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Does The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air have the largest fictional universe of all-time?

F

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
Doesn't that mean that technically all of the shows you've listed also have the largest fictional universe? It goes both ways, right?
 
M

Morts

Member
Plumbob said:
The issue with this theory is that if St. Elsewhere is in Tommy's mind, he could have drawn elements or characters for it from anywhere, including other TV shows. Referring to a work of art does not include it in the universe (e.g. Star Wars in Captain America).
Click to expand...

Yeah the Westphall thing seems to fall apart quite quickly for me.
 
T

The Albatross

Member
Excellent work OP.

I would have figured it's All in the Family, as so many of those 1970s sitcoms orbited on the sun that was All in the Family, but this makes a compelling argument. I think that the Family Matters link is a tough one to make, because you could probably find other guest appearances of other actors/actresses on some shows, and then make those links.

It could also mean that Will is tangentially related to John McClain.
 
A

AuthenticM

Member
The thing is, when the writers of all of the TV shows you listed were doing their job, they were not taking into account the other TV show's continuity or universe all of the time that they were writing their TV shows. No way through all of the years of Fresh Prince or The Jeffersons, were the writers coordinating every week to make sure nothing they wrote would clash with their supposed shared continuity.

There was no intention of making a shared universe. The cameos that you listed were just that, cameos. They were a one-time or two-time thing that was given little thought. They just did it because "it was cool" or for the money or both, and then moved on.

So I would say there was no fictional universe.
 
P

Professor Renegade

Banned
Thornton Reed said:
crossoversscaled.jpg
Click to expand...

What the FUCK am I looking at.
 
LordRaptor

LordRaptor

Member
AuthenticM said:
The thing is, when the writers of all of the TV shows you listed were doing their job, they were not taking into account the other TV show's continuity or universe all of the time that they were writing their TV shows. No way through all of the years of Fresh Prince or The Jeffersons, were the writers coordinating every week to make sure nothing they wrote would clash with their supposed shared continuity.
Click to expand...

as opposed to.... what, comic books? LOL
 
P

plagiarize

Banned
While I love the Tommy Westphall thing, using Morley brand cigarettes seems a bit of a cheat, because it's a been used as a stand in cigarette brand in Hollywood since at least 1960. No reason different fictional universes can't share brands, real or otherwise. It's like saying every film with M+Ms takes place in the same universe.

Still, if you want to go that route, you've got another connection to Predator, which also contains them.

Anyways, another fun one to delve into is Happy Days. A spin off itself (though from an anthology, so you can't make connections that way) Happy Days has seven direct spin-offs all clearly in the same fictional universe. I've never dived deeper than that to see if there are cameos of one offs that link it other places, but I imagine there are.
 
E

Earthbound64

Banned
Scooby-Doo.

The New Scooby-Doo Movies brought in dozens of groups.
Batman and Robin, Sonny and Cher, The Harlem Globetrotters, etc.
 
S

Spinluck

Member
I thought everyone knew this already?

I guess I was the only one who caught the post credit Fresh Prince scene of Janet Hubert with the Infinity Gauntlet.
 
J

Jake

Member
Plumbob said:
Also two shows sharing the same cigarette brand is a bit of a stretch. That seems more like an Easter Egg.
Click to expand...

The cigarette brand thing isn't even an Easter egg, its often just practical: There's a big prop house in LA that a lot of places use and their fake Marlboro cigarettes prop is Morleys.

It's the same reason everyone is reading the same newspaper on a dozen TV shows and movies (unless they are all taking place on the same day in the same universe of course). I called the prop house a couple months back and they don't stock that newspaper anymore unfortunately.

azbxEzj_700b.jpg

8080446_f520.jpg
 
C

cntr

Banned
The issue with the Tommy Westphall universe is that the fact that it's a dream undermines it all, since presumably he'd incorporate real life fiction into his dream world.

Plus, a lot of the universes mutually cannot co-exist. A lot of the shows involved directly contradict each other. The hypothetical Bel Air universe, however, could, because it's composed only of sitcoms set in a normal world.
 
I

ignata

Member
So since there was an episode of Fresh Prince where the family was on Oprah, and also an episode where Will was on Leno, does this mean any time Oprah/Leno played themselves in a fictional universe that this is also connected?
 
P

plagiarize

Banned
So I know how Red Dwarf connects to Doctor Who...

But how does Red Dwarf connect to Angel?

Red Dwarf is recognized as a fictional TV show in the Buffyverse.

Edit: So yeah, I dispute that one completely. Apparently it's via the Weyland - Yutani link.

But if Red Dwarf is a fictional TV show in the Buffyverse, them showing a Weyland - Yutani logo wouldn't be any different to them showing any other companies logo. FOUL. I CRY FOUL.
 
B

blame space

Banned
there's an episode of SVU where they go into Munch's backstory and we meet his ex-wife. it was so good i wish i remember which episode it was.
 
P

PSqueak

Banned
If you wan to extrictly stay on tv shows, prolly cant beat St. Elsewhere.

However, i think the larges crossover count belongs to Ryu from street fighter.

Im going to give just a taste:

-Ryu was in the Marvel Vs Capcom series, which connects him internally with almost every capcom property and to the marvel universe.
>Marvel has had crossovers with DC, lego, star trek, attack on titan and a bajillion other things
-Ryu was in Tatsunoko vs capcom, which connects him with tatsunoko properties
>Tekkaman blade was in TVC and In Super Robot Wars J and W, connecting a shit load of mecha anime
-Ryu was in the namco vs capcom series (which includes the project X zone series) therefore he's connected to Sega and Namco properties
>PXZ had Sanger, who appears in the SRW alpha and OG games, connecting EVEN MORE mecha anime
-Ryu was in smash bros 4, which connects basically every nintendo property ever
-Sonic also was in smash, but Ryu met sonic in the Archie comics cross over event "worlds collide", connecting the entire archie sonic comics universe
>sonic appears in lego dimensions, connecting several more franchises like both ghost busters, the simpsons, adventure time, the A team and docrto who
-Ryu appeared officially in the Family guy Vs American dad fighting game, connecting him to the seth macfarlane toons universe.
-Ryu's street fighter partner, Guile, appeared in the capcom made Harvey Birdman videogame, conecting him to the hannah barbera universe
>Hanna barbera toons have had a huge ammount of crossovers, including with the WWE
>Race bannon is part of the Venture Bros. universe, conecting it.
 
M

Mortemis

Banned
St. Elsewhere is probably it, but damn didn't know how deep the fresh prince went. Crazy.

Not gonna put nearly as much effort as OP, but I feel like those Disney channel shows have had enough crossovers to connect everything they made in the last 20 years. Idk if they still do those tho
 
C

cntr

Banned
^A lot of video game crossovers say that they're in different universes but [plot] allowed them to meet up, though.

So it's a shared multiverse, not a shared universe.
 
AZ Greg

AZ Greg

Member
Jake said:
The cigarette brand thing isn't even an Easter egg, its often just practical: There's a big prop house in LA that a lot of places use and their fake Marlboro cigarettes prop is Morleys.

It's the same reason everyone is reading the same newspaper on a dozen TV shows and movies (unless they are all taking place on the same day in the same universe of course). I called the prop house a couple months back and they don't stock that newspaper anymore unfortunately.

azbxEzj_700b.jpg

8080446_f520.jpg
Click to expand...

Party pooper
 
B

besada

Banned
In TV it's the Westphall universe. In pulp fiction it's the Wold-Newton family.

Also, the OP has a fundamental problem. Fresh Prince is part of of The Jeffersons universe, not he other way around. The shows that came first and captured other shows get the name, not some johnny-come-lately show that tapped into an already existing universe.
 
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