What are they, their similarities, and differences, including a list of 12 fun and famous cameos and crossovers explained…
Now for the “let’s-chuck-out-and-embellish-the-boring-dictionary” explanation…
Sure, we may have heard of them, but to actually define these terms let’s address the elephant roller-skating around the room in a pink tutu, and explain what is a cameo and a crossover.
The cameo explained:
A cameo is like a surprise twist lumped into some obscure spot in a story where a famous person (who’s not famous enough to have a biography movie yet) shows up, or they play a minor character in a work of fiction. Cameos are usually short and rarely impact the story—unless you’re Kevin Bacon who is part of some plot to save some obscure planet called…??
Mostly, it’s that familiar face in the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it roles where you’ll either recognise that person straight away, or it’ll haunt you until the end of the movie when the credits roll and you see their name making you forget all about that happy ending!
The crossover explained:
A crossover is when two different genres, or story worlds, come together to enhance a storyline. Confused yet? Lemme explain…
It’s like when you get characters from a police show who team up with more cops in another city to collectively take down the one bad guy who has crossed inter-tv-land borders in the hope of getting away.
Dagnabbit them bad guys just don’t let up, do they?
Crossovers are popular with science-fiction and comic-created universes and done in countless sitcoms particularly the first responders of police, fire, and medical drama series.
Did you know that the first TV crossover was in the sitcom I Love Lucy? It’s when George Reeves from Superman arrived to save the day back in 1957s era of grainy black and white TV.
And that superhero trend of crossing over didn’t die out either.
Why are cameos and crossovers popular?
You’d think they’d become some forgotten fad like yo-yos and slinkies sliding off into the sunset, however, cameos and crossovers continue in their popularity—when done right. Here’s why…
It’s connection. Connection. Connection.
We all want to feel like we belong, to enjoy that sense of familiarity found in a place or in those people we know. Both cameos and crossovers offer this form of connection by connecting unique works of fiction, to create and deepen that sense of place and its characters. Deep, right?
Cameos and crossovers have the power to save the universe.
Cameos and crossovers have the power to make stories seem more exciting! Bigger. Grander. And bolder. People love the surprise of seeing that familiar face from another story—like when superheroes team up to save the universe for the thirty-seventh-thousand time this week. Sheesh, those freaking bad guys, again.
It’s just a marketing ploy.
Sorry to rip off the wax strips on this one, but it’s true, it’s all about marketing. Crossovers are commonly used for new shows to link with popular characters in other series to help build a bigger audience. It makes sense that the crossovers (even character cameos) are popular, as they’re usually bankrolled by the same company—like the Marvel universe is always getting busy saving the universe. A-g-a-i-n.
And coz we like it…
Most of all, fans enjoy cameos and crossovers in their fiction as they add extra excitement while deepening the connection between different stories and characters making that fictional world seem bigger. And dare I say it … seem real.
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The lists begin…
What follows are lists (because who doesn’t need another list in their day)to help reinforce the difference between cameos and crossovers. As there are countless examples out here, I’ve only named a few. See how many you recognise.
12 cameos on the big and small screen
Split into easy-to-read categories, we’ll start with the group that matters most, shall we…
A. The authors and the writer cameos:
1. Stan Lee: co-creator of the many Marvel superheroes, made lots of cameo appearances in many of the Marvel movies to save the planet from exceedingly bad-bad-bad guys.
2. Stephen King: Bad guys come in many creepy layers, and when it comes to the king who played the part of the creepy-cleaner in Sons of Anarchy, author Stephen King appeared in the movie IT.
3. J. K. Rowling: creator of the Harry Potter series, is said to have done cameos as background characters in the crowd and was in one of the Fantastic Beasts films. It was hard to confirm or deny this in my research. Or was this just fan fiction hoping to connect these two universes by the same creator?
4. Stephenie Meyer: creator of the Twilight series appeared in Twilight and Breaking Dawn – Part 1.
5. Alfred Hitchcock: was famous for regularly appearing in his own movies.
B. The Musos and the sport star cameos:
6. Keith Richards: was Johnny’s Depp’s dad in The Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Rock on!
7. Michael Jackson: was up front and in your face in Men in Black II. Remember this one? Agent M.
8. Mike Tyson: Who could forget his missing pet tiger doing the rounds in The Hangover.
9. Dolly Parton: was rugby tackled in Miss Congeniality II, had her songs sung to her in Dumplin, and was the voice for the super cute Dolly Gnome in Gnomeo and Juliet.
C. The actors that get to act in cameos:
10. Bill Murray: ventured into Space Jam, Dumb and Dumber, and was instrumentally unforgettable in his portrayal—of himself—in Zombieland.
11. Johnny Depp: starred in the original TV series of 21 Jump Street, he then popped in to do a cameo in the comedic film adaptation of the same name.
12. Kevin Bacon: dropped into an episode of the Will and Grace series. He was a taxi-stealing wannabe passenger in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. And, after two movies of having his name dropped countless times on the big screen, the superheroes play the bad guys who kidnap Kevin in the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday special. You can re-read that last part to ensure you read that right. I’ll wait…
12 crossovers on the big and small screen:
Like trying to count the stars on the Milky Way, there are far too many crossovers to list in one post. So, I narrowed it down to the usual suspects starting with…
A. The medical, whodunnit cops and firemen universes:
1. Grey’s Anatomy: had/ has regular character crossovers with Private Practice, and Station 19.
2. Chicago Fire: had many crossovers with Chicago Med, Chicago PD, SVU
3. NCIS, NCIS Hawaii, NCIS LA, Jag, NCIS New Orleans, etc…
4. Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, Law and Order Organised Crime. Munch then crossed over into The X Files, too.
B. Superheroes doing things in capes and spaceships:
5. DC TV Shows like Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl frequently feature a crossover.
6. Marvel’s superheroes have individual movies that come together for epic crossover events like The Avengers.
7. Star Trek and its many generations have created one big happy family in space.
C. Vampires doing dastardly vampirish things:
9. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel started the trend because we have…
10. Vampire Diaries and The Originals, or both, or one or the other. Confused? Me too. Still loved it though.
D. Honorary mentions for fantasy, supernatural beings and aliens, and “no-freaking-way-they-did-that”:
11. Once Upon a Time: This fantasy TV series intertwined various fabled fairy tale characters into one cohesive storyline, creating a continuous crossover universe. It was a very clever concept that allowed you to relive your childhood stories in a whole new way.
12. The Alien in Predator. Or was that the Predator in Aliens? But it had to be one of the biggest crossovers to became a box office sensation. Sorry, I didn’t see it, but it gets replayed in my household at least once a year.
12. Scooby Doo and Supernatural! (Yes, this is the no-freaking-way-they-did-that category.) We can’t be friends if you haven’t heard of this one. I’m serious, (she says with a scary-sounding cackling laugh of a witch!) As a supernatural fan, who grew up watching Scooby Doo, this is a fan favourite made for television history! Titled: Scoobynatural it’s the 16th episode of the 13th season. Now, let me know when you’ll be watching this and I’ll supply the popcorn.
Cameos and Crossovers in stories started way back…
Since 1885! That’s right. Before children had even heard of superheroes (the first being the Phantom back in 1939), the first popular crossover in literature history was found in Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where Tom Sawyer is Huck’s best friend.
Crossovers are also common in various romance series, such as the Elsie Creek Series. Its latest book, DOCTORING DUST, has multiple cameos and a crossover with another book series as they’re all in the same world.
Yes, it’s a romantic cameo and crossover all wrapped up in one…
It all started when I wrote a scene in THE STATION, VOLUME 2 (Oasis in the Outback Duology) that sparked my imagination to write Doctoring Dust.
Throughout the Elsie Creek Series there are various character cameos, but in Doctoring Dust you’ll find cameos from:
Wait! That’s the entire series tapped into one book!
Even if you don’t know these characters, that’s okay because you can still read this book as a standalone story.
But as we’re talking about cameos and crossovers, to better immerse the reader deeper into this unique world, you can read the series starting from here>>
**All still images relating to this post’s topic are via CANVA.com
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