CBR: Revisiting McDuffie's "Six Degrees of St. Elsewhere"

[CBR News]

As a special tribute to recently deceased writer Dwayne McDuffie, CBR is pleased to present one of the most well-known texts from his time writing about the art of comics in "Six Degrees of St. Elsewhere"


Full article here.

[bongoes]

That was brilliant.

[the_speedball]

I've read it before, but that's still great every single time.

[Grendel715]

Wasn't it Friends (not Seinfeld) and Mad About You that shared characters?
Phoebe and Ursula were twin sisters.

[bjacks]

Wasn't it Friends (not Seinfeld) and Mad About You that shared characters?
Phoebe and Ursula were twin sisters.

Your answer lies within Google. Kramer appeared on the show.

[howyadoin]

Your answer lies within Google. Kramer appeared on the show.

Thanks. I'd forgotten all about that.

[Captain Clarkie]

Munch appeared in The Wire too.

[Omega Alpha]

I have never watched an episode of St. Elsewhere, but WTF they were thinking with that ending?

[RAGGEDT]

Munch appeared in The Wire too.

Ultimately, then, is the true Chaos-Bringer the autistic kid on "St. Elsewhere" -- or Munch. After all, it's that paranoid cop who's the one actively jumping from universe to universe (broadcast drama, cable, animation, etc.)

Seriously, that was a wonderful piece of writing.

By the way, at one point, NBC established that all of its Thursday comedies existed in the same universe when there was a New York City blackout that played a prominent role on all the comedies on one night (including Seinfeld).

[BoozerX]

Awesome article.

[BurgundyTears]

Ha!

I'll really miss Mister McDuffie.

For anybody interested, Tv Tropes has a category for this concept called "Running The Asylum", partially because it literally turns almost everybody involved insane in the long run.

[Sijo]

While I really admired McDuffie and will miss his work, I don't agree with his take on St. Elsewhere for *exactly* the same reason he proposes: if the ending of a show was SO absurd, then why count that episode *at all?* Never heard of "joke", or "surreal" episodes? So instead of assuming it was a tacked-on controversial ending, it is better to assume it mean NONE of the other episodes happened? Or even the shows tangentially linked to St. Elsewhere? Please.

Actually, I sort of agree with his stance on continuity- but with one caveat: continuity should be made CLEAR to the audience. Want to have an issue disconnected from the rest? Sure, just mark it as such on the cover. An entire series? Again, sure. Even an entire line- heck, an anthology where only the story of the month matters! Yeah! JUST MAKE SURE THE AUDIENCE REALIZES IT! When you (for example) publish comics for decades without clearly stating "this is in continuity with that" (as DC did with its Vertigo line) you simply cannot expect the public to not be pissed when you fudge it.