Previously on alt.tv.homicide, w
...@ids.net (Diane) wrote:
>On Mon, 19 Aug 2002 12:08:26 GMT, "Martha K." <msongbi
...@yahoo.com>
>wrote:
><snip>
>>> >>- Coloured background to make the links stand out and, more
>>> >>importantly, the shows that aren't linked seem more separate
>>> >>- Added "Oz" as a link to "Homicide" (Any shows linked to "Oz"?)
>>> >St. Elsewhere, right? The corporation that bought St. Eligius in one
>>> >of the later seasons takes over the prison in Oz and tries to
>>> >implement managed care there (with tragic results, of course). I'm
>>> >blanking on the name.
>>Ecumena.
>Which later got changed to Weigert. I think there was an HMO at the
>time named Humana or somesuch that threatened to sue.
A Google-cached page of the New York Daily News brings confirmation
from a well-placed source.
--Patrick
=========================================
From: New York Daily News |Arts and Lifestyle | Television |
Friday, June 29, 2001
Extra-Impressed Fontana Lauds Eagle-eyed Readers
In my most recent column relaying TV Extras, or in-jokes, caught by
Daily News readers, some of them noted sly references buried deep
within the shows of Tom Fontana — "St. Elsewhere" and "Oz" included.
One of the readers most surprised by the identification of those
Extras was ... Tom Fontana.
"I thought that was amazing," he says.
One Extra noted last time, by Kris Calabrese of Brooklyn, was that the
name of the HMO running (and ruining) "St. Elsewhere" in its final
season was changed from Ecumena to the Weigert Corporation — and that
Weigert, more than a decade later, also was the name of the
institution performing experiments on the inmates of "Oz."
Calabrese also noted in her e-mail that the children's show watched
avidly by the inmates of "Oz," featuring the buxom character known as
Ms. Sally, also was seen in the background on a TV in Fontana's UPN
series "The Beat."
"That's right," Fontana says. "And it's also in 'Homicide: The
Movie.'"
"That's the next sentence in her letter," I tell him.
"Give me her address," he says. "I'll send her something."
Fontana got a kick out of a recent Extra, from Sean Dougherty of
Clifton, N.J., prompted by my description of the "St. Elsewhere"
finale as revealing the entire series to be nothing more, or less,
than the mental meanderings of an autistic boy, the character of Tommy
Westphall.
Dougherty, recalling that Alfre Woodard's character from "St.
Elsewhere" also turned up once on "Homicide: Life on the Street,"
asked, "Did Tom Fontana really write a character who only existed as a
daydream into 'Homicide'? Does that mean that 'Homicide' ... was also
a daydream?"
"Here's the thing," Fontana says. "It's my personal plot that all of
television exists in the mind of Tommy Westphall, to this day. So
'Homicide' is still the musings; it's just that instead of looking at
a hospital snow globe," as he did in the "St. Elsewhere" finale, "now
he's looking at the police headquarters building snow globe.
"And because," Fontana adds, "we did the 'Cheers' crossover" — a few
"St. Elsewhere" characters visited the Boston bar — "it would make all
of 'Cheers,' which would then make all of 'Frasier,' also in the mind
of Tommy Westphall. It only gets bigger and bigger and bigger."
Another conspiracy Fontana supports, with Richard Belzer, is placing
Belzer's character of Munch on as many shows as possible. So far, the
wry "Homicide" detective has appeared on "The Beat," "Law & Order,"
"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "The X-Files" and, in cartoon
form, "The Simpsons."
"The trickiest one has been trying to figure out how to get him on
'Oz,' because he is now an NYPD cop, and 'Oz' is not set in any
specific state," Fontana says.
"I almost had him be a contestant on 'Up Your Ante,'" another
show-within-a-show watched by the "Oz" inmates, "but he was away the
day we were shooting it. But maybe he'll be on Ms. Sally."
