The 7 Weirdest TV Crossover Episodes Of All Time

The ongoing nature of long-running television shows opens up some fun possibilities for unexpected crossovers. While some spin-offs make perfect sense for crossovers, given their shared origins—take the various Chicago-centric emergency service shows from Dick Wolf or spin-offs like Angel (1999) crossing over with their parent series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997). It’s something different when a completely unrelated show finds a way to cross over with another established series.

With The Rookie (2018) set to air a crossover with the comedy series Game Changer (2019) this month, it’s worth looking back at some of TV’s other most unexpected crossovers. Sometimes, animated characters ran into live-action figures. Other times, it’s a meta moment that somehow becomes crucial to the plot. Across TV history, here are the seven weirdest—and best—crossover episodes, available to watch now on Disney+, Hulu, and more!

The X-Files and The Simpsons 

The Simpsons (1989) has featured plenty of guest stars over the years, but they’ve never had as funny of a genuine crossover as the one they had with The X-Files (1993). Instead of playing parodies of themselves, Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny appear as silly takes on Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, arriving in Springfield for The Simpsons’ eighth season episode, “The Springfield Files.” 

As Homer tries to convince everyone that he’s seen an alien, Scully and Mulder arrive in town to investigate. Their personalities are on point, only slightly exaggerated for comedic purposes alongside Homer’s antics. It’s an episode that lets the pair also poke fun at the premise of their show. It’s a delightfully silly crossover that, like the best examples on this list, feels attuned to the spirit of both shows.

Bones and Family Guy 

Family Guy (1999) has often been accused of following in the footsteps of The Simpsons, so it’s not surprising to see that they also had some fun with big crossover episodes. For Family Guy, the best crossover occurs with Bones (2005). Stewie appears in the more dramatic live-action show as a hallucination of David Boreanaz's Seeley Booth as a result of his brain tumor. 

The scene features Seth MacFarlane as Stewie, offering his perspective on Booth's fatherhood challenges while also making jabs at the typical structure of the crime drama in a way that feels fitting for the Family Guy breakout. It’s a brief scene, but a memorable use of Stewie, who remains such an enduring comic icon that he’s getting his own spin-off outside the core series. This also would not be the last odd crossover for Bones, as it later found a way to cross over with Sleepy Hollow (2013).

Archer and Bob's Burgers 

In terms of raw tone, the crass spy parody of Archer (2009) is a far cry from the goofy family antics of Bob’s Burgers (2011). The long-running FX series and the enduring family comedy from Fox share a star in the form of H. Jon Benjamin. 

The star plays the titular Sterling Archer and Bob Belcher in both shows, which serves as the impetus for the crossover episode in Archer’s fourth season premiere, “Fugue and Riffs.” In that episode, Archer is struck with amnesia and moves away from his spy agency, marrying a pastiche of the Belcher family to become a “step-dad” to the other members of the family. It’s a brief crossover before it shifts back to a traditional episode of Archer, but the meta connection is a delightfully silly beat.

Arrested Development and Law & Order: SVU 

Arrested Development (2003) has a lot of fun ripping into the various sitcom archetypes that the rest of the sitcom genre used to, alongside some purposefully bizarre turns—including an infamous appearance from the heroes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999). Detective John Munch, portrayed by Richard Belzer, was already used to appearing in crossovers. Munch also appeared in The Wire (2002) and The X-Files. However, his silly appearances are in two episodes of Arrested Development. 

The crossover in Arrested Development sees Munch offering his assistance in trapping Tobias Fünke. For a character who rarely got to be silly, given the heavy subject matter of SVU, Munch’s appearance in Arrested Development is a good goofy gag. It’s also worth noting that, given the number of minor crossovers Law & Order have done over the years, this serves as a means of creating one massive TV shared universe—including St. Elsewhere (1982), which famously ended with the suggestion that the show (and by extension any others it crossed over with) were the fantasy of a minor character in that series.

Supernatural And Scooby-Doo 

Supernatural (2005) was a wildly ambitious series, with an expansive approach to fantasy action that kept evolving after it kept setting up finales that never seemed to come. The show had plenty of meta-bending episodes poking fun at the medium of television as a whole, but the best one might just be the show’s crossover with Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969). 

The episode sees Dean and Sam transported into the cartoon world of Scooby-Doo, where Dean tries to flirt with Daphne and Sam remains confused by the entire enterprise. The most clever aspect of the episode is the way the darker tone of Supernatural starts to infect the larger world of Scooby-Doo, forcing the members of Mystery Inc. to have a breakdown in the face of their typical show structure being thrown into disarray. 

Community And Cougar Town 

Community (2009) and Cougar Town (2009) were part of the same generation of sitcoms, with the former taking a more self-aware route while Cougar Town embraced the older focus characters to explore a generation of people that mainstream comedies rarely shed a spotlight on. What makes this one unique is how the initial cameo factors into the plot of one of the shows. 

Community star Danny Pudi briefly appears in Cougar Town season 2, episode 21, "The Trip to Pirates Cove." It was very much a background gag that paid off when Pudi's Community character Abed revealed this cameo was an in-universe moment. Abed revealed a lengthy story during Community season 2 episode 19, telling Jeff about visiting the set and getting to be an extra in the show, explaining the crossover and making it canon. The two shows further doubled down on the crossover by having Cougar Town stars Busy Philipps and Dan Byrd appear in the season 2 finale of Community.

Power Rangers in Space And Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

As icons of the ‘90s, a crossover between the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Power Rangers made perfect sense—and that’s exactly what happened in "Shell Shocked," the fourth episode of Power Rangers in Space (1998). The second Power Rangers series in North America, the episode saw the villainous Astronema use her powers to brainwash the versions of Leo, Raph, Donny, and Mikey that appear in Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (1997). 

The two teams go through the classic superhero trope of fighting before finding common ground, ending with a handshake that made every child of the era excited. It’s a delightfully goofy episode, one that works really well as a crossover for both shows that understands the inherent appeal of this kind of crossover episode.