TV Shows That Were Actually All Just A Dream

After he made the hit soap opera Dallas for CBS, television writer David Jacobs got the go-ahead to create a spinoff soap called Knots Landing. To help launch the show, the new character Gary Ewing was introduced to viewers during a two-part Dallas episode in 1978. Soon afterwards, Gary and his wife Valene move to a quiet cul-de-sac in Knots Landing, California, to start a new chapter in their life. During early seasons of Knots Landing, a number of crossover episodes helped to connect the characters and storylines of both shows. Ultimately, these connections ended up changing everything fans thought they knew about Knots Landing.

When Bobby Ewing (played by Patrick Duffy) died on Dallas, the repercussions carried over into the plot of Knots Landing. Gary struggles with his grief, Valene names her son after Bobby, and other characters plot against Gary during his little brother's funeral. Actor Patrick Duffy later returned to Dallas, so Bobby Ewing was conveniently resurrected by revealing that his death—and the entire season of Dallas that followed—was just a bad dream had by his wife, Pamela. While this twist neatly tied up the loose ends for Dallas, over on Knots Landing, Bobby Ewing remained very much dead. What's more, when Gary and Val finally reunite with the rest of the Ewings in the 2012 Dallas revival series, they don't even mention Bobby's miraculous return from the grave. Presumably, this means that the entire plot of Knots Landing following Bobby's death never happened either.

Joss Whedon risked the ire of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans everywhere when he used a variation of the "just a dream" plot in the beloved supernatural drama. In the season six episode "Normal Again," Buffy flashes between two versions of reality. In one, she truly is the Slayer she's purportedly meant to be and has been protecting Sunnydale from the forces of darkness for the last six years. In the other, Buffy is a patient in a mental hospital suffering from catatonic schizophrenia. A psychiatrist explains that her memories of Sunnydale, her friends there, and her life as the Slayer are hallucinations. Later, Buffy tells Willow she was put into a mental institution once—which means it's possible she may actually still be there.     

These conflicting realities begin to tear Buffy's mind apart and cause her to attack her friends in Sunnydale. Buffy must decide for herself which reality is "true," and she ultimately chooses to return to her life as the Slayer. In its final moments, the episode flashes back to the mental hospital where we see Buffy has lapsed back into a catatonic state. This ending has led many fans to believe that the psychiatrist was right, and the entire Buffy series takes place only in her mind. When asked about the episode's meaning, Joss Whedon said that he "thinks it really happened," but viewers who believe the show is just the product of a crazy person's mind are also right, because "that crazy person is me."

The series finale of the 1980s medical dramedy St. Elsewhere remains one of the most famous examples of the "all just a dream" plot. The gritty (and funny) series centered on the doctors who work at the outdated and underfunded St. Eligius Hospital in Boston. Unlike most previous medical dramas, St. Elsewhere focused not just on the hospital and its patients but also on the personal lives and families of the medical staff. In fact, the son of St. Elsewhere's top doctor provides the gigantic twist that changes the meaning of the entire series.

In the final episode of St. Elsewhere, loose ends are tied up as the characters make major changes in their lives. Later, Dr. Donald Westphall and his autistic son Tommy stand together and watch the snow fall outside of his grandfather, Dr. Auschlander's, office window. Suddenly, the picturesque scene cuts away to an apartment where Tommy silently plays with a snowglobe while his grandfather looks on. Donald Westphall arrives, and it becomes clear that the apartment is their home and Westphall is a construction worker, not a doctor. As he watches his son play, Westphall wonders aloud, "What's he thinking about?" The camera zooms in on the snow globe, revealing that it contains a tiny replica of St. Eligius. That's right, the entire series took place only within the creative mind of an autistic child. Furthermore, given the number of other shows connected to St. Elsewhere, some fans have even concluded that "something like 90 percent of all [American] television took place in Tommy Westphall's mind."  

In the Pokémon anime franchise, many fan theories have popped up over the years about Ash Ketchum's never-ending adventures. A number of these theories relate to variations on the "just a dream" phenomenon, especially since Ash never seems to age—despite the fact that the series has been on the air since 1997. While none of these theories have ever been confirmed, one Pokémon series creator gave fans a mind-blowing explanation about the true nature of Ash's journey. Japanese screenwriter Takeshi Shudo worked as a head writer for the Pokémon anime franchise from its inception. Along with the very first episode of the show, Shudo wrote the scripts of many other episodes and the first three Pokémon movies. His original screenplay was even used as a basis for 2017's Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You!

Sadly, Shudo passed away in 2010, but a blog entry he penned reveals some quite unexpected information. In it, Shudo explains that Ash's journey is not about "catching 'em all" but about making an emotional connection and co-existing with others. What's more, Shudo explained that Ash couldn't find that connection in his real life, leading him to completely imagine his Pokémon adventures. Shudo even gave fans a glimpse of his ideal ending to the series, where we see Ash as an old man. He recalls his "embellished memory of childhood" and his adventures with Pikachu and the other "imaginary creatures." He hears his mother's voice calling him to bed, and the elderly Ash closes his eyes—perhaps for the final time.

Soap operas are notorious for their frequent use of the "just a dream" plot device, but the British soap Crossroads put a unique twist on the theme for the series finale of its short-lived revival. In the original version of Crossroads, the narrative mainly centered on the lives of the owners and employees at The Crossroads Motel located near the fictional English hamlet of King's Oak. After its premiere in 1964, Crossroads became wildly popular with fans and remained on the air for nearly 25 years before finally being cancelled in 1988.

In 2001, television producers tried to stage a Crossroads comeback with a revival of the series, but it ultimately proved unsuccessful. The major changes made to the setting, cast, and background of the story alienated many fans of the original ITV soap opera, which led to the new version of Crossroads being cancelled in 2003. In the revival's finale, the audience learns that the new series has taken place entirely in the daydreams of Angela. It turns out Angela is a Crossroads fan and supermarket employee who escapes the reality of her mind-numbing job by imagining herself and the store's shoppers as characters in her favorite series. With this final twist, the writers were able to undo the unpopular changes they'd made during the revival—preserving the Crossroads legacy for fans of the original show.