They used to be more of a thing when network TV was a thing, but as long as Dick Wolf owns so much of the network TV landscape, they’ll still happen.
Probably the most notable crossover as a kid in the '80s was The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones TV movie. The most bizarre, which I totally forgot about, was the Magnum, P.I./Murder, She Wrote crossover, as this hilarious synopsis explains:
What are your favorites? Least favorites? Ones that are just meh?
I’m probably the one person on Earth who can’t stand the former, and I barely remember the latter. But clips are probably out there somewhere for the curious.
They’re hard to watch in these days because you have to binge more than one series at a time so you’ll be caught up with all of them before the cross over even happens and you usually aren’t doing that.
I almost never binge watch even things I love. At least, I don’t think two episodes of something a day would count. I just find it too hard the following day to remember what I just saw. I can’t absorb it all in so short a time.
(I guess Turkey Days would be something of an exception, though I’m usually doing lots of other things while I have those on.)
Scooby Doo and Supernatural has an AMAZING crossover… Sam, Dean, and Cas end up in the Scooby Doo Universe, from the time of the great Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated series. All the voice actors from the hilarious cartoon series appear and the comedy is unmatched… From Dean eating a HUGE sandwich to the kids not believing anything is really wrong because nobody really ever dies in their shows, not until Sam and Dean show up… It is just superb. Check it out…
I suddenly have this burning passion to write a counterpoint novel, where Spock goes back to the time and place of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, only 'cause of Ponn Farr, it’s Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Every Seven Years.
It really was well done. Scooby Doo! Mystery Inc. is a truly great show… nevermind the great animation standing miles above most cartoons in a creative desert, but the writing, the humor, and the voice acting is all top notch. It isn’t afraid to make fun of itself and past shows, and does a great job of changing just enough and remaining true to the original to be a delight for both kids and adults…
Oh, I love the way Mystery Inc leans into the astoundingly dumb* Scooby Doo tradition of explaining everything as a dude in a mask with a projector. As a three-year-old that didn’t wash for me, and in Mystery Inc it’s all things like, “So I used my experience as a military robotics scientist to create a robot dog so that my boy’s competition for dating would be eliminated.”
So great. And then it wraps up so nicely over two seasons. I’m a fan, I’d say.
*The tradition actually goes back to Mrs. Radcliffe, the greatest of the Gothic Romance novelists, and I question at this point whether her fame was in part due to her eschewing the supernatural, even if it leaves me and H.P. Lovecraft unsatisfied.
Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies existed in the same universe sometimes, as the characters appeared in crossover episodes, but there’s an extremely daffy Green Acres episode where the local residents put on their own production of The Beverly Hillbillies TV show. Highly recommended.
I haven’t seen the entire series. I watched a few episodes with my son… I remember the exact moment when I realized just how clever it was: There is an episode where they are going through a museum of the town’s history, or something, and it has all sorts of past monsters/costumes of real estate developers and Daphne and Fred happen upon a waxwork of Scrappy Doo and she’s all transfixed and it’s bringing up trauma for her… “I remember…” but Fred interrupts her, “No, Daphne, don’t. We said we’d never talk about it again…” OH MY DOG! Genius. I watched more often after that.
Yup. All three shows were produced by Paul Henning, who had written for Burns and Allen (if you were wondering where the idea for Lisa Douglas came from.)
Green Acres and Petticoat Junction crossed over all the time and shared a regular cast member in Frank Cady, who played grocer Sam Drucker.