOS" on them? They tried to really think outside the box the box in this case being that little television box of the 80s and they did something so different. Elsewhere" universe with other shows, then those shows with other shows, has created an elaborate web of American television. Characters from Homicide crossed over with multiple series, including The X-Files, Law & Order, The Wire and Arrested Development, with Richard Belzer's John Munch being the most frequent culprit. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? The Tommy Westphall universe hypothesis makes the claim that not only does St. Of course, every party has a pooper, and there are those that consider the Tommy Westphall universe ridiculous. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. He adds that, "while a controversial and maddening ending for some loyal viewers, the final episode of St. Its just asking too much from all of us. But I loved that they took the leap, and that was in the spirit of the show. They remember it because of young Tommy Westphall (Chad Allen)the autistic son of Dr. Westphall, who was a recurring character on the show. For a constant stream of entertainment news and discussion, follow HuffPost Entertainment on Viber. Elsewhere's characters. That's the nature of a hospital drama, that's why we tune in. It was highly unpredictable, just like every episode. WebTommy Westphall, portrayed by Chad Allen, is a minor character from the drama television series St. St elsewhere ending theory. Fontana was the executive producer and showrunner for Homicide for its entire seven years. Somehow, a literal airplane has crashed into the hospital. There are oodles of ways to end a TV series. What were the most popular text editors for MS-DOS in the 1980s? To me the last 10 minutes of the final THE TOMMY WESTPHALL UNIVERSE But the series managed to survive for six years on a powerful drug called demographics: The show attracted a relatively small but highly desirable audience of young, affluent viewers, and that in turn attracted plenty of advertising dollars to NBC. Elsewhere was known for its In 1988, though, St. Elsewhere came to an end for creative as well as financial reasons. Its an episode of heartfelt goodbyes and dramatic exits. The fictional Morley cigarettes are particularly pervasive, as is Hudson University, an institution of higher learning mentioned on The Cosby Show, Law & Order, and Murder, She Wrote. Often, characters crossing over on the same network can ignite a connection, with shared brands or locations providing the connective tissue for others. Making a splash: A deep dive into the live-action. But they did want to end the show, and not have little St. Elsewheres coming after it. Through crossovers, spinoffs, cameos, or fictional brands or products appearing in more than one show, everything from Brooklyn Nine Nine and Law & Order to Everybody Hates Chris and Dr. Who were arguably all dreamed up by young Tommy. At least that's the most widely held interpretation of St. Elsewhere 's final moments. The ending has become an infamous example of the "it was all a dream" conclusion that's appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows over the years. I could have put in a sauna and a Jacuzzi, you know?. Elsewhere. Making a splash: A deep dive into the live-action Little Mermaid with a new generation's Ariel. Ambiguous cut to black! Elsewhere to Homicide: Life on the Street, which shared a writer/producer in Tom Fontana. By using our Services, you agree to our use of cookies. But now, viewers are picking shows out to binge watch, and they want to know that their time investment is going to have some payoff. The final scene of 30 Rock opens with a view of the eponymous building, which fades into a model of the same, in a snow globe, observed by NBC president Kenneth Parcell roughly a century into the future, as flying cars whiz past his window. In fact, for all its success, most aspects of St. The final scene of St. From the mind of a young person whose fantasies were coming to life before him, it was neat. Over time, it began to look something like the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game. Revisiting St. Elsewhere's Strange Snow Globe Series Finale When we read it, we all had reservations about it. The kind of gallows humor that was in the show was a case of art imitating life, Paltrow continued. St Elsewhere I spent a shift sitting bedside with my daughter in the emergency room during a three-day-long stay once, watching the same sainted nurse come and go as an endless tide of needy patients washed in. Elsewhere truly shook things up and gave us one of the most talked-about series finales in history with the snow globe. After watching six Emmy-nominated seasons of drama medical and emotional, dark and light, envelope-pushing and heartstring-pulling at the run-down St. Eligius, we were led to believe in the finales last scene that the entire show was actually a product of the imagination of (construction worker?) By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. It is underfunded, understaffed, crowded, and running on fumes. That kind of anguish you just cant transmit. As far as I could tell, there was always controversy around St. This expands the Tommy Westphall universe ever outward, to the point where over 400 shows now reside under its umbrella. Dedicated fans attempting to chase down every connection toSt. This is the final scene from "The Last One", the 22nd episode (137th overall) from the sixth and final season of NBC's 1982-88 medical drama Because a lot of autistic children are withdrawn, it seems as though they're in their own world. ). Rather than case-of-the-week stories with infallible doctors and carboard-thin supporting characters,St. It's safe to say that the final episode, specifically the end scene, of St. CLARIFICATION: This article originally included a quote that incorrectly stated all of the non-American shows in the list. Some people liked its provocativeness. Elsewhere remains one of the most famous examples of the "all just a dream" plot. The doctors had visited the bar on Cheers in one St. Tell me if you think it means what I think it means! My mom read it, and she looked at me sort of puzzled too and said, I think it means its all in your head? I said, Thats what I thought it think it means! So I knew that it was really cool, and I loved that. Elsewhere" that the whole show had been in the character This year, Ken Lowe is revisiting some of the most influential TV shows that made it to an officially planned final episode. Elsewhere have appeared on other television shows and those shows' characters appeared on more shows, and so on, a "Tommy Westphall Universe" hypothesis (postulated by Dwayne McDuffie) argues that a significant amount of fictional episodic television exists within a fictional universe imagined by Tommy Westphall. Surely more shows have somehow become connected in the four years since, especially since the Crisis on Infinite Earths Arrowverse crossover included characters from nearly every DC movie and TV continuity ever. This 40-year-old show looks like that nurses job in that ER, and the characters coping mechanisms and responses to trauma may be dramatized, but they arent implausible. So Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Mayberry R.F.D., and Make Room for Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show are gone. DAVID MORSE (Dr. Jack Boomer Morrison): I felt two things. Partnering with The Huffington Post, Gow and Crowe published an extensive update of the "Tommyverse" to their television web of compromised shows, which HuffPost illustrator, Alissa Scheller, put into visual form. The Marvel Cinematic Universe might seem like a huge landscape of interconnected shows and TV movies, but the Tommy Westphall universe has it beat. I felt it wasnt serious. Elsewhere Tags theory, tv, map, universe, autism, st. elsewhere, concept, 80s Additional References Urban Dictionary Wikipedia About. WebYet, in the ending of St. Elsewhere. They made a choice and the choice is interesting. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. But of course, none of that is what people really remember the last episode for. One prominent critic, Professor Brian Weatherson, argues that just because St. would not look or feel the same without its influence and success. Is there a weapon that has the heavy property and the finesse property (or could this be obtained)? Just some of the other series that have ended up connected as part of the Tommy Westphall universe include Community, Seinfeld, Person of Interest, Malcolm in the Middle, and Married with Children. In the moments before hes expected to announce the fate of the hospital, Auschlander suffers a catastrophic stroke off-screen and is discovered dead, with the cast gathering for a mournful goodbye. Elsewhere" -- the notion of which is a hated cliche, yes, but could it be the reality of almost every story arc you've ever loved on American television? Elsewhere ' s series finale features momentous changes for several main characters, including the departures of Drs. Elsewhere airs at 10 p.m. on Channels 4, 36 and 39. Proponents of the Tommy Westphall Universe argue that because of this fictional crossover, the two series exist within the same fictional universe, and within Tommy Westphall's mind because of the final episode of St. The thing is, autism was - and still is - One TV writer wants to put a copy of the grid on her office wall and put 'YOU ARE HERE' on the show she writes for.". NBC Entertainment President Brandon Tartikoff is fond of defining quality television as something that starts with low ratings and ends with a cat meowing--a reference to programs produced by MTM Enterprises, which end with a kitten logo in a sly takeoff on MGMs roaring lion. Elsewhere was a solid drama that gave a boatload of great actors some steady work for a few years, but it will always be a peculiar show for that final detail. You never knew what was going to happen next. New blog post from our CEO Prashanth: Community is the future of AI, Improving the copy in the close modal and post notices - 2023 edition. That would surely lead to spreadsheets the size of walls: Weyland-Yutani is the company behind the machinations of the Alien franchise. St. In the closing moments of the episode, a boy named Tommy Westphall (Chad Allen), the son of medical director Dr. Donald Westphall, was seen peering into a snow globe. this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. There are other possible interpretations of Tommy's "vision" which may suggest something other than the entire series being his dream. When NBCs hour-long hospital drama St. If it were just a solid hospital show, it would be a popular back catalog binge watch, but its a part of TV history for two reasons: its novel approach to the hospital drama, and, Nobody is too interested in that, though. I thought it was an interesting choice to make I respect [the ambition]. How's he been? What is the Russian word for the color "teal"? Along with U.S.-based fan Ash Crowe, Gow began to develop a chart linking the series to other shows on television. This means that all of those series and other media thatthey referenced in-universe, which in the case ofThe Simpsons is ridiculously extensive technically take place in the same universe asSt. At one point. ER and Chicago Hope wouldnt exist in the form they did without St. Its been observed that much of American primetime TV has been about cops and the sex lives of doctors. Elsewhere take place within Tommy's mind, but so do numerous other television series which are directly and indirectly connected to St. A Weyland-Utani ship is also seen in a spaceship graveyard in the British sci-fi series Red Dwarf.. 7. In another, Dr. Morrison, played by David Morse, lost his wife in a freak household accident, then listened with a mixture of anguish and reverence to her heart beating after being transplanted into someone elses chest. Its just too big a leap. Ending of "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans". We're often considered and thought of as robot-like people who have no emotions and who only see other people as objects. Elsewhere an autistic boy is shown to have imagined and created a vast and deeply human universe. Even some of the more innocuous-seeming connections can lead to some shocking places takeThe John Larroquette Show, which all but the most dedicated TV fanatics could be forgiven for not remembering. TIL That thanks to the series finale of St Elsewhere, and - Reddit Another reason for the importance of this ending is the nature of what we were shown. Theres a lot to unpack: is it simply making a statement on the show as a fictional world? CHAD ALLEN (Tommy Westphall): I remember the script arrived, I read it, got to the end, and I was stumped. While the doctors of St. Despite its high standing among TV critics, St. What's he thinking about? (Quizzed by IndieWire in 2012 as to who exactly came up with the idea, neither Fontana nor co-writers Channing Gibson or John Tinker could remember. I think other people will find it puzzling, odd, maybe unfulfilling in some way.. What world is Tommy imagining inside that snow globe, he wonders aloud. I had no ideas of their plans to do that. And then I saw it and I thought, Its too much. Elsewhere characters Dr. Roxanne Turner (Alfre Woodard) and Dr. Victor Ehrlich (Ed Begley Jr.) appeared on Homicide: Life on the Street. Most scripted television shows end in cancellation, so theres something special about the ones that get the chance to go out on their own terms. Elsewhere cast reunion: It was a show that changed television, 'St. They needed a way to end the show It was a provocative ending. In 1988, though, St. And because I cant tell you I have a better idea of how it couldve ended, I can live with that one. Elsewhere were more demonstrative and understanding of autistic people then all 12 seasons of The Big Bang Theory put together. ERIC LANEUVILLE (Luther Hawkins): I look back on it now and say Well, it kinda worked. When I first saw it, I had some real reservations about it. As Begley added wistfully, Its never over till its over--but I think in this case, its over .. Fox doesnt think hell live to be 80: Every day its tougher.
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