“Inside the Mind of Tommy Westphall or “St Elsewhere’s Law and Order In Plain Sight of Homicide: Life On The Streets”

Law and Order has been on the air for 18 years, can you believe that? It’s grown to 3 shows and is becoming an ever expanding universe. One where good looking detectives and hard boiled DAs fight for justice in NYC. There has been plenty of character crossover in that time. They share characters Coroners, Cops, Lawyers, Psychiatrists and so on.

Recently I caught an episode of Law and Order: CI and in the episode there was a cameo by Mary McCormick of In Plain Sight on it playing her character from that show (which I’ve never seen but am told its not bad) I like to think now that the Law and Order universe has just expanded a little and now includes the characters of this show.

But there’s more Richard Belzer who plays “Detective Munch” was originally from Homicide Life on the Streets and came to New York to work the Special Victims Unit after that show was canceled. There were actaully a couple of crossover episodes as well before the cancellation.

Now Homicide was created by Tom Fontana who also created the 1980’s Hospital Drama St Elsewhere. In one episode of Homicide Alfre Woodard guest stared as Dr. Roxanne Turner her character on St Elsewhere. The interesting thing about that is that in the end of St. Elsewhere was it was reveled that everything was all in the imagination of a Autistic boy named Tommy. So that means that this boy Tommy who is likely 30 something at this point if not older has been creating years of your favorite television in his head.

Its sounds a little perverse but I actually like to picture Tom Fontana and Dick Wolf going to this poor kid every year with a box of chocolates and some baseball cards trying to get more and more ideas for new shows. Like he’s some sort of golden calf for television.

I’m not the creator of this theory or anything I remember hearing about this years ago with that first Alfre Woodard cameo, its an actual theory out there in the ether that has existed for years, I was just reminded of this with this most recent crossover bringing yet another character into this universe.

When I went to look up Tommy’s name I found some more info on this stuff if you want to see….

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_WestphallThe_Tommy_Westphall_Universe_Hypothesis

and

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~kwgow/crossovers.html

Study claims that Crime Dramas make you eat and shop more.

An article on MSNBC puts forward a claim that our favorite crime dramas make us more willing to lay down money for goods. Its an interesting theory. In today’s society many of us seem to use purchases as a “pick me up” or sweet snacks as indulgences and rewards for a rough day at work. But are we really so influenced by the images on TV that it makes us run for the store or fridge.

“We found that when people think about the fact that they’re going to die someday — not now, but someday — they want to consume more of everything,” says Naomi Mandel, co-author of the study

While the study explores the theory and takes Television itself out of the equation I can’t help but feel a little bit like they are putting the cart before the horse. Like my avid defense of Diet soda ( I <3 Diet Pepsi) in the face of those accusations that “Diet Soda makes you fat” I always contend that “No if you are Fat you are more likely to drink Diet soda!”. I feel theories like this while grounded in reality tend to look at things in a vacuum that does not exist in reality.

One if you are a Crime time TV fan you end up watching tons of commercials meant to get you to buy things. I’d like to see this study examine fans of the Sopranos and The Wire shows which are just as graphic (if not More so) but have no advertising running in the show.

Also if you think about the average couch potato, aren’t you more likely to go snack if you are watching a marathon of your favorite show, where its CSI; Miami or Extreme Home Make Over? I’d love further examination of this theory in regards to other types of shows. Does America’s Next Top Model make you want to buy make up, or become bulimic? What happens when you watch too many Seinfeld reruns?

“Consumers, especially those with a lower self-esteem, may be more susceptible to overconsumption when confronted with images of death during the news or their favorite crime scene investigation shows,” Mandel concludes in her study. “

I do believe that this is somehow true. That when faced with mortality and death our society doesn’t really have an outlet to express concerns and fears for these things, so we do as we have been trained “consume, and you will feel better” There is comfort in food, new shoes, new sheets, new cell phone, and new 46 inch Plasma HDTV* which will make your favorite crime dramas even MORE Graphic!!

*Santa, that last one is on my list

The rest of the article is linked here

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26513442/