TVXOHOF, MAY 2024 - ELSBETH TASCIONI

Welcome to the Queen of the May edition of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame!

And this year, our member for the month of May is probably the “freshest” ever!  She became eligible just this year when she was rewarded for being such a standout character in the two previous series in which she appeared….

ELSBETH TASCIONI

Carrie Preston already won an Emmy Award for the role back in 2013, and that’s nice and all….  But becoming a member of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame is a much more exclusive club!

From Wikipedia:

‘Elsbeth’ is an American police procedural comedy-drama television series that premiered on February 29, 2024, on CBS. It is a spin-off of ‘The Good Wife’ (2009–2016) and ‘The Good Fight’ (2017–2022), from which Carrie Preston originated the role of Elsbeth Tascioni, an unconventional attorney who ends up working as a de facto detective. The series was renewed for a second season in April 2024.

'Elsbeth' is a "howcatchem" TV mystery show as opposed to the traditional "whodunit", showing the audience from the start who the killer is, how and why they commit the crime and how they are caught.

The series focuses on Elsbeth Tascioni, the offbeat, unconventional but astute attorney who, after a successful career in Chicago, utilizes her singular point of view to make unique observations and corner criminals alongside the NYPD.  She is assigned to oversee a monitorship or consent decree after some controversial arrests.  Episodes use the inverted detective story format.

From STartefact:

On February 29, CBS began airing ‘Elsbeth’, a series about a lawyer who uses her autism spectrum disorder to help catch criminals alongside the New York City Police Department.

If you've seen ‘The Good Wife’ and ‘The Good Fight’, you'll recognize Carrie Preston's character, Elsbeth Tascioni. She is a cheerful and spontaneous lawyer who leaves her native Chicago for a solo project. Elsbeth has a form of autism spectrum disorder that does not interfere with her ability to solve complex professional problems.

She comes to New York at the invitation of the local mayor's office to help the police. They are not happy with the intrusive supervision, but quickly turn their anger to compassion – Elsbeth is charming and has amazing powers of observation.

‘Elsbeth’ is a procedural where each episode has its own story. If you haven't seen the previous two shows in which Elsbeth appeared, you can still watch the show.

From the Washington Post:

The joy, the confident dorkiness — that’s Elsbeth Tascioni, the beguiling, funny lawyer who stole scenes in 19 episodes of creators Robert and Michelle King’s hit legal dramas “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight” over more than a decade, a role that earned Preston an Emmy Award in 2013. At first glance, Elsbeth was a sweet but scattered defense attorney who interrupts herself mid-thought to say something like, “These are beautiful bookcases,” or “Ooh, I like that brooch.” A minute later, she would casually eviscerate a witness on the stand or pull off a brilliant legal maneuver that left her opponent speechless.

Viewers clamored for more Elsbeth, and at last they’re getting some: The crime-solving drama “Elsbeth” premiered on CBS in February and, after State of the Union and March Madness preemptions, resumes its first season Thursday. Even as Elsbeth’s mind is clicking away on levels that others can’t fathom, her genuine sense of wonder shines through. Preston read the script and knew exactly how to play the scene where she gets soaked by the car. Obviously, Elsbeth is a huge “Sex and the City” fan, and therefore thrilled to experience a Carrie Bradshaw moment in New York.

“I decided that Elsbeth would find that absolutely 100 percent delightful,” Preston said in a recent interview on set in Brooklyn. On the show, Elsbeth has just moved from “The Good Wife’s” universe of Chicago to work as a court-mandated legal observer of the New York Police Department — and she is truly dazzled by all the Big Apple has to offer. “She’s like, ‘Yes, I’m here, I’ve been splashed ... I’m a New Yorker!’”

Elsbeth charged onto Season 1 of “The Good Wife” as a blast of comic relief and physical comedy, wearing bright colors and patterns and textures and admitting her technological ineptitude as she poked around on her flower-covered laptop. (“You’re not good with computers, are you? My son keeps buying me new ones and then just backing away ... and laughing.”) The characters would be extremely annoyed and then change their tune when her shrewd legal mind repeatedly got them out of scrapes. In one much-discussed scene in a later season, she furiously made out with her professional rival (Kyle MacLachlan) over the sounds of pop smash “Call Me Maybe,” and then didn’t hesitate to destroy him in court.

Over the years, viewers begged the Kings to consider Elsbeth for her own spinoff. The idea didn’t crystallize until the coronavirus pandemic, when the Kings started watching reruns of “Columbo” and thought about how they could put Elsbeth in a similar scenario: a police procedural where you see the crime play out in the beginning, and then watch as she tries to figure out the culprit.

Preston still can’t believe her once-recurring character is now the star of the show (“This is a dream that I dared not let myself have”), helmed by showrunner Jonathan Tolins.

Assigned to watch NYPD personnel (including co-stars Wendell Pierce and Carra Patterson) work after the department has been hit with too many wrongful arrest lawsuits, Elsbeth demonstrates a knack for solving the crimes herself. Elsbeth may carry too many tote bags (Preston guesses they hold everything that Elsbeth thinks she might need in a typical day, such as a protractor or a 1972 encyclopedia or a cheese sandwich), but her naiveté masks a highly effective sleuth.

From TVLine:

“We think about our friends in Chicago, but it’s not our expectation that they’re traveling to New York anytime soon,” The Good Wife and Elsbeth co-creator Michelle King said during a virtual panel. “Elsbeth is on her own in New York, which is kind of part of the fun, that she’s enjoying it and enjoying it on her own.”

Not relying on cameos from franchise vets reinforces the idea that Elsbeth is as much a standalone series as it is a spinoff.*

“This is decidedly not The Good Wife, not The Good Fight. It’s its own world. It’s lighter, it’s comedic in nature,” Carrie Preston said. “You’ve got this Case of the Week, and it’s dealing with crime and not politics. So we have a bunch of different new things. So it’s the same woman, but you don’t have to have watched those shows to dive into this show.”

Here are the series which qualify Elsbeth for membership in the TVXOHOF:

THE GOOD WIFE

2010–2016
14 episodes

“'The Good Wife' was definitely the biggest surprise and gift that I've had in a long time, and that did come out of some other work that I had done. That whole adage of 'work begets work' actually worked in that case - it was at the very end of their first season that my character was first introduced.” – Carrie Preston

THE GOOD FIGHT

2017–2022
5 episodes

ELSBETH

2024

O'Bservation:
There will be eleven episodes before this season is over.  In April, it was announced that the series had been renewed for the 2024-25 season, so her tally of appearances will continue to grow.

From CBS:

ELSBETH stars Emmy Award winner Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni, an astute but unconventional attorney who uses her singular point of view to make unique observations and corner brilliant criminals alongside the NYPD.  After leaving her legal career for a new investigative role, Elsbeth finds herself jockeying with NYPD Captain C.W. Wagner (Wendell Pierce). Working alongside Elsbeth is Officer Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson). Based on the character featured in THE GOOD WIFE and THE GOOD FIGHT.

Maybe one day, the Kings will come up with other new shows in this miniverse which they've created.  And even if it happens after 'Elsbeth' is off the air, it would be great if Carrie Preston could bring back her newly-inducted TVXOHOF member to guest star in an episode.

But these appearances do not count towards her tally in Earth Prime-Time.  These would be found in the Promoverse:

Congratulations, Ms. Tascioni!  You will always have a home here in the Hall of Fame, but here’s hoping you have a long run in your own series so that there will be even more episodes where your fans can see you!

* TVLine had an article with a list of actors from the first two series who should make a return as their previous characters to ‘Elsbeth’.  Of course, there were the usual suspects – Julianna Margulies, Christina Baranski, Archie Panjabi, Sarah Steele, and Alan Cummings.  It would certainly help to get a few of those characters into the TVXOHOF!  

But the one actor I think should make an appearance before the season ends is Kyle MacLachlan, who played A-USA Josh Perotti.  They had such a fascinating relationship as mentioned earlier, and he matches her perfectly, quirk for quirk.

Certainly I would prefer that he came back on a recurring basis, but if Robert and Michelle King wanted to send him out in a blaze of glory… have MacLachlan portray Josh Perotti one last time - as the murderer!

Failing that, maybe he could play David Swain, the slightly off-kilter lead lawyer in the series ‘In Justice’, which coincidentally, was another, earlier production by the Kings.

In Toobworld, there are no borders....

TVXOHOF'S QUEEN OF MAY, 2024 - ELSBETH TASCIONI

 

COULD RUBY SUNDAY BE A MATA HARI?

This on-location shot shows the crew filming Millie Gibson and Jemma Redgrave meeting as their characters Ruby Sunday and UNIT’s Kate Stewart respectively.

That picture is from January as is the following post....

One of the YouTube Who videographers reported that based on rumors he had heard, Kate Stewart might be actually related to Ruby Sunday.  And then he suggested that she could be playing her grandmother.

Her grandmother?  Jemma Redgrave is 58.  Millie Gibson is 19.  Whoever is the parent of Ruby and the child of Kate, they had to have been 20 at most when they had Ruby, and by extension, Kate would have been 19 when she had Ruby’s parent.

I like the idea of them being related, but not Kate as a grandmother! Ruby’s Aunt, maybe....

The idea that Kate would be related to a Companion sounds too coincidental to be believable.  The Doctor usually meets his Companions by chance. This had to be deliberate. 

Maybe Kate maneuvered Ruby into meeting The Doctor in order to have an inside source. But I don't see her risking a family member like that... unless Ruby is another member of the family who works for UNIT.

That would be a Companion tweak we haven't seen since the days of Turlough, who was working undercover for the Black Guardian. And it probably would work better if the Kate/Ruby family relationship wasn't part of it at all. Just have Ruby be an undercover UNIT trooper.

Just my two quatloos.  I will have a theory on Ruby's mother later today….

TVXOHOF - APRIL 2023: THE 12TH PRECINCT OF THE NYPD

I couldn’t think of a good candidate for the traditional April Fool’s Day induction for the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  Took me nine days to finally come up with something at least unique for the month’s latest member.

And so….

12TH PRECINCT

NYPD

Every so often a location does get inducted into the TVXOHOF.  They include places which can only be found in Toobworld – the Montecito Casino and Hotel, St. Eligius Hospital, Hooterville, Mayberry, Altair IV, and Fernwood, Ohio.  There have been a few Real World locations as well, beginning with the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.  Other locations which can be found here in the Trueniverse include Las Vegas, the Playboy Mansion, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, The White House, and the OK Corral.

The 12th Precinct is a multi-dimensional location.  It might even be multiversal if it exists in movies or literature.  But you won’t find it anywhere in the five boroughs of New York City.  For safety concerns, the NYPD doesn’t allow real precincts to be cited in movies and TV shows.

The most famous appearance by the 12th Precinct is in ‘Barney Miller’, where it is the main setting.  Here are other places where the 12th Precinct showed up in Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld:

• ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’
• ‘Law & Order: Criminal Intent’
• ‘CSI: NY’

As you can see, that’s four TV series which covers the minimum requirement, plus one.

But wait!  There’s more!

Back in 2011, Vincent Audette wrote to me:

“This precinct is the home of TV's 'McCloud', 'Barney Miller', 'The Unusuals', 'Can't Hurry Love', 'Castle' and 'The Beat'.”

Of those, ‘Castle’ is one of the series which makes the 12th Precinct a multi-dimensional location and I’ll be getting to that later.

As for the others….

‘McCLOUD’ – This “fish out of water” cop show had the Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud from Taos, New Mexico, on loan to the NYPD to learn new techniques.  He worked out of the 27th Precinct, but there was always some interaction with other precincts.  So the 12th Precinct may have been cited or actually shown up in at least one episode.

‘THE UNUSUALS’ – I don't remember if I ever saw this short-lived series.  But one of my old blog posts says I was really enjoying it.   No matter; I found it available online.  I will be watching for any references to the Ol’ One-Two.  But the detectives in the Second Squad worked out of the 2nd Precinct according to the episode summary on the IMDb.

‘CAN’T HURRY LOVE’ – In three episodes of this one-season sitcom, the main character dated an NYPD detective, including the episode which was included in the Elizabeth Taylor crossover event, “Taylor-Made Monday”.  He may have been working at the 12th Precinct.

‘THE BEAT’ - Despite its pedigree behind the scenes, and an appearance by Crossover King Detective John Munch, this series about patrolmen had a very short run, with only a few of the produced episodes ever getting broadcast.  But the two patrolmen could have been working at the 12th.

Here are the shows which I can definitely say establish the 12th Precinct as existing in the main Toobworld:

‘BARNEY MILLER’ (Duh.  O’Bviously.)
Most famously, the 12th, originally located on East 6th Street in Greenwich Village, was the home of 'Barney Miller' and his squad of detectives, throughout the run of the series.  But that original building is now home to the Theodore Roosevelt Police Commissioner Museum as seen in the 3-episode finale.  (Its lamp outside that original building will be the emblem for all of its representations in other series.)

‘LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT’
“INTERNAL AFFAIRS”
Detective Brian Cassidy was forced to infiltrate a corrupt precinct whose officers were suspected of raping young women during their shifts.  Ed Tucker later investigated the entire precinct for kickbacks, extortion and rape.  

“GAMBLER’S FALLACY”
It is later mentioned that a dirty cop from the 12th that was previously thought to have committed suicide was actually killed by Anton Nadari.

‘LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT’
“MONSTER”
Detectives Robert Goren and Alexandra Eames visited the precinct during their investigation into the death of Laura Dietrich.  (Hopefully no relation to Detective Arthur Dietrich of 'Barney Miller', but then again - it is a small world.)

‘CSI: NY'
I am not sure if the 12th Precinct worked most closely, if intermittently, with the crime lab, or if it was the regular precinct throughout the series.

ALTERNATE TOOBWORLDS

‘CASTLE’
Detective Kate Beckett is working out of the 12th Precinct. (It was embossed on the elevator doors in "Always Buy Retail".)  The backdrop against which the events of Castle are seen, this is home to Beckett, Esposito, and Ryan and permanent playground to Rick Castle. The 12th has had two captains so far whilst Castle has been running loose, Roy Montgomery and Victoria Gates.

In 2015, Captain Gates was promoted, and Beckett was assigned as the new precinct commander in "XY".

What keeps ‘Castle’ out of the main Toobworld is that New York City had a different mayor than the one established for Earth Prime-Time.  That mayor must always be the same as the one from the Real World.

BLUE BLOODS
Jameson Reagan was formerly assigned to this precinct, along with Eddie Janko-Reagan.  Before he died, Joseph Reagan, also worked at the 12th Precinct.

The same reason why ‘Castle’ is out of the main Toobworld can be applied to ‘Blue Bloods’ – because the mayor was different from the one in the Real World.

'ELEMENTARY'
"THE BEST WAY OUT IS ALWAYS THROUGH"
Detective Marcus Bell of the 11th Precinct was dating Detective Shauna Scott of the 12th Precinct.  What Bell didn't know was that Scott was also working for the Internal Affairs Bureau....

Since the series is about the Sherlock Holmes of the modern age in a world in which Arthur Conan Doyle never took credit for the stories about a similarly named consulting detective in the Victorian era (of which there is no mention in 'Elementary'), I've placed the show in the same TV dimension as 'Sleepy Hollow'.  For that series, Washington Irving apparently never wrote about Ichabod Crane who - like Sherlock - exists in the modern age (although he did begin life in the Colonial period.)

‘24’
“DAY 8: 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM”
When Victor Aruz went to Jack Bauer with information about a possible threat against President Omar Hassan, he contacted CTU New York. The Special Agent in Charge, Brian Hastings, told Jack to take Victor to the 12th Precinct where he would have him picked up. However, when Jack was en route to the precinct, he was ambushed by Red Square assassins.

This exclusion goes beyond different mayors.  It goes to the top, with a slew of fictional Presidents when it should be the same one as in the Real World.

So…. Four series in the main Toobworld, four in alternate Toobworlds.

And that ain’t all!

Thanks to shows like ‘Primeval’ and the mega-crossover event for all the DC superhero shows (plus a few others), not to mention TV shows which focused on time travel like ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘The Time Tunnel’, the timeline for Earth is always being revamped.  Perhaps it has happened so much that the Earths depicted in the alternate Toobworlds mentioned here have been changed so that they have been brought into alignment with Earth Prime-Time and no longer exist as different Earths.  That is, if the shows are no longer on the air and thus unable to contradict this theory.

So ‘Castle’ could be blended back into the main Toobworld if we assume it now has a back-story which eliminates the show’s mayor and all the episodes he was involved with.  (There is precedent for this – ‘Primeval’ caused the appearance of Ford Rainey as the POTUS in episodes of ‘Lost In Space’ (voice only) and ‘Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea’ to be replaced by whoever was the actual President at the time.

If we apply the same scenario to ‘Elementary’, now it is in a world in which Conan Doyle at least served as the literary agent for Dr. Watson.  This means that the entire series of ‘Elementary’ no longer exists.

‘Blue Bloods’ is still in production, so for the time being, we, as the TV PTB, have a hands-off policy in effect.

And finally, I think it saves a lot headaches to keep ‘24’ in its own TV dimension.  Too many presidents to contend with.

Welcome to the TVXOHOF, 12th Precinct!

Thanks to:
Vince Audette
Brad Mengel
Brett McKee

One final O'Bservation....

I was just starting to add the pictures to the post when I realized I did have a candidate for the Hall following the very loose tradition of April's Fool. Considering who he is, I should have thought of him almost immediately.

I'll save him for next year....

RIVER DRAGONS

Among these quotes by River Song, there is story potential in that final panel.  And it also has potential for theoretical crossovers with other TV series.  I’m thinking specifically of ‘The Librarians’ in which dragons took human form.

Of course, the two series which probably come to mind for others will be ‘Game of Thrones’ and its prequel, ‘The House of the Dragon.’  I’ve already incorporated the World of Westeros into Earth Prime-Time – theoretically, of course! – by claiming that it is the ancient version of Mondas, which was first seen in ‘The Tenth Planet’.  (Its existence is also theoretically hinted at in the ‘Twilight Zone’ episode “Probe 7 – Over and Out”.)  River Song probably got her dragon eggs from Mondas and brought them to the Earth at some point in the distant past.  Somehow the dragons evolved like the Wesen of ‘Grimm’ into animal/human shapeshifters.  (The Maiar of Middle-Earth, now officially part of Earth Prime-Time thanks to ‘The Rings of Power’, may have had a hand in that.)

FOURTH OF JULY TVXOHOF - THE TAIL O' THE PUP

It is estimated that 150 million hot dogs will be eaten today on the Fourth of July.  And the center of attention will be at Coney Island….

From Wikipedia:
The Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest is an annual American hot dog competitive eating competition. It is held each year on Independence Day at Nathan's Famous Corporation's original, and best-known restaurant at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island, a neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City.

However, in Toobworld, we have to look to the West Coast for the center of hot dog activity.  In Los Angeles, there is the Tail O’ The Pup….

From Wikipedia:
Tail O’ the Pup was an iconic Los Angeles, California hot dog stand actually shaped like a hot dog. Built in 1946, the small, walk-up stand has been noted as a prime example of "programmatic" or "mimetic" novelty architecture. It was one of the last surviving mid-20th century buildings that were built in the shapes of the products they sold.

The City of Los Angeles in 2006 declared Tail O’ the Pup to be a cultural landmark.

Blake's grandson Jay Miller and his wife Nicole inherited the Pup in 2017. After a failed attempt to have it reopened in a partnership with Killer Shrimp, the structure was donated to the Valley Relics Museum.

The 1933 Group purchased the structure in 2018 with plans to restore the stand to its original appearance, find a new location, and reopen it.

It is eligible for membership in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame, with appearances in at least three different series.  There may be more, but these three are all that’s needed to be inducted:

COLUMBO

MURDER BY THE BOOK

THE ROCKFORD FILES

BACKLASH OF THE HUNTER

ADAM-12

TEAMWORK

Just a little trifle to celebrate the Fourth.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!