Sometimes you’ll see crossovers on the procedurals, but it barely counts if three shows with CSI in the title do a crossover. And even then, it’s still weird. So the killer struck in Miami, New York, and Las Vegas? That seems geographically unlikely. And yet it happens once every couple of years.
With most series using staff writers instead of work-for-hire scripts (the days of somebody writing for both Diff’rent Strokes and Facts of Life are gone), I think full-fledged crossovers are a thinkg of the past. And honestly, the only way for them to not be cheesy, and this is as true now as it was in the 50’s, is if it’s something the writers want to do and they can make it happen without violating the reality of either series. A network-mandated crossover is never going to be good. If David Shore and Ryan Murphy want House and Glee to do a two-parter, they might be able to figure something out. If FOX tells them to do it, it’s going to be grudging and awful.
