Six Degrees Of Perd Hapley

Or, move over Tommy Westphall… There’s a new center of the TV universe.

There’s a popular theory created by the late, great writer Dwayne McDuffie that posits 90% — and perhaps all — of television exists in the mind of Tommy Westphall, an autistic young boy who appeared on the long running drama “St. Elsewhere.” It’s a fun theory, but since “St. Elsewhere” has been off the air for over twenty-seven years and TV has moved on, I’m going to propose a new theory: all television is connected not by Tommy Westphall, but by Perd Hapley.

That’s probably going to need a little explanation, right? So let’s talk about the Westphall Theory first.

In the series finale of “St. Elsewhere,” the camera zoomed out from the central hospital as snow fell to reveal it was all actually inside a snow globe. The globe was held by a young autistic boy named Tommy Westphall, and the popular interpretation was that the whole show had taken place in Westphall’s mind: he’d been imagining the whole thing, all six seasons. Where this starts to tie everything together is that “St. Elsewhere” characters crossed over onto other TV shows; and characters from other shows crossed over onto “St. Elsewhere”... So if you assume that any two shows that share characters exist in the same universe, then both, say, “St. Elsewhere” AND “Homicide: Life On The Street” exist not in the “real” world of television, but were fictional creations of Westphall’s brain. When you add in that “Homicide” crossed over with “Law & Order,” and “Law & Order” characters have shown up EVERYWHERE, even “The Simpsons,” you start to understand how McDuffie’s theory works: every show that was connected back to “St. Elsewhere” exists in the mind of one young boy.

Not to destroy the fun inherent in this theory (and really, it’s just a fun theory, which was the whole point of McDuffie bringing it up the first place), but there are a number of problems with The Westphall Theory — not least of which that it’s up for interpretation whether “St. Elsewhere” actually does take place in Westphall’s mind.

Add in — as mentioned above — that it’s been twenty-seven years since the end of “St. Elsewhere,” let alone five years since the end of “Law & Order,” and it’s pretty clear that most currently airing television has moved on. The Westphall Theory was good for it’s time, but now is the time for something new.

So I’ve got a much less sound theory that doesn’t encompass 90% of television shows, and is based on way more speculation. I call it the Perd Hapley Theory Of Universe Interconnectivity.

The crux is that you have to know and recognize the overly literal news anchor Perd Hapley (Jay Jackson) from “Parks & Recreation.” Jackson, who played Perd on “Parks,” started out as an IRL news reporter before a demo reel landed him a role on screen… As a news reporter. From there he’s appeared in a dozen films and TV shows, and with only two exceptions in the role of a reporter or anchor.

You can see where I’m going with this, right? That he’s playing the same character in all of these appearances? And therefore connecting every show and movie he’s ever appeared in? Here’s the kicker: other than Perd (and one small mention that we’ll discount on “Scandal” because I’d like to keep going with this) his characters have never been named.

Jackson could be playing someone other role… But he could also be playing Perd!

The immediate objection, of course, is that none of his other characters are as literal as Perd… But they’re also usually much briefer in appearance, so one could argue that Perd was about to utter one of his signature Perd-isms before the camera pulled away. If we assume this is true — and why wouldn’t we? — where has Perd popped up beyond “Parks & Rec?” He’s had 12 appearances on “Scandal,” as well as roles on “Dexter,” “The Closer,” “The Mentalist,” “Body of Proof,” “Fred The Show,” “Revenge,” “Pretty Little Liars,” “Blunt Talk,” and most recently five appearances on “Supergirl.”

On film, he’s played a reporter in “Fast Five” and “Battleship.” Which we’ll just ignore for the moment. We’re ignoring a lot of stuff to make this work, but bear with me and assume that his movie appearances were parallel universes or something, because if we get into movies this is just going to get too complicated. More complicated, at least.

Let’s talk about the TV shows, instead! We can assume all of those are interconnected by Perd, which is pretty impressive already. But let’s start with the show that birthed Perd unto the world, “Parks & Rec.” Pawnee was initially envisioned as a spin-off from Scranton, i.e. the location of the American version of “The Office.” While that was eventually nixed, it’s still entirely possible that the show takes place in the same universe as “The Office,” and therefore the British “Office” as well (Ricky Gervais’ character appeared on both). Which is a nice start, but somewhat limited because other than some public real-world appearances by Gervais as David Brent, those shows are self-contained.

Also self-contained? “Dexter,” “The Closer,” “The Mentalist,” “Body of Proof,” “Fred The Show,” “Revenge,” and “Blunt Talk.” “Pretty Little Liars” had a short lived spin-off called “Ravenswood,” but that barely counts. Looks like the Perd Theory is dead in the water before it even started; even deader than some sort of dead thing in “Battleship,” I imagine.

NOT SO FAST.

Where this starts to get interesting is with Perd’s most recent appearance in National City on “Supergirl.” Though not yet confirmed, producers have discussed the possibility of crossing “Supergirl” (which is on CBS) over with “The Flash” (which is on The CW), because they’re both made by a lot of the same people, and produced by the same company (which is Warner Bros.) If that came to pass, a whole branch of television previously untapped by the Perd Theory would open up.

All based on DC Comics, “The Flash” takes place in the same universe as “Arrow” and the animated “Vixen.” They also recently sucked in NBC’s cancelled “Constantine,” when the title character showed up on “Arrow.” And there are a ton more DC Comics based shows on the air, just waiting to be consumed by Perd.

For example: I’ve previously talked to the producers of “Gotham,” the young Batman prequel, about whether they would be up for a crossover with other DC Comics based shows. Though both they and the “Arrow” producers liked being in their own corner of the sky, an Easter Egg in the second episode of “Gotham” threw that to the wind, when some over-zealous FX artists repurposed a bit of the Starling City skyline from “Arrow” and placed it into the Gotham City skyline — including the Queen Consolidated building. That, in case you don’t watch “Arrow,” is the company owned by Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and previously Oliver’s Dad.

It was purely an Easter Egg, an in-joke to fans of both shows, but we’re already in the deep end here so let’s assume “Gotham” also exists in the Perd Hapley Universe. From there, it’s a short leap towards also assuming that fellow DC Comics (really, the Vertigo imprint but now we’re quibbling) show “iZombie” is connected, and so far nobody has said it isn’t so let’s go for it.

If “iZombie” is part of the same universe as “Flash,” “Gotham” and the rest, then get ready to have your mind blown: in the fifth episode of the first season of “iZombie,” a skateboarding character refers to a homeless man who won’t stop saying, “Are we having fun yet?” That’s the same catchphrase that plagued Henry (Adam Scott) after an embarrassing, viral TV commercial featured him saying the phrase and essentially ruined his career, on “Party Down.”

Which makes sense, because “Party Down” and “iZombie” were both created by the same guy, Rob Thomas. And though Thomas has reused actors from all of his shows for all his other shows, let’s take a leap and say that all his shows take place in the same universe. That means “Party Down” is connected, but also “Veronica Mars,” and potentially both versions of “Cupid” which is weird but who knows?

Also, you should go back and watch the original “Cupid” with Jeremy Piven because it’s one of the best shows ever created, but I digress.

…And this is where our story ends, unfortunately. Sure, that’s a lot of TV shows, but hardly the 90% of TV that The Westphall Theory encompassed. The issue is that the TV crossover is relatively limited in modern times. It’s surprising, because there’s such a ridiculous amount of TV on at any given moment, and only growing; but the focus of the modern showrunner is more on creating distinct, evolving worlds that let their own characters thrive, and push them to the edge — not pushing rating stunts like crossovers.

The key to the Westphall Theory, on the other hand, is that it was built at a time when TV was more about comfort; and what’s more comforting than seeing your favorite characters show up in more than one place? It’s like having a treasured family member surprise you, and gives the impression that television is just like a big house everyone hangs out in to have fun (see: every vintage The WB promo ever created).

Which is funny, because the gritty, serial style that most modern TV ascribes to was created (or at least cemented) by “St. Elsewhere” and “Hill Street Blues,” which ran at the same time and, coincidentally, exists inside Tommy Westphall’s head as well. In fact, it isn’t even really “St. Elsewhere” that made the theory extend its tendrils into every facet of television. If anything, it’s Richard Belzer’s “Law & Order” character Detective Munch (originally from “Homicide”), who appeared (in character) on everything from “The Wire,” to “Arrested Development,” to “The X-Files.” He’s the key, and from him, the other Dick Wolf shows that connected back to “Law & Order.”

So there’s two ways that Perd Hapley could eventually eclipse Tommy Westphall: the first is to appear on a “Chicago” show, whether it’s “Fire,” “P.D.” or “Med;” the second is that the most popular character on one of those shows — I’ll assume Johnny Chicago (Taylor Kinney) because I’ve never watched any of them — could appear on “Supergirl” or “Scandal,” or any of the other shows currently connected to Perd. Since all of those shows are connected to a million other shows, the Perd Universe would start to octopus its way outwards, eclipsing television and bringing us literally (get it?) to our knees.

Or maybe it doesn’t matter? Maybe all these theories, from Westphall, to Hapley, to the fan theories bandied about on Reddit and Tumblr are a way of forcing TV back to the comfort bubble. Maybe the way television is structured now, as the most challenging medium in entertainment (forget film, which is still stuck about five to ten years in the past; and forget Internet video, which is still figuring out what it is, and when it does figure it all out will destroy everything else), is too alarming. As human beings, we spend most of our existence trying to make sense of our, well, existence. Why are we here? What is it for? Am I going to die today? Does this job, this family, this life even mean anything?

So we turn to television as a calming device, something to take your mind off of existential dread for 22 or 43 minutes. It’s a box that has our friends and family in it, and provides the answers that we can’t provide ourselves. But lately, it’s been betraying us by creating works of art that don’t provide answers, don’t feel comforting. They have protagonists as complicated as we are, and plots that have no easy resolution. Instead, we turn to message boards and fan theories as a way of making sense of all of this — this being our lives, as well as TV — as a way of returning to that pre-“St. Elsewhere” comfort television, in the days before we all got sucked into the broken mind of Tommy Westphall.

Wouldn’t it be comforting, then, to know that modern television was all just the toy of a straight-forward, uncomplicated guy like Perd Hapley? Wouldn’t it be worth all the assumptions, and logical leaps, and false conclusions to know that there’s some order in the lives of our TV friends, and therefore our own?

Maybe. Or maybe it’s just fun to draw connections where there aren’t any, and test the limits of reasoning to see how far we can stretch them. Either way, here’s hoping Detective Munch shows up on “Supergirl” some time soon.