3/19/2024 0 Comments St elsewhere cast members![]() ![]() Elsewhere was an “institutional series” par excellence, showing the day-to-day workings of a major urban hub through which a cross section of humankind constantly flowed in and out. The snow globe inspired the so-called Tommy Westphall theory of TV interconnectedness, one of the most playful and expansive fan theories of all time. The snow globe of TV has expanded exponentially since then, to the point where viewera would have to clone themselves 20 times to watch every sitcom or drama worth having an opinion on - a scenario that wouldn’t leave much room for watching other types of programming, or for eating and sleeping. In other words, try not to be too crushed that it’s ending, because it never really existed to begin with.” I like to think of the snow globe as a meta-commentary on the universe of TV generally, one that resonates more strongly now than it did three decades ago, when there were only three major broadcast networks, PBS, cable, and a bunch of syndicated stations, yet people who wrote about the medium for a living still worried that there was no way they could watch and keep tabs on everything. ![]() Elsewhere was ‘merely’ a work of fiction. I think other people will find it puzzling, odd, maybe unfulfilling in some way.”ĭavid Bushman, a TV curator at the Paley Center in New York City, recently described the final shot of the snow globe as “a reaffirmation that St. “I think some people will think it’s extraordinary and existential and quintessential St. Law, Dead Like Me) - trying to say? Was it all the dream or fantasy of an autistic child? Was there some supernatural aspect to the series that everyone had missed throughout its six-season run? “I expect a very mixed reaction,” Bruce Paltrow, one of the show’s executive producers, told the Chicago Tribune. What were series creators Joshua Brand and John Falsey - and the episode’s screenwriters, Tom Fontana ( Homicide, Oz) and John Masius ( L.A. Daniel Auschlander (Norman Lloyd) - who had died earlier in the episode - was alive and well, and was suddenly Tommy’s grandfather.Īt the time, this puzzling closing image inspired as many arguments as the ending of The Sopranos 18 years later. Westphall was now a construction worker rather than a doctor, and St. To make things weirder, the characters weren’t the characters anymor. Eligius Hospital, the show’s principal location. ![]() Then the boy puts the snow globe down to prepare for bed, and the camera slowly zooms into the snow globe to reveal a miniature version of St. Westphall (Ed Flanders) watches his autistic son Tommy (Chad Allen) stare at a snow globe that he gazes at all day long. Today is the 30th anniversary of one of the most famous endings in all of television. ![]()
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