It was dramatic, emotional, quirky and often funny.įor me, it was the first "serious" TV series I ever fell in love with. It had a specific cinematic look and design, weaved together dozens of complicated plot lines that challenged the viewer to pay attention week to week, and had one of the best ensemble casts in TV history. This show was unlike anything on network TV before. Elsewhere" the road to peak television would look different, IMHO. Now we're in "peak television" with the overwhelming amount of quality programming being produced across so many platforms, but without "St. I've seen NBC's 80s and 90s lineup called a second golden age for TV. Elsewhere" ran six seasons from 1982 to 1988. That’s quite the fantasy world that little Tommy Westphall created sitting in his chair staring at that snow globe.NBC's medical drama "St. Shows including I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, Gilligan’s Island, The Brady Bunch, MASH, Seinfeld, Home Improvement, Scrubs, Friends, Arrested Development, The Wire, Coach, The Drew Carey Show, Grace Under Fire, Ellen, Six Feet Under, Las Vegas, The Office, Heroes, Bewitched, Three’s Company, and Lost. So far, over 280 different television shows have been linked back to St. Angel was a spin-off of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, so both of them were Tommy Westphall’s idea as well. A decade later on the supernatural drama Angel, Yoyodyne was a client of the law firm Wolfram and Heart. The main character of Larroquette worked at a bus station built by a company called Yoyodyne.
Cheers crossed over with The John Larroquette Show, adding it to Tommy’s fantasy.Auschlander visit the Cheers bar, bringing Cheers and it’s spin-offs Frasier and Wings into the St. Homicide’s Detective John Munch was moved to Law & Order: SVU in 1999, meaning that that show was also in Tommy’s head, as are all the various Law & Order programs since they all take place in a common TV universe.Because of that crossover, we can conclude that Homicide was a creation of Tommy’s mind as well. Roxeanne Turner appeared on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1998. Elsewhere was all in Tommy’s mind, then so was every other show and character that the show crossed over with. With the twist ending, the writers rendered not only their own show a fantasy, but dozens of other shows and characters as well. Elsewhere had only existed in Tommy’s mind. The implication is that during the entire run of the show, every episode and every character of St. The toy? It’s a snow globe, and inside of it is St. He explains that Tommy just sits there all day long staring at that toy. Westphall makes a comment to Auschlander that he doesn’t understand this autism thing.
Auschlander too, but in this scene, he’s Tommy’s grandfather. Westphall walks in, but he’s not a doctor…he’s dressed as a construction worker. The scene then cuts to 10-year-old Tommy Westphall, who is the autistic son of hospital administrator Dr. Eligus Hospital can be seen under a light snowfall. But it wasn’t always intense drama, as the show rewarded its viewers by referencing other TV shows like when some of the characters visited the bar Cheers.īut it’s the final scene of the entire series that may be it’s most iconic, and the crux of one of the most thought-provoking theories in the history of television.Īs the final episode is winding down to its final moments, St. Wendy Armstrong, who committed suicide after a misdiagnosis resulted in the death of an unborn baby. Peter White became a serial rapist before being shot and killed by a nurse. There were stories like the one where Dr. The show featured moments of high comedy and at the same time pure surrealism. There was ample time devoted to their personal lives as well. Patients didn’t always make it, doctors screwed up at times, and the staff’s lives weren’t just portrayed in the hospital. Coming across as a prime-time soap opera at times, the show also prided itself on its realistic portrayal of life on the edge of death. Eligus hospital in Boston, and at the time was considered the “Hill Street Blues” of medical shows. Elsewhere had a great run on prime-time television from 1982 – 1988.
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