Let's try to make sense of wonky timelines on TV, et al...

[WoodStoner1]

I got the idea commenting in the TNBC thread. Basically, let's just accept that most TV series are actually all trips through the multiverse.

So...I'll pick up where I left off in the TNBC thing :

Saved By The Bell has three universes:

Toriverse : Based on references in The New Class, which ties into continuity to The College Years, here is where Zack and Kelly get married. This is also where the boys just so happen to go to the same college, and Kelly shows up later. Zack may have briefly knew Kelly (and Jessie) or had a thing for her before he met Tori in senior year, and she just dropped off his radar. When they meet in college, he falls for her and proposes eventually. During the wedding he becomes better friends with Jessie too at last. The reboot timeline may have happened here too as such. So this is...the PRIME timeline??

Kelly and Jessie Universe : The timeline we're familiar with from the majority of the actual show that was called Saved By The Bell all along. But it cuts off after their graduation when the Tori timeline takes over. It also included their adventures at Mr. Carosi's beach house and etc. We know by the end of this version of events, Kelly and Zack agree to just be friends, and the gang knew each other all along, some knew each other longer than high school. It's unclear what happened after their graduation, though. Also note that the gang has different college plans than the ones that came to pass in TCY.
 
Blissverse : Good Morning Miss Bliss, Saved By The Bell Season 0 or 1, this is pretty much the easiest to explain. Zack, Screech, and Lisa all live in Indiana, have a different set of friends and go to a middle school where a version of Mr. Belding happens to principal.

As the series goes along, we of course see time and space itself shift and get to visit all these universes.


Happy Days I already figured out. First two seasons or so = realistic '50s Midwest America, Chuck Cunningham exists, Fonz is just a cool greaser. After that = new universe where there's no Chuck, and fashion and music is an amalgamation of '50s and '70s/'80s cultures. And the Fonz is a superhuman; similarly, aliens and ghosts and such exist too.

The Raccoons goes through a minor world shift where they end up in a total anthropomorphic world with no humans at all. This is by Season 2.

Most discrepancies, which happen in the Tommy and Julie version of the timeline, can be explained that "they were just a dream", fortunately. The Christmas Raccoons didn't really happen, although The Raccoons really do live in the Evergreen Forest. Lost Star was of course one big What If?

But there's one glaring bit of discontinuity. Ralph and Melissa say they met at a coffee shop...yet they are depicted as going to grade school together. I just explain this away as they drifted apart after school, but met up again at the shop. They reconnected, fell in love, and married.

[CMWaters]

OK, now do Fresh Prince of Bel Air (don't have to include the recent dramatic reinterpretation).

Or how M*A*S*H made a 3-4 year war last 11 years. XD

[Bo Rida]

I'd like a take on 24. Must have ended up covering about a 20 year period with time jumps but the culture and tech barely change.

[Sephiroth]

Don’t get me started on Murder, She Wrote

[karl100589]

I'll have a go with the Fresh Prince and the two Vivians. It was heavily implied the family were losing patience with Vivian at the height of her pregnancy, if she continued to be unbearable afterwards Phil snaps and breaks up with her. While on the rebound Phil falls for and quickly remarries another woman with the same name, who is happy to play along knowing the wealth of the Banks family. It would explain why Viv's personality changed so dramatically from season 4 since they were two different people. As for Jazz's line about Viv being different since having the baby; it's Jazz, who's never been the sharpest tool in the shed.

An alternative is similar to the Homer in a coma theory in the Simpsons. Phil took a major fall rushing to the hospital when Viv was pregnant. Everything post season 4 is Phil's imagination in hospital. It explains Viv being a different, less abrasive woman, Nicky going from a baby to eight years old immediately, and the fourth wall breaking.

[dirtyoldman]

Care Bear the movie 2 contradicts the first movie. They probably thought kids wouldn't realise but they f***ing do.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Red Dwarf I-II takes place in the original universe where there was 169 crew members and Lister never dated Kochanski.

Red Dwarf III-VI takes place in an alternate universe where there was 1,169 crew members and Lister dated Kochanski.

Red Dwarf VII-VIII takes place in a (confirmed) alternate timeline created by the paradox of the future Dwarfers killing the present Dwarfers.

Red Dwarf: Back to Earth-present takes place in another alternate universe where hologram Rimmer never became Ace Rimmer and the crew were never resurrected when the nanobots rebuilt Red Dwarf.

[ToyfareMark]

The Friday The 13th timeline would probably wreck people.

[CMWaters]

Oct 24, 2023 20:43:25 GMT -5 ToyfareMark said:

The Friday The 13th timeline would probably wreck people.

Especially when you factor the TV series in it.

[J. Hova]

I only want Fresh Prince of Bel Air if somehow Jada ruins that too.

[Deleted]

The Flash...good luck lol

[wildojinx]

Explain how Daffy Duck went from wacky (the early shorts) to snarky (the stuff with him vs bugs) to loser (the Daffy vs Speedy cartoons).

[Jumpin' Jesse Walsh]

The multiple Halloween timelines works like the multiverse in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Naturally this means there's a universe where Michael Myers has hot dogs for fingers.

[ace]

Oct 24, 2023 20:43:25 GMT -5 ToyfareMark said:

The Friday The 13th timeline would probably wreck people.

What doesn’t make sense is still what has never made sense.  If Jason’s drowning is the catalyst for Mrs. Voorhees to murder in order to keep the camp closed…why is Jason walking around from part 2 on?  If he was alive in a shack somewhere…why didn’t he pop up to say…hey…mom…it’s cool, I lived?

Everything else makes enough sense except that it’s almost never actually Friday the 13th.

But you really have to start the timeline from Part 2 on for it to make that sense.  Which is difficult since Part 2 opens by showing you the end of Part 1.

The funniest thing is when the girl who died in 2’s brother is looking for her in part 4.  Like she’s been missing for years when the two movies are like three days apart on the timeline.  

2-4 is like a week long bender for Jason.  He dies at the end of 4.

5 happens while he is dead.

6 he is resurrected as a zombie.  One thing I love is that Tommy has a nightmare at the beginning of 5 about men digging up Jason and him coming back.  Then in 6 he’s the one that actually does it.

6-8 are zombie Jason having misadventures.  The end of 8 makes 9 on impossible…but it’s the end of the Paramount years and New Line gave zero craps.

But from 2-8 it’s all fine.  Those are the only Jason movies that matter anyway. Classic 80’s Jason.

The movies after that are all stand alone.  Though Jason X had the sense to set its story in the future (not just the space stuff…it opens years after Freddy vs Jason would take place even though it hadn’t been made yet.

So there’s Friday the 13th
Then 2-8 even though they take off from 1 without ever making that make any sense
Then New Line has three standalone movies
Then a remake that takes bits from 1-4 and tries to make Jason surviving part 1 make sense by having him still be a child when he sees his mother beheaded.

….

My biggest question in the series remains why Roy the Paramedic kills so many people because his secret son is murdered…but he never kills Vic…the guy who actually murdered him.

[ace]

Oct 26, 2023 19:29:59 GMT -5 Jumpin' Jesse Walsh said:

The multiple Halloween timelines works like the multiverse in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Naturally this means there's a universe where Michael Myers has hot dogs for fingers.

Halloween is the most brazenly plotted series in film history.  Even the loosely connected at best Bond series pre-Craig era just let it all count…sense be damned.

Halloween has reset their timelines FOUR times.  And that’s not even getting into Halloween 3.

1-2-4-5-6 is the Loomis, or classic timeline.  Laurie Strode dies offscreen in this one.  Loomis stars in all of them.  They love trying to make you understand Michael Myers…even if it’s an obvious bad idea.  

1-2-H20-Resurrection retconned out 4-6 but left the brother/sister problem firmly in place.  Laurie Strode is killed by Michael in this one.  Then he gets beat up by Busta Rhymes.

Rob Zombie did a remake and a sequel that are good litmus tests for whether someone can be my friend or not.  If you like these movies…keep walking, stranger.  A fundamental failure to understand the most basic aspect of the movie.  Evil unleashed on innocence.  Zombie doesn’t think anyone is innocent.  His world view is that everyone is dirty and everyone is a trash person.  I did think his change in the first one of having Lynda and Bob bone at the old Myers house on Halloween night was actually a better idea, however.  So I’ll give him that.  He even keeps the damned brother/sister thing.

Then 1-2018-Kills-Ends vanishes everything but the original.  I’m not a fan of the road these ended up going down b I do appreciate the concept of the effect Michael had on Haddonfield.  We’re just dangerously close to Zombie territory by the time we get to Kills.  That scene with the mob at the hospital feels straight out of his movies.  If everyone I’m watching is insufferable…why do I care when they suffer?  It does wisely save its big ending kill for the one decent person running around that movie in Judy Greer.  And then Ends.  Which I argue is actually a good movie…it’s just not a good Michael Myers/Laurie Strode movie.  But I think future appraisals will be more kind to it.

[CMWaters]

Oct 26, 2023 20:46:45 GMT -5 ace said:

Oct 26, 2023 19:29:59 GMT -5 Jumpin' Jesse Walsh said:

The multiple Halloween timelines works like the multiverse in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Naturally this means there's a universe where Michael Myers has hot dogs for fingers.

Halloween is the most brazenly plotted series in film history.  Even the loosely connected at best Bond series pre-Craig era just let it all count…sense be damned.

Halloween has rest their timelines FOUR times.  And that’s not even getting into Halloween 3.

1-2-4-5-6 is the Loomis, or classic timeline.  Laurie Strode dies offscreen in this one.  Loomis stars in all of them.  They love trying to make you understand Michael Myers…even if it’s an obvious bad idea.  

1-2-H20-Resurrection retconned out 4-6 but left the brother/sister problem firmly in place.  Laurie Strode is killed by Michael in this one.  Then he gets beat up by Busta Rhymes.

Rob Zombie did a remake and a sequel that are good litmus tests for whether someone can be my friend or not.  If you like these movies…keep walking, stranger.  A fundamental failure to understand the most basic aspect of the movie.  Evil unleashed on innocence.  Zombie doesn’t think anyone is innocent.  His world view is that everyone is dirty and everyone is a trash person.  I did think his change in the first one of having Lynda and Bob bone at the old Myers house on Halloween night was actually a better idea, however.  So I’ll give him that.  He even keeps the damned brother/sister thing.

Then 1-2018-Kills-Ends vanishes everything but the original.  I’m not a fan of the road these ended up going down b I do appreciate the concept of the effect Michael had on Haddonfield.  We’re just dangerously close to Zombie territory by the time we get to Kills.  That scene with the mob at the hospital feels straight out of his movies.  If everyone I’m watching is insufferable…why do I care when they suffer?  It does wisely save its big ending kill for the one decent person running around that movie in Judy Greer.  And then Ends.  Which I argue is actually a good movie…it’s just not a good Michael Myers/Laurie Strode movie.  But I think future appraisals will be more kind to it.

And then there's the 5th timeline where the events were just a movie that was being watched.

[agent817]

Try to make sense of the Dan Schneider universe if you dare. If Schneider (ewwww, just thinking about that man disgusts me a little) was rather consistent, there would be a little more sense in the universe. Think about it, I would like to think iCarly, Victorious, Zoey 101, Drake & Josh, and Same & Cat were all in the same universe. The problem, however, is that Drake & Josh is sometimes depicted as a TV show within the universe. For example, there was an iCarly episode with Carly watching an episode and the dialogue is from the character of Megan. I could understand that it was a joke to reference both of Miranda Cosgrove's characters, but then there was an episode where the nerds Eric and Craig appeared. The same could be said in an episode of Victorious when Cat makes a reference to an episode of D&J and they all acknowledge it as a TV show, yet the character of Helen, who was the theater manager on D&J, appeared to be the new school principal on Victorious. Not to mention Drake Bell is acknowledged as an actor and singer on Zoey 101.