Hi, Honey I'm Home and Every Other Show Ever Made Ever


Hi, Honey I'm Home (1991-1992)
Every other TV Show (varying years)
Type: Non-Crossover Crossover

   Please please please, no more emails on this. It was a bad show to start with. I'm trying to put it behind me like others might try to block out the trauma of a mugging. But I can't because it keeps getting brought back up. No mas! I am not counting it! Technically it has crossover connections of a sort to other shows but none that would or should count towards it sharing a universe with other shows.

   I guess to explain this crap I need to, sigh, explain the premise of the show which sadly means dwelling on the memory of Hi Honey, I'm Home. As much as possible it is best to mentally view this show like you would physically view the sun - you don't ever really want to look directly at it but only peripherally. But for this page I will stare into the fiery, soul consuming center of the conflagration. Okay…

   Hi Honey, I'm Home was a sitcom from the Nickelodeon cable channel. The Duff family was a typical nineties imperfect family. Son Mike liked to watch tons of TV. One of his favorite shows was an old 50's sitcom called Hi Honey, I'm Home. Yep, same name as the actual show. Hi Honey (the show within the show) centered on the Nielson family (see, get it, like the Nielson ratings service). Imagine Mike's surprise when the supposedly fictional Nielson family from TV moves in next store! Seems with their show cancelled they had been "relocated" to a home in the real world. Sort of Pleasantville in reverse… and without the entertainment value. They were a black and white sit com though so to blend in they had to use a device called the Turnerizer to colorize themselves (get it, Ted Turner colorized black and white movie, see, get it, get it, kill me).

   See, it seems that the characters on all TV shows actually have an existence beyond the one you see on TV. All TV show characters actually exist in their own world behind the scenes after the show ends. So when they aren't on TV, all the characters share the same world and can visit each other and such. And then when their shows are cancelled they get relocated into the real world where they, uh, look and act just like they do on TV only for some reason NOBODY NOTICES. They are iconic characters any fool should recognize acting in a flattened fake way. Yeah, nobody would notice that except for one kid. Oookay.

   The show had one additional gimmick. The show was made by and aired on Nickelodeon but then reaired shortly afterwards on ABC in prime time. See, it was the worlds first Instant Rerun! Clever… sort of. And now totally no big deal since now all sorts of TV networks do the same thing. Of course now it's called repurposing. New episodes of Law And Order: SVU air on NBC and then rerun a few days later on USA. Episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent airs first on USA and then reruns on NBC. Etc, etc…

   Back to the main point though. The premise of the show totally lended itself towards "crossovers". Hey, all the characters of all the shows coexist. That means characters from any show might stop by to borrow a cup of sugar. And even if they don't show up in person, they can be referenced and joked about as real people. Not funny jokes but still…

   Some of the characters who showed up included The Lucy Show's Mr. Mooney, Leave It To Beaver's June Cleaver, Alice and Trixie from The Honeymooners, Gomer Pyle, Grandpa Munster and Alice from The Brady Bunch. And, again, tons of other shows got lip service as being tied into the show.

   So, it sounds like a cornucopia of crossovery craziness. What could be wrong? You know, aside from the show sucking hard. Basically the very premise of the show scuttles any of this shows crossovers counting as true connections to other shows. Look at the description above: behind the scenes all TV shows exist in a shared reality. All shows. Forget who makes a cameo appearance, what character from another show was mentioned in passing. None of that matters. ALL shows share the same world. ALLLLLL. So if I was to count this show's crossovers the entire point of tracking what show shares a world with what show is moot. All TV shows are part of the same world. The end. I can pack up my web site and go home. It all incusively connects everything. The grand unifying sitcom. For something so monumental you'd think it would be a better show.

   Here's the extra weird though. At the same time that it connects ALL shows in one world, it also impossibly FAILS to connect any shows into the same world. How's that? Again, check the premise. Behind the scenes, when the characters are not on the air on their shows, they all share a common world. Behind the scenes. Out of the on-air continuity of their shows. So behind the scenes in their "off time" the Nielsons know June Cleaver. That does not translate into them knowing June Cleaver on their show, of their "on air" worlds sharing continuity. The behind the scenes world created in Hi Honey, I'm Home is one separate and unique from the on air "worlds" each show inhabits and so really doesn't do anything to truly connect the various realities.

   So on the one hand it's so crazy inclusive as to defeat the purpose of tracking crossovers and on the other hand its goofy premise really fails to truly connect any shows to each other. Either way you want to look at it, this shows connections are a wash. Technically they are crossovers of a sort but not ones that I can count towards shared realities.

   Now, lets all just pretend this show never happened. Let's go into denial, block it from our memories and never discuss it again.


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