# Most shows set in the same "universe"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2016, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389 "2016-12-10T22:58:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/21 "2017-07-14T18:43:51Z")
> [@blindboyard](#): > > The Vixen cartoon series, if we stretch it slightly. > > If we count Netflix then the MCU will, by the end of the year, have six Netflix series (Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Punisher, The Defenders), three TV series (the cancelled Agent Carter, Agents of SHIELD, Inhumans) and three more in development (Cloak & Dagger, The New Warriors and whatever they’re doing with Hulu. > > That’s twelve. Not bad. It would have been 13 but the pilot for Most Wanted wasn’t picked up. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/22 "2017-07-14T19:04:28Z")
Does Legion count? Or has it been modified to not be about Charles Xavier’s son? ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/23 "2017-07-14T19:18:05Z")
If you think of each cartoon, TV series or movie starring a Marvel character as existing inside a metaverse then every Marvel series since Marvel Super Heroes (1966) is part of the Marvel universe. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/24 "2017-07-14T19:20:19Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Does Legion count? Or has it been modified to not be about Charles Xavier’s son? SPOILERS FOR LEGION I’ll spoiler-box my answer and have actually asked the moderators to spoiler box your question. Yes, it looks like Charles is his Father. He had a vision of his father fighting the big-bad and while we didn’t see Charles face, he saw a bald guy using powerful mind-power to fight the bad guy. It is clear Charles is his father, but the show has NOT laid this out yet. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/25 "2017-07-14T20:47:50Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Does Legion count? Or has it been modified to not be about Charles Xavier’s son? I’ve edited this to have a spoiler box… please DO NOT just blurt out spoilers of this caliber, because when it’s this extreme, it’s hard to tell if the poster is doing it intentionally to make people mad or if it’s just an honest mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/26 "2017-07-14T21:02:06Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > I’ve edited this to have a spoiler box… please DO NOT just blurt out spoilers of this caliber, because when it’s this extreme, it’s hard to tell if the poster is doing it intentionally to make people mad or if it’s just an honest mistake. It is about a character introduced in 1985. 32 years ago. This is “rosebud is a sled” level information. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/27 "2017-07-14T21:15:12Z")
What, you mean “Rosebud,” was a sled? Thanks for ruining \*Citizen Kane \* for me. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/28 "2017-07-14T21:17:03Z")
Curious, I looked to see if the entertainment media was treating this like some big spoiler to be kept secret, and [nope](https://www.google.com/search?biw=1056&bih=518&tbm=nws&q=legion+charles+xavier+son&oq=legion+charles+xavier+son&gs_l=psy-ab.3...44915.47309.0.47914.8.8.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..8.0.0.oXVxSlMj2dY). (Don’t click on or even mouse-over link if you watch comic book media but have never read an actual comic book for some reason.) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/29 "2017-07-14T22:24:36Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > It is about a character introduced in 1985. 32 years ago. This is “rosebud is a sled” level information. A rather obscure character, though, who most of the viewers of the show were probably not familiar with. I think it still qualifies as a spoiler. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/30 "2017-07-14T22:35:10Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > A rather obscure character, though, who most of the viewers of the show were probably not familiar with. I think it still qualifies as a spoiler. Maybe so, but it was never treated as spoiler material in nerd-centric media (as in, the people likely to watch the show) in the period after the show was announced to be in production. For instance, [this](http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-bizarre-history-of-legion-one-of-marvels-most-powe-1792097405) io9 article (dated February 2nd, the day before the series premiered) and [this](https://www.themarysue.com/fx-legion-x-men-outsiders/) themarysue article (dated even earlier, from January 17th) treated it as basic information to be given as a background (the io9 article) and so basic that it was mentioned casually as a given (the themarysue article.) You’ll find many more other articles talking about the show before it aired that were similarly casual about such basic information. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/31 "2017-07-14T23:01:22Z")
If Simpsons guest appearances count then pretty much everything is linked. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2017, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/32 "2017-07-15T03:58:00Z")
I think the same rule would apply here as for the Game of Thrones threads: Just because the information is available in print doesn’t mean it’s not a spoiler for the TV audience. About that information, though… Isn’t Legion part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? I thought they didn’t have the rights to use anything connected to X-Men or mutants, and Charles Xavier is certainly connected to X-Men and mutants. ---
**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2017, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/33 "2017-07-15T04:18:56Z")
> [@Julius\_Henry](#): > > All in the Family/Maude/Good Times/The Jeffersons/Checking In/Gloria/Archie Bunker’s Place/704 Hauser. > > There’s 8, though 3 of those only lasted a handful of episodes. Sherman Hemsley also played George Jefferson on ER, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-air, so that’s 2 more. 10. Mr. Drummond form Diff’rnt Strokes was also on Fresh Prince, so now we have D. Strokes, and it’s spin off, The Facts of Life as well as Hello Larry, so now at 13. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2017, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/34 "2017-07-15T04:21:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I think the same rule would apply here as for the Game of Thrones threads: Just because the information is available in print doesn’t mean it’s not a spoiler for the TV audience. > > About that information, though… > > Isn’t Legion part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? I thought they didn’t have the rights to use anything connected to X-Men or mutants, and Charles Xavier is certainly connected to X-Men and mutants. _Legion_ is a co-production of FX and Marvel, so Fox is involved. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2017, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/35 "2017-07-15T11:59:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I think the same rule would apply here as for the Game of Thrones threads: Just because the information is available in print doesn’t mean it’s not a spoiler for the TV audience. It simply never occurred to me that the information reached the “serious spoiler” level, but was simply part of the basic character bio. (I’ve never watched the show–don’t have F/X.) If someone had asked me to describe something about Legion, that is part of what I would have said, because frankly that is one of the key points of the character and always has been. Like if someone asked me who Wolverine was, I might have said that he is a guy with claws in his hands and unbreakable metal bones and the ability to rapidly heal. I absolutely don’t think it merited a PM from a moderator that included all-caps yelling and the assertion that he would "give me “the benefit of the doubt” that I was only a clueless idiot instead of a trolling jerk for posting that. (That wasn’t the exact phrasing, bur it sure was the connotation.) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2017, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/36 "2017-07-15T17:07:14Z")
As I said in an earlier post, the biggest crossover universe is probably Group 2 given on this website: [http://www.poobala.com/crossoverlistb.html](http://www.poobala.com/crossoverlistb.html) For the purposes of that website, two shows are in the same crossover universe if the same character played by the same actor appears on both shows. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/37 "2017-07-15T21:57:07Z")
For values of “character” that include a [teddy bear](http://www.poobala.com/b5andspace.html) and a [spaceship](http://www.poobala.com/battlestarandfirefly.html). ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/38 "2017-07-17T14:51:09Z")
Almost all of ABC’s daytime soap operas were set in the same ‘universe’ as characters crossed over among them all. That includes: General Hospital One Life to Live All My Children Ryan’s Hope Loving The City Port Charles “Dark Shadows”, as far as I know, never crossed over with any of the other series. But vampires did show up on “Port Charles”, so it’s not too much of a stretch to say that DS belongs in the same universe as General Hospial, et. al. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/39 "2017-07-17T15:00:45Z")
Phoebe from _Friends_ and Ursula from _Mad About You_ were twin sisters, and Kramer from _Seinfeld_ sublets his apartment from Paul Bachman. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389/40 "2017-07-17T16:23:03Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > It simply never occurred to me that the information reached the “serious spoiler” level, but was simply part of the basic character bio. (I’ve never watched the show–don’t have F/X.) If someone had asked me to describe something about Legion, that is part of what I would have said, because frankly that is one of the key points of the character and always has been. For what it’s worth, I think you’re more right than wrong about this. I could have sworn the TV series laid out that particular factoid in an oblique manner over multiple episodes. … I don’t know if other people do this, but when I start with a new Marvel- or DC-based program … I routinely Google the various characters to see “who they were” in the comics. Catch on to some Easter eggs that way. Anyway, I did that early on with _Legion’s_ David … so maybe there are things about him that I only _think_ I know from the TV show, but that I actually gleaned from an outside source. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shows-set-in-the-same-universe/774389.md?page=3)