You'd Never See This TV Crossover Coming

I might be the only one who didn't realize, but Bones has entered its 11th season. Eleven seasons! We've come a long way since the days of Zack Addy and unreasonable sexual tension between Angela and Hodgins. The season premiered earlier in October, and it's already preparing for a huge crossover event just in time for Halloween — the detectives and scientists of Bones will unite with the investigators of Sleepy Hollow October 29 for a two-hour crossover episode. It will start with a Bones episode entitled "The Resurrection in the Remains" and continue into Sleepy Hollow's scheduled block for "Dead Men Tell No Tales."

As Clifton Campbell, the man behind Sleepy Hollow, told Variety, the episode begins with his show's principals, Ichabod and Abbie, showing up at the Jeffersonian (the Bones-adapted Smithsonian Museum) on the hunt for remains — headless remains, of course.

"At a certain point midway, when we pass off from their episode to our episode, the supernatural really kicks in and it’s like looking at two sides of the same coin," Campbell said of the crossover. He drew numerous parallels between Brennan and Booth, and Abbie and Ichabod. Booth and Abbie are both steadfast investigators, though Booth takes on a mentoring role because of his superior experience. Similarly, Brennan and Ichabod are both brilliant minds, while Ichabod's approach could be described as more "romantic," Campbell said.

Television crossovers often serve to launch new shows, or revitalize existing ones. They pull together disparate fan bases (and, after 11 seasons, Bones has a serious fan base) and create new interest. This isn't even the first time Bones showrunners have experimented with the format, so let's take a look at a few of the weirdest and most wonderful crossovers to come to the small screen.

1. Grey's Anatomy x Private Practice

Okay, this one happened more than once. It happened for the premiere of Private Practice , first introducing the characters and giving Addison Montgomery a graceful exit from Grey's Anatomy. But she came back a few more times, and her practice collided with the then-Seattle Grace Hospital. Amelia Shepherd, Derek's sister, soon followed in Addison's steps, eventually becoming a recurring character on Grey's Anatomy.

2. Luther x Law & Order: SVU x The Wire

You almost certainly recognize Richard Belzer's angular face from Law & Order: SVU, but fewer might realize that his character has also appeared on, or been referenced in, The Wire, Luther, and Homicide: Life on the Streets. It's improbably that Munch could exist in two universes populated by different Idris Elba characters, but let's not probe into it too deeply. He gets a shout-out in Luther: "Send the details to Detective Munch in Special Victims Unit, New York," and he actually landed the SVU gig through a crossover event with Homicide: Life on the Streets, the show that started The Wire creator David Simon's massive career. It's quite a little bubble he inhabits.

3. Bones x The Finder

The Finder didn't last more than 13 episodes, but it was launched through a crossover with Bones. Brennan and Booth traveled to Florida for the crossover episode, meeting the war vet with psychic abilities who would eventually star in The Finder.

4. The Fullerverse

The Internet is host to an abundance of theories that Bryan Fuller's television series — the magnificent Hannibal, Pushing Daisies, and Dead Like Me are all populated by a couple key characters. The driving force behind the theory is one Georgia Madchen, who Hannibal fans may remember as the woman with the psychological disorder that convinced her she was dead. Madchen also appeared as Georgia Lass in Dead Like Me (Madchen being a German word meaning Lass). And Lass works at the Happy Time Temp Agency, also the place of employ for Ned in Pushing Daisies. There are even more — and there was never an explicit crossover event for any of these shows. It's just the devious genius of Bryan Fuller's brain.

5. Community x Cougar Town

It's the briefest scene, but in the second season of Community, Abed tells Jeff that he's been invited to make a cameo on Cougar Town. And indeed he does — appearing in the background of that show's second season finale. Community x the real world? Travis and Laurie of Cougar Town also appear briefly on screen in Community's second season finale.

6. Doctor Who x Torchwood

Like the Grey's Anatomy x Private Practice crossover, this one was a pretty ready-made collision of worlds. During David Tennant's tenure as the Doctor, he reunited with Captain Jack Harkness of the Torchwood Institute, as well as several of his old companions.

7. Star Trek: The Next Generation x Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

I'm going to go ahead and let all my science fiction geek hang out. Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) of The Next Generation appears briefly on Deep Space Nine. The shows overlapped on air for a short while, so like a lot of more recent crossovers, it makes sense to garner viewership for each show respectively. Picard hangs out with Commander Sisko, though Sisko reveals that his wife was killed in an attack led by a Borg-abducted Picard. It puts a damper on the meeting, for sure.

8. The Office x The Office

Ricky Gervais's original British edition of The Office inspired the American adaptation (a rare occasion when the update is superior to the original; just think of how Skins fared in the Transatlantic crossing). He also appears in the American office, in character as David Brent.

With rumors in motion that there will be more Marvel crossovers in the works (now that the universe has expanded from film to TV, there's a lot of material to work with), it's a ripe time for the collision of television universes. Who knows what's next, Game of Thrones x Girls? Your move, HBO.

Images: FOX; Giphy (8)