7 Multi-Episode Crossovers That Made for Great TV (PHOTOS)

arrow - left
arrow - right
Arrow The Flash crossover
Katie Yu/ The CW

Small Screen Story Arcs

When it comes to TV crossovers, they can often serve as backdoor pilots for network spinoffs or be a quick way to generate series buzz. And seeing characters pop up in unlikely places and situations can give shows a fun (and often welcome) jolt. With the latest Flash and Arrow crossover, which airs over two nights on Tuesday, Dec. 1 and Wednesday, Dec. 2, and will help launch DC's Legends of Tomorrow, we looked at more TV crossovers with story arcs that spanned across different eps.
The Flash Grant Gustin Green Arrow Stephen Amell
Diyah Pera/The CW

The Flash and Arrow

Episodes: “Flash vs. Arrow" and “The Bold and the Brave”

Last year's first Flash and Arrow crossover brought together the two DC heroes when Team Arrow stopped by Central City on the hunt for a boomerang-wielding baddie named Digger Harkness. Along the way, they helped stop Rainbow Raider, a metahuman who could induce uncontrollable rage in others—but not before Barry (as Flash) was affected and went head-to-head fighting Oliver Queen as Arrow. Later on Arrow, Barry sped to Star City to assist in taking down Harkness.
Sleepy Hollow / Bones crossover - Tom Mison and Nicole Beharie, guest stars Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz
Tina Rowden/FOX

Bones and Sleepy Hollow

Episodes: “The Resurrection in the Remains” and “Dead Men Tell No Llies”

When skeptics meet mystics, it can be a clash of personalities and personal beliefs. But, somehow, the science-rooted Bones and spirituality-rooted Sleepy Hollow integrated both teams successfully, even if it was jarring to see Ichabod in a high-tech lab. Part one began on Bones, with the Jeffersonian team finding a corpse dressed in colonial garb…with a missing head. Enter Ichabod and Abbie looking to see if it’s the Headless Horseman’s body. Then, on Sleepy Hollow, the Witnesses call on Booth and Brennan’s to catch a resurrected body that was once a formidable foe in Crane’s revolutionary life. Plus: Go Behind the Scenes of the BonesSleepy Crossover

NCIS: Los Angeles and Hawaii Five-O crossover
Richard Cartwright/CBS

Hawaii Five-0 and NCIS: Los Angeles

Episodes: “Pa Make Loa" and “Touch of Death”

Crossovers between the NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans franchises are inevitable, so the pairing of NCIS: Los Angeles and Hawaii Five-0 was unexpected. The story started on Hawaii Five-0, with G. Callen and Sam Hanna flying to Hawaii to help Danny and Chin-Ho prevent a biological attack. The case later continued on NCIS: Los Angeles, after a quick flight, when both teams tracked down the wanted suspect in the City of Angels.
Law & Order: SVU Chicago PD Chicago Fire crossover
David Giesbrecht/NBC

Chicago Fire, Chicago PD and Law and Order: SVU

Episodes: “Nobody Touches Anything,” “They’ll Have to Go Through Me" and “Chicago Crossover”

NBC’s #CrossoverWeek followed three Dick Wolf series over two nights. On Chicago Fire, after Severide discovered a box of child pornography, the case was handed over to Chicago P.D.'s Det. Lindsay, who teamed up with Law and Order: SVU's Det. Benson (Mariska Hargitay) for her expertise on tracking a pedophile ring. The hunt on then to mete out justice.
CSI Trilogy
Richard Foreman/CBS/Getty Images

CSI, CSI: Miami and CSI: New York

Episodes: “Bone Voyage,” “Hammer Down" and “The Lost Girls”

Tagged as “Three Cities, Three CSI Teams, One Big Mystery,” the multi-ep arc aired on three nights. When severed body parts were found in a swamp, Lt. Caine (David Caruso) and Dr. Langston (Laurence Fishburne) discovered young women were being killed, and dismembered, by human traffickers. When another body was discovered in New York and another woman went missing, Raymond worked with Det. Taylor (Gary Sinise). But the search ended in Las Vegas when the human trafficking syndicate was caught and the missing woman found.
That's So Raven - Raven-Symone and Ashley Tisdale
ABC Photo Archives/ABC/Getty Images

That’s So Raven, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Hannah Montana

Episodes: “Checkin’ Out,” “That’s So Suite Life of Hannah Montana” and “On the Road Again”

Anything can happen at the Tipton Hotel, especially when characters from three Disney Channel juggernauts come together. This “mixed-up mashed-up” TV movie involved Raven getting help from Zack and Cody for a fashion shoot. Later, after Raven missed her flight home and stayed in Boston, Hannah Montana commissioned one of Raven’s designs after seeing it worn by London. To cap off the mayhem, Miley then helped her dad relaunch his dream of being a singer while still staying at the hotel.

Tom Selleck on Murder She Wrote with Angela Lansbury

Magnum P.I. and Murder, She Wrote

Episodes: “Novel Connection” and “Magnum on Ice”

The mustachioed private investigator (Tom Selleck) met his match in mystery writer Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) in this head-scratcher of a crossover. First on Magnum P.I., after Higgins (John Hillerman) and some guests of Robin Masters were almost run off the road, Higgins refused help from Magnum, preferring to consult another private investigator. Said “P.I.” turned out to be none other than Jessica, in Hawaii on vacation. Later on, after tracking down the hitman and killing him in self-defense, Magnum was accused of murder instead when his story doesn’t match up with the crime scene. Jessica then worked to free Magnum and catch the real killer before he killed again.

1 of