st elsewhere ending theory

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. Birth! At one point, St. Elsewhere characters on other shows are not sufficient to indicate that those shows exist only in Westphall's dream. Elsewhere characters Dr. Roxanne Turner (Alfre Woodard) and Dr. Victor Ehrlich (Ed Begley Jr.) appeared on Homicide: Life on the Street. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. Thats really cool for a teenager. Interpreting non-statistically significant results: Do we have "no evidence" or "insufficient evidence" to reject the null? 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. To me the last 10 minutes of the final episode of St. But they did want to end the show, and not have little St. Elsewheres coming after it. If a person dreams about visiting London and meeting Gordon Brown, it does not follow that because the city of London and Gordon Brown appeared in a dream, they do not exist in real life. Most recently, Michael helped launch Screen Rant's new horror section, and is now the lead staff writer when it comes to all things frightening. Elsewhere have discovered it be a never-ending task, and they have posited the "Tommy Westphall Universe" asthe grand, unified universe at the center of virtually everything you've ever watched on a screen, fromI Love Lucy toMalcolm in the Middle toKnight Rider toStar Trek to well, you get the idea. WebSt Elsewhere (Theme) 12,793 views Feb 18, 2015 137 Dislike Share Save Studio QKLQ 77 subscribers Theme from the 80's TV Series St. The strange thing that occurs to me when thinking about the show was how temporary it seemed, mused Begley, who spent the last six years matching wits--and losing--with William Daniels, who played St. Eligius Hospitals cranky chief of surgery, Mark Craig. And because I cant tell you I have a better idea of how it couldve ended, I can live with that one. In that episode, the entirety of St. I felt one thing when I read it and one thing when I saw it. Why was it necessary for St. Is all of American television the hallucination of an autistic child?? "The theory doesn't really depend on Tommy Westphall, but he's a good hook," Gow says. Much of the humor between characters is gallows humor. 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. As the episode comes to a close, Dr. Westphall is sitting alone in the office of his friend and mentor Dr. Auschlander, who has recently died when in runs his son, Tommy (Chad Allen), a quiet, autistic boy whom viewers had met a time or two before. Weatherson, in his sixth objection, offers the example of Michael Bloomberg playing the role of New York City Mayor both on Law & Order and in real life, which, if one accepts the logic of the hypothesis, indicates that real life is in the head of Tommy Westphall. The final scene of St. And then I saw it and I thought, Its too much. Elsewhere 's characters appear in Tommy's dream doesn't mean they don't also BTW, in the Wikipedia article about the last episode, someone estimates that "90% of the shows existed in this kid's head" due to the many show crossovers. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Mandel, Morse, and Washington are among the core cast of younger doctors that stuck around for the entire show, wringing their hands over their critical patients, racing to respond to someone randomly coding in the hallway, or occasionally banging in the morgue. But for others, it was a stroke of inspiration. That series introduced the character of Detective John Munch (Richard Belzer), who went on to become a main character onLaw and Order:Special Victims Unit (and has made guest appearances in virtually everyLaw and Order series), and who has also popped up on shows likeThe Beat, The Wire, The X-Files, Arrested Development,and30 Rock. By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. Howie goes to the morgue, slides me out, says something to me and pushes me back in. were arguably all dreamed up by young Tommy. In an interview withPaley Matters in 2018, Fontana who co-wrote the finale expressed his ongoing surprise and weird sense of pride at how that final scene has, well, snowballed into the mother of all pop culture fan theories. We always said: Thats a tough question--well, good night! . Elsewhere characters Dr. Roxanne Turner and Dr. Victor Ehrlich appear on Homicide: Life on the Street. You can follow any one of these connective threads down a series of increasingly convoluted rabbit holes, and it probably won't surprise you to learn that a number of fans have done exactly that. As for the snow globe, that was the focus of Tommy's attention. Flashforward! It was seen as a cheap shot and a quick fix, even though the mechanism and method was mimicked many times over afterwards. Gow and Crowe have an elaborate system of rules for what shows can and can't be included in the list, which they shared with HuffPost and can now be seen on their site's latest update. In the age of streaming in particular, I feel as if this is even more true than its been in the past. The great thing about the show that even in its comedy, it was serious. We're often considered and thought of as robot-like people who have no emotions and who only see other people as objects. Television these daysor rather, television that jerks like me actually bother to write aboutbasically falls into two categories now: Heavily scripted and serialized prestige TV or reality show stuff that sounds like a made up show on, . When directing episodes for the eighth series of the revived Doctor Who in 2014, Ben Wheatley had the art department create a replica of Tommy Westphall's snowglobe, which Wheatley placed in the TARDIS set as a reference to the hypothesis. I actually have an easy answer for that - assuming that the 'real world' has shows like Cheers and MASH on TV, it's entirely plausible that Tommy took characters from those shows after seeing them on TV and made them part of his imagination. Elsewhere in its final season owned the prison hospital in his series Oz.". Although you may have never noticed the connection, there's a compelling case that "Friends," "Breaking Bad," "Seinfeld," "I Love Lucy" and just about every other popular American television show exist within the same universe. And they figured out a way: Okay, we wont have any reunions, nothing like that. When NBC refused to finance their ambitious plan, the idea for the snow globe was hatched. Marriage! Behind him stood his father, who was sporting a construction workers wardrobe. In that time, Michael has written over 2000 articles for the site, first working solely as a news writer, then later as a senior writer and associate news editor. Toe-tagged. After six seasons of letting those within the hospital doing the hard work of being human and showing humanity it was our turn. Why does the husband leave the family in The Others? It is underfunded, understaffed, crowded, and running on fumes. The theory is called the "The Tommy Westphall Universe" and hinges on a reveal at the finale of "St. Elsewhere team enjoyed life on the series even when times were tough, which was always. Elsewhere is not a great place to work or convalesce. Can my creature spell be countered if I cast a split second spell after it? 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. Composition by Dave Grusin And in the end, Fiscus patient does finally sing. Ending of "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans". Other people didnt care for it at all. Through six years, I never put anything in my dressing room. Elsewhere, Alfre Woodard's Dr. Roxanne Turner,appeared) andOz (in which a company that briefly owned St. Eligius, Weigert, makes a bid to buy that show's Oswald Maximum Security Prison). The kind of gallows humor that was in the show was a case of art imitating life, Paltrow continued. They really wanted to kill the show. 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. Elsewhere" finale was the first big "it was all just a dream" finale, ending with the revelation that St. Eligius hospital and its staff were all the creations of 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. 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. It is underfunded, understaffed, crowded, and running on fumes. And none of MTMs shows better defined quality television than St. Tommy's father, still being portrayed by Ed Flanders (aka "Donald Westphall") arrives at the apartment wearing a hard hat. Fox doesnt think hell live to be 80: Every day its tougher. Brian Weatherson, professor of philosophy at Cornell University, wrote a piece, "Six Objections to the Westphall Hypothesis", which challenges the logical, factual, and philosophical basis for the existence of the "universe".[10]. The show was a proving ground for actors you have seen in a million things before or since: Denzel Washington and Howie Mandel were easily the most recognizable, but there were also ringers like Mark Harmon, David Morse, Ed Begley Jr., Bruce Greenwood, Ronny Cox, and not only Mr. Feeny himself (William Daniels), but his wife (real and fictional) Bonnie Bartlett. Like their small but loyal band of viewers--who have already written at least 300 letters to MTM and the network protesting its cancellation--the St. So you pick your horse and place your bet. ED BEGLEY JR. (Dr. Victor Ehrlich): It was quite fitting for what they had done the previous six years. Elsewhere to end the way it did? Gow and Crowe, who still periodically update the grid, assert that episodes with real people playing themselveslike Trebek did on Cheersare exempt, as are cartoons and feature films. Was the fact that Tommy is considered Autistic symbolic in any way? Contemporary television writers have even bought in to Gow and Crowe's theory. Elsewhere illustrates the rich and often blurred boundaries in how we experience the world."[7]. World of his own. It was a show that never did amazing in the ratings, but it held on because it was always pressing the boundaries of what was okay on TV, bringing up issues that werent even being discussed. Westphall, who is autistic, played an increased role in St. Elsewhere ' s final episode, "The Last One", one interpretation of which is that the entire St. Elsewhere storyline exists only within Westphall's imagination. Those two impressive achievements would have likely relegated the bizarre ending of St. Elsewhere also shared characters with The White Shadow and Its Garry Shandlings Show, McDuffie wrote. Elsewhere ' s series finale features momentous changes for several main characters, including the departures of Drs. Cheers spun off the long-running seriesFrasier, and that series had its events referenced or its characters cameo on shows likeCaroline in the City, The John Larroquette Show,and evenThe Simpsons. We all knew that whenever you do the last episode of any series, the last chapter of any story like that, youre never going to come up with an ending that will satisfy everybody. If the universe of St. Web359. But of course, none of that is what people really remember the last episode for. Because of the number if cross overs that involved St Elsewhere characters (or their mention) and the cross overs those other shows had with other Its been observed that much of American primetime TV has been about cops and the sex lives of doctors. The Tommy Westphall universe hypothesis makes the claim that not only does St. Thus, it does not follow that because one person, place, or thing is present in two or more works of fiction that those works are necessarily related. They always tried to be out there, beyond the limits of what was being done before. The stories speak for themselves. Elsewhere to Homicide: Life on the Street, which shared a writer/producer in Tom Fontana. Suddenly, we're taken to a small apartment where Tommy sits on the floor, playing with a snow globe. There are two very important reasons why the ending is not only justified but important and even critically needed for a show like St. The St. You can barely please half the people most of the time. Most of us failed. This is because it's pretty easy to connectSt. When youre finished, watch the cast reunion on Good Morning America and voice your own opinion on the finale in our poll. The series finale of the 1980s medical dramedy St. And listen, we set such a bar, its hard to top it to make that ending satisfy a lot of people. 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. 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. It was this wonderful, crumbly, noble, decadent building that housed this incredible heart. Specific to the Westphall Hypothesis, even if we accept that St. Elsewhere, the magic was in the tone, as it was with another show by the same production company, Hill Street Blues. Some people liked its provocativeness. 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. Elsewhere seemed like an easy out. That's the nature of a hospital drama, that's why we tune in. Westphall, Auschlander, and Gideon (Cox) are stressing about how they can possibly keep the hospital open. If you notice any other connections, feel free to join in on the madness. Elsewhere cast reunion: It was a show that changed television, 'St. God love him."[9]. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. 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. Elsewhere's finale, titled "The Last One," aired on May 25, 1988, and the bulk of its narrative was concerned with the requisite deaths, departures, transfers, and tying up of loose ends that one might expect. John Munch). It was bold and shocking and upset some people. ", Grandfather: "He's been sitting there ever since you left this morning, just like he does every day. Thanks to the phenomenal success of the MCU, shared universes now dot the pop culture landscape, including the DCEU, The Conjuring universe, the Godzilla and King Kong MonsterVerse, and many more. Related: Crisis On Infinite Earths Solved DC Movies' Continuity Problem. 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. Halle Bailey, Melissa McCarthy, and director Rob Marshall share the tale behind making their underwater musical with a groundbreaking Disney princess. wouldnt exist in the form they did without. Is there a weapon that has the heavy property and the finesse property (or could this be obtained)? [11], NewsRadio episode "Daydream" (season 3 episode 7) ends with Jimmy James staring into a snow globe that appears to contain a miniature version of the WNYX office, thus seeming to indicate that Jimmy James has imagined the entire episode.[12]. WebSt. 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. As Gow told HuffPost, "St. I hear people, like Oh, what happened there? or Oh, I didnt understand that or Oh, I love that! You got all kinds of comments on it. Elsewhere were more demonstrative and understanding of autistic people then all 12 seasons of The Big Bang Theory put together. 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. Seated in a rocking chair is none other than Dr. Auschlander only that's not quite right. The common thread running through the last season (besides a consistent plot about a special new artificial heart) is that St. Eligius is probably going to close, right around the same time the hospitals residents (read: the younger main cast members) are all ending their residencies and about to head out into the depressing world of medicine. We went through this experience and I wanted it to be maintained as a real one, not a dream. 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. Eligius. 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. Elsewhere, Ed Begley Jr., St. 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. 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. To me the last 10 minutes of the final Embedded hyperlinks in a thesis or research paper. What were the most popular text editors for MS-DOS in the 1980s? Helen Hunt even appeared in a few episodes. The Fontana wrote a fictional "Weigert Corporation" as an intergral part of both "St. I think it can happen. But I wasnt surprised that there were many people who didnt find it satisfying. An exterior camera shot of the hospital cuts to Tommy West (referring to Tommy) He give you any trouble? How's he been? Then it could create conversation, so I thought it was kind of brilliant. Elsewhere finale wasn't infamous enough with its twist ending, the closing bumper made for the finale showed Mimsie, the logo cat, unconscious and hooked up to an IV, Even if that's true though, thinking about it remains an amusing diversion. For a constant stream of entertainment news and discussion, follow HuffPost Entertainment on Viber. Another reason for the importance of this ending is the nature of what we were shown. Along with U.S.-based fan Ash Crowe, Gow began to develop a chart linking the series to other shows on television. 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. Elsewhere, like basically every television series that is set in the present day, had crossover episodes or cameos with other popular shows. Elsewhere--a derisive nickname for the aging South Boston medical facility--was never healthy in the ratings. The show was a proving ground for actors you have seen in a million things before or since: Denzel Washington and Howie Mandel were easily the most recognizable, but there were also ringers like Mark Harmon, David Morse, Ed Begley Jr., Bruce Greenwood, Ronny Cox, and not only Mr. Feeny himself (William Daniels), but his wife (real and fictional) Bonnie Bartlett. But I thought it was wonderful. Elsewheres bumbling Dr. Victor Erlich, offered the final diagnosis of his medical career. Elsewhere with varying degrees of separation, ranging from I Love Lucy to The Flash. Elsewhere truly shook things up Arrow is also included, which means all subsequent Arrowverse shows also tie back to Westphall. Elsewhere writer Tom Fontana was quoted as saying "Someone did the math once and something like 90 percent of all [American] television took place in Tommy Westphall's mind. When we read it, we all had reservations about it. And the fat lady sings tonight: The last episode of St. orGrey's Anatomy, then you've got one series to thank. That fictional firm appears inDoctor Who, Red Dwarf, and of course, theAlien feature film franchise. While that can sometimes describe. 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. St. He sits there, all day long, in his own world, staring at that toy. The series was also known for one of its more playful aspects: it was prone to dropping references and callbacks to other TV series. Elsewhere production team are at work on Tattingers, a new NBC series from MTM slated for St. Elsewhere an autistic boy is shown to have imagined and created a vast and deeply human universe. If NBC had started paying us more money, they would have had to start giving a lot of other people more money, too.

Operational Tracking Instructors Course, Overnight Horseback Riding Trips Tennessee, Lumberton Man Killed, Can You Eat Egg Noodles If Allergic To Eggs, Articles S