Tommy Westphall’s Mind

• alison
  March 12th, 2008 at 6:48 pm

  man, if LOST ends anything like that there’s going to be a riot

• bean
  March 12th, 2008 at 7:16 pm

  282 series based off of one show… and I never watched any of them. I feel almost proud.

• Parker
  March 12th, 2008 at 8:08 pm

  It’s a bit of a stretch when ‘The Wire’ is one of the shows because someone mentions a ‘Junior Bunk’ who was a character on ‘Homicide’ but was also an actual criminal in Baltimore’s history. I imagine there’s other cracks to be discovered in this if other people were as dedicated as the creators of the ‘Universe’.

• will m
  March 12th, 2008 at 8:58 pm

  i guess that makes me imaginary since i’ve seen some of these shows and read this post.

• Jim McDonald
  March 12th, 2008 at 8:59 pm

  Perhaps we all are just a part of tommy’s imagination…

• just a guy
  March 12th, 2008 at 9:46 pm

  I agree about the looseness of ties. For example, the ‘oceanic’ flights that appear in so many shows. It’s because its convienent to use without violating copyrights.

  But here’s the deal. Just because a product, person, etc.. was somehow tied to Tommy’s fantasy doesn’t mean it didn’t exist in ‘the real world’ of St. Elsewhere.

  For example, the oceanic flights. things could have happened in St. Elsewhere (or any other show) involving Oceanic that *was* tommy’s imagination, but that doesn’t mean that he made up Oceanic.
  After all, if there is a Coke in your dream, that doesn’t mean coke is a figment of your imagination.

  Thus, to say that all shows that used Oceanic flights was in tommy’s mind is really bad logic and just wrong.

  This is more of a ‘what shows could be part of the same universe as Tommy lives in’ not whats in his head. Since any given person. place, thing, etc.. could be part of the ‘real world’ Tommy lived in, and just included in his imagination.

• just a guy
  March 12th, 2008 at 10:00 pm

  I have to try to rephrase that… Hopefully I can point out the flaw i see. (I also emailed the person who runs that page ).

  To say that shows are tied together because they share the same object, person, places, etc, is fine. but to say that makes them part of a delusion isn’t ‘fair.’

  For example, lets use Oceanic Airlines. Oceanic *might have been* in tommy’s imagination (if some even he imagined involved it), but that doesn’t mean that he made up Oceanic Airlines.

  After all, if there is a Coke in your dream, that doesn’t mean Coke is a figment of your imagination.

  Thus, to say that all shows that used Oceanic Flights was in Tommy’s mind is faulty logic. It *could* mean that these shows exsit in the same universe that Tommy lives in, but it does *not* necessarily mean that it exists only in his imagination.

  This flaw breaks a lot of connection for things to exist only in his imagination.

  This is more of a ‘what shows could be part of the same universe as Tommy lives in’ not ‘What’s in Tommy’s Head.’ Since any given person. place, thing, etc.. could be part of the ‘real world’ Tommy lived in, and he just included that in his imagination.

  Another example: If Tommy dreams he drank Noz-a-la with Mork, and he wakes up, and it turns out Mork was imaginary, Noz-a-la is still around. And if Norm and Frazier Krane shared a Noz-a-la, the existance of the Noz-a-la doesn’t prove Norm or Frazier is imaginary.

  The existance of anything or person or whatever in ‘Tommy’s imagination’ in Tommy’s “real world” (wherever he lives) is pure conjecture. And because most people’s dreams or ‘imaginations’ often include much of their surroundings, it much more plausable a majoirty of these shows were NOT in his imagination (even if the events of St. Elsewhere were).

• Parker
  March 13th, 2008 at 12:59 am

  Yes, of course you’d have to believe that everything in St. Elsewhere was a complete organic creation of his mind otherwise it wouldn’t at all work.

  It’s an interesting project, just very flawed. I’m surprised it’s even talked about on Wikipedia. Just looking at the ‘Key’ on the website it seems shows are on there just for spoofing the ending or coming at all close with dream sequences or fantasies (no other explanation was given). And if the common Morley cigarette prop came before the show the slew of shows there for featuring Morley cigarettes don’t stand up. Of course, even if it was the first show to use it the fact that it’s used to avoid issues with actual cigarette companies takes common sense precedent. I’d bet around 90% of the graph is too much of a stretch.

• Steve
  March 13th, 2008 at 11:09 am

  I totally agree that use of common fictional brand names is taking it too far. It should be restricted to characters crossing from one show to another. Even then, it would be interesting to see if you could somehow get a situation where a character was connected to another character by some six degrees of separation linking, but had also watched that character in a show? That would be interesting. Someone needs to redo this list properly!

• Tony LaRocca
  March 13th, 2008 at 11:20 am

  Hmmm… a solipsistic universe, based on little Tommy. Interesting. At least it’s a good reason why network TV shows nothing except Law & Order and CSI spinoffs every night.

  How about the 555 connection (all American TV shows and movies use it in a phone number) or the fact that almost all American TV characters watch channel 8 - especially for the news?

• just a guy
  March 13th, 2008 at 11:57 pm

  So, I’ve exchanged a few emails with the creater of the site (nice guy), and he had this to say:

  “There are lots of TV universes, though. This is the most extensive, by far. And the fun of it - to begin with - was to see what could link to St Elsewhere. Thus Tommy Westphall has the honour of being the name of the universe… Yes, the idea it’s all in his head doesn’t really add up - but it is television, after all :-)”

• Parker
  March 14th, 2008 at 12:42 am

  “Yes, the idea it’s all in his head doesn’t really add up - but it is television, after all :-)”

  Well that just confirms that the fun isn’t really there. Maybe you could suggest they make an actual ‘it adds up’ chart? That I’d be interested in.

• VonSkippy
  March 14th, 2008 at 1:05 am

  That Tommy kid had a very limited imagination.

  In my imaginary world, the nurses and female student doctors at MY hospital (St. SuperSkippy) all have much more interesting lives (and for some reason, they also seem to be ninjas and occasionally moonlight as ski instructors).

• Jason Shiga
  March 14th, 2008 at 2:13 am

  I saw Newhart on the graph. So it could be that Tommy is a figment of Newhart’s imagination.

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