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Acrossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discretefictional characters,settings, oruniverses into the context of a singlestory. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevantcopyright holders (known asintercompany crossovers), common corporate ownership or unofficial efforts byfans.
This is different from aspoof, where one discrete character, setting, or universe, copies another character, setting, or universe, often in a comedic manner.
Crossovers often occur in an official capacity in order for theintellectual property rights holders to reap the financial reward of combining two or more popular, established properties. In other cases, the crossover can serve to introduce a new concept derivative of an older one. Another intention is to give fictional characters more emotional credibility and thus increaseimmersion for the fans.
Crossovers generally occur between properties owned by a single holder, but they can, more rarely, involve properties from different holders, provided that the inherent legal obstacles can be overcome. They may also involve using characters that have passed into thepublic domain with those concurrently undercopyright protection.
A crossover story may try to explain its own reason for the crossover, such as characters being neighbors (notable examples being the casts fromThe Golden Girls andEmpty Nest) or meeting via dimensional rift or similar phenomenon (a common explanation forscience fiction properties that have different owners). Some crossovers are not explained at all. Others are absurd or simply impossible within the fictional setting, and have to be ignored by the series' respectivecontinuities. Still others intentionally make the relations between two or more fictional universes confusing, as withThe Simpsons andFuturama, where each show is fiction in the other.
In contrast with legal crossovers, unofficial crossovers are created solely because of the artistic pleasure derived by their creators. Unofficial crossovers often take the form offan-written fiction[1] andfan art, but the trope is increasingly prevalent inamateur films andaudio. Whereas official crossovers are frequently stymied by such concerns as copyright, royalties payments, quality of writing and ownership of the characters, unofficial crossovers are unfettered by such concerns, so long as property holders do not exercise their right toenjoin the distribution of such material. A good example would be the unauthorised live action fan filmBatman: Dead End which brings together the properties ofBatman,Alien andPredator in one setting.
Unofficial crossovers can also occur in a "what-if" scenario.Roger makes frequent cameo appearances inFamily Guy, whileBrian makes cameos onAmerican Dad!. Roger,Rallo Tubbs andKlaus Heissler were seen in the finalFamily GuyStar Wars spoof, "It's A Trap!", asMoff Jerjerrod,Nien Nunb andAdmiral Ackbar, respectively. Stewie also appears as an interactive hallucination of Booth onBones when the agent has issues over possibly becoming a sperm donor, with David Boreanaz (who plays Booth) repaying the favor in "Road to the North Pole". An appearance byElmo, fromSesame Street, was made, in a hallucination ofConnie Ray's, on TV sitcomThe Torkelsons. Fan fiction fusions between different science fiction movies and series are often created, such asStar Wars andStar Trek orBabylon 5 andStargate.M.U.G.E.N. is a fighting game engine that features many fan-created and fictional characters and stages from various television series, movies, as well as other video games.
The first popular crossover in literature was the 1885Mark Twain novel,The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which had an important guest appearance byTom Sawyer. Similarly, Lady Glencora Palliser from the Pallisers series ofAnthony Trollope appears towards the end ofMiss Mackenzie, a novel published between the first and second Palliser novels in 1865, a character first introduced in the novel,Can You Forgive Her? (1864).Andrew Lang's 1890 collection,Old Friends: Essays in Epistolary Parody, contains letters combining characters from different sources, including one based onJane Austen'sNorthanger Abbey andCharlotte Brontë'sJane Eyre.[2]
Kim Newman frequently uses this device, as doesStephen King. The works ofJames Branch Cabell,J. D. Salinger,William Faulkner,Margaret Laurence,Thomas Pynchon,Kurt Vonnegut,Mordecai Richler,Sir H. Rider Haggard,Edgar Rice Burroughs,Robert Heinlein andIsaac Asimov also cross over with each other, linking different characters and settings together over a number of different works.
IllustratorHoward Pyle conceived his workTwilight Land as one such crossover. In it, a nameless narrator is transported to "Twilight Land" and meets famous fairy tale characters for a soirée in an inn:Mother Goose,Cinderella,Fortunatus,Sinbad the Sailor,Aladdin,Boots, theValiant Little Tailor and others gather in the framing device and tell each other adventurous tales featuring other literary personages.[3]
French authorJules Lemaître wrote a sort of sequel toCinderella, namedPrincess Mimi, where Cinderella's daughter is courted byPolyphemus andCharles Perrault'sHop-o'-My-Thumb.[4][5]
Anime has also participated in many crossover events featuring characters or shows from the same company or network. One of the biggest projects down would beDream 9 Toriko x One Piece x Dragon Ball Z Super Special Collaboration as it includes threeShonen Jump franchises, beingDragon Ball Z,One Piece andToriko, crossed over into an hour long special-like most crossovers, this special is filler, a fan-service episode that follows the common plot line in most crossovers. What makes this crossover unique is when the characters from all three shows split into groups, where the members all share the same clichéd character archetypes, such the main characters Goku, Luffy and Toriko falling into the dumb, good-natured, strong character archetype.[6]
Manga artistLeiji Matsumoto has been known to cross over the characters of his various stories and characters such asCaptain Harlock,Galaxy Express 999 andQueen Millennia, all of which were originally written as separate, self-contained stories. In theMaetel Legend, Queen Promethium is revealed to be having been Yukino Yaoi, the protagonist fromQueen Millennia. Matsumoto has also created various crossovers withSpace Battleship Yamato, an anime on which he served as director, although the rights to Yamato are actually owned by Yoshinobu Nishizaki.
Crossovers involving principals can also occur when the characters have no prior relationship, but are related by time period, locale or profession. TheLaw and Order series, for example, afford a commonality of setting and profession which lends itself to crossovers, both within the franchise and in a wider universe. Following the cancellation of theABCsoap operaOne Life to Live and its high-rated finale, several characters crossed over into the network's remaining soap operaGeneral Hospital, remaining in the same timeline as their former show.
CharactersKyle Barker &Max Shaw from the sitcomLiving Single made an appearance inHalf & Half. Their appearance came seven years after the end of Livin' Single and confirmed that Kyle and Max had remained a couple and were raising a family.
In 1992, sitcomsFresh Prince of Bel-Air and the short-livedOut All Night crossed over briefly when Hilary Banks appears as a customer at Chelsea's Club.
In 1993, British soap operaEastEnders aired a two part crossover withDoctor Who for the annualChildren in Need telethon. During the 2010 telethon, EastEnders crossed over withCoronation Street, another prominent soap opera, for a special fifteen minute episode, titledEastStreet.[7]
Though most common on shows of the sameproduction company (see, for example, "Hurricane Saturday"), crossovers have also occurred because shows share the same distributor ortelevision network. A notable example of this kind of link is that betweenMurder, She Wrote andMagnum, P.I. These shows were made by different companies, but owned byUniversal Studios and broadcast onCBS. Another case is that ofMad About You andFriends, which share the character ofUrsula Buffay. Neither show shares any production or distribution commonality, but rather an actress (Lisa Kudrow), a setting (New York City) and a schedule (Friends initially followedMad About You onNBC'sThursday night schedule).
Mad About You andFriends share another type of "network crossover". On rare occasions, networks have chosen to theme an entire night's programming around a crossover "event". In one case, a New York Cityblackout caused byPaul Reiser's character onMad About You was experienced by the characters onFriends andMadman of the People.[8] Such "event nights" can also be linked by a single character's quest across multiple shows on the same evening.ABC attempted this kind of "event night" crossover with itsFriday night programming during the 1997 season. There, they proposed that the title character ofSabrina the Teenage Witch should chase her cat,Salem, throughBoy Meets World,You Wish andTeen Angel because it had run away with a "time ball" that was displacing each show through time.[9]
In 2004,Shed Productions produced a crossover between the TV showsBad Girls andFootballers' Wives, where the Footballers' Wives character Tanya Turner was sent to HMP Larkhall in Bad Girls for three episodes of the sixth series from 17th May 2004 to 19th May 2004. In the storyline, Tanya is imprisoned for drug charges after her nemesis Amber planted cocaine in her bag during the third series. Her time in prison involved a mystery poisoning and other dramatic events, ending with her release after making a deal. To mark the crossover Bad Girls aired over three consecutive nights before going on a three month hiatus.[10]
In 2006,Disney Channel produced a crossover between three of their sitcoms titledThat's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana. Episode one "Checkin' Out" aired as in the fourth season ofThat's So Raven. Episode two, titled "That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana" aired in the second season episode ofThe Suite Life of Zack & Cody. The third and final episode titled "On the Road Again" aired in the first season ofHannah Montana. The storyline focused on both Raven Baxter and Hannah Montana being guests at the Tipton Hotel.[11]
In 2013, the Canadian crime drama seriesRepublic of Doyle andMurdoch Mysteries produced a crossover,[12] which was complicated by the shows' incompatible historical settings;Murdoch Mysteries is a historical series set in the 1890s, whileRepublic of Doyle is set in the present day. The problem was solved by having the actors cross over asrelatives of their primary characters;Allan Hawco appeared on the November 25, 2013 episode ofMurdoch Mysteries as Jacob Doyle, a 19th-century ancestor of his regular character Jake Doyle, whileYannick Bisson appeared on a January 2014 episode ofRepublic of Doyle as Bill Murdoch, a 21st-century descendant of his regular character William Murdoch.[12]
In 2025, British soap operaHollyoaks celebrated it's thirtieth anniversary and crossed over withBrookside. Brookside had ceased production in 2003 and most of their sets had since been used in the production of Hollyoaks. Many characters from Brookside appeared and the original closing storyline had been retconned. Both soap opera's were created by Phil Redmond, and it was previously established that the programmes existed in a shared universe when Brookside character Matt Musgrove (Kristian Ealey) transitioned into Hollyoaks in February 2000.[13]
The earliest example of a crossover in children's television wasPBS's 1971 programThe Electric Company.
Crossovers can take the form of a promotionalcameo appearance, used to draw attention to another work of fiction, with little rational explanation in the context of the hosting show's narrative. When not clearly presented as parody, this is frequently scorned by fans as blatant commercialism. A notable example of this isThe Simpsons episode "A Star Is Burns", in which the character of Jay Sherman (fromThe Critic) appeared. It originally aired on March 5, 1995, on FOX right beforeThe Critic began its second season, its first season having aired on ABC. This episode was largely condemned by fans ofThe Simpsons as existing to promoteThe Critic, an animated series considered inferior by comparison. EvenSimpsons creatorMatt Groening objected, preferring to remove his name from the credits of that particular episode in protest.[14]
