I also like the way they handled the Everybody Loves Raymond / King of Queens shared universe. The first couple of times when Doug popped up on Ray’s show, it was pretty awkward and obvious, with Ray doing everything but turning to the camera and saying “I wonder what other crazy adventure’s Doug’s having this week!” But once they established that the two leads were friends, it got more natural. Doug would show up and it wouldn’t even be the point of the episode. It felt kind of organic.
However, I feel like those days are gone forever. Again, continuity nods and cameos will always be with us, but I don’t think of John Munch popping up on Arrested Development for one scene as a crossover. We’re in a TV culture where shows are less interchangeable — they have distinct visual looks and established rules of their reality. You can’t have somebody from another series pop up on Modern Family, because then you have to deal with the documentary gimmick, and the suspension of disbelief starts to crumble. And if we’ve learned nothing else from Scrubs’ fantasy episode, it’s that the characters from single-camera sitcoms look weird when they’re suddenly shot in the traditional multi-camera style. Imagine Michael Scott stopping by a sitcom with a laugh-track and a soundstage set. It would be jarring.
