Dick Wolf wants to do the first cross-network crossover, even though it's definitely been done before

By Sam Barsanti | June 16, 2019 | 6:24pm

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Dick Wolf wants to do the first cross-network crossover, even though it's definitely been done before

Photo: Jesse Grant

You’ve heard of crossover episodes, where a character from one show pops up on another show, but have you heard of a cross-network crossover, where a character from a show on a totally different network pops up on another show? You probably have, but legendary TV producer Dick Wolf hasn’t. In fact, he seems pretty sure that he just came up with that idea, nearly 100 years after the invention of television. According to Variety, Wolf is trying to put together a crossover between his CBS show FBI and one of his NBC shows (Law & Order: SVU or Chicago Whatever), saying “to my knowledge, it has never been done.” He admits that “someone may step forward” to tell him he’s wrong, and we here at The A.V. Club are more than happy to provide that service.

In March of 2016, Barry Allen from The CW’s The Flash visited the world of Supergirl, which was on CBS at the time. Years earlier, Fox’s Ally McBeal had multiple crossovers with ABC’s The Practice. Detective John Munch from NBC’s Homicide: Life On The Street once appeared on Fox’s The X-Files. The Critic originally aired on ABC, but Jay Sherman once made a trip over to Fox’s The Simpsons. Also, speaking of The Simpsons, this doesn’t even include joke crossovers, like when Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty were in a Simpsons couch gag. The point is, Dick Wolf did not invent this, and the fact that he’s just assuming that he did without doing any research is pretty funny.