Carlos Bastarache: Avengers Infinity War

Marvel

What started out as a simple question to Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige about all the “greatest crossover event in history” memes that have circulating on social media in the lead up to Avengers: Infinity War kind of went some weird places. At least, a whole conversation about Knight Rider and Boss Hogg from The Dukes Of Hazzard sure wasn’t expected. But, strangley, this also kind of gets into the psyche of what makes Kevin Feige and his love for crossover events tick.

Ever since it was revealed that Avengers: Infinity War was being labeled as “the greatest crossover event in history,” people on social media have been having some fun with that by posting their own favorite or stupid crossover event. As it turns out, and this probably shouldn’t be a surprise, Kevin Feige loves the old ‘80s crossover events and dreamed of a moment when Knight Rider would show up on The Dukes Of Hazzard. (This never happened because The Dukes of Hazzard was on CBS and Knight Rider was on NBC, but perhaps this problem prepared a young Kevin Feige for his future role of negotiating Spider-Man from Sony.)

When I mentioned to Feige that my contribution to the meme was Boss Hogg randomly showing up on an episode of Alice, Feige was genuinely stunned, to the point the interview was extended because he had questions about it. The interview only ended after I told him the whole episode was on YouTube, to which he said he was going to go and watch the whole thing. (It really is a crazy episode. Boss Hogg lives in Georgia, but shows up with Enos at Mel’s Diner in Phoenix to visit his “kin” who works at the diner, Jolene. Boss Hogg winds up swindling Mel out of his diner in an effort to replace it with a shopping mall. Eventually, Vera and Enos fall in love and Mel gets his diner back and in the process encases Boss Hogg in cement.)

Anyway, maybe we can think of Kevin Feige’s love of ‘80s crossovers as his own origin story.

Have you been enjoying the “greatest crossover event in history” memes?

Yes! Are there any particular ones you’re thinking of? I’ve seen some of them. This is the meme where it’s like “Avengers: Infinity War the greatest crossover event in history,” and they go, “oh really?” And then they show The Critic on The Simpsons or something.

Or The Harlem Globetrotters on Scooby-Do.

Oh, that is great. People are joking, but I loved that stuff when I was a kid. That stuff was important! I used to think that was super exciting when that stuff would happen occasionally.

Like Mork on Happy Days.

Yes! Or when the two shows that always would air next to each other that you love and would watch all the time, then they do a special episode and they connected where the first started and the next story continued into that? Yeah, that is great.

My contribution to the meme was Boss Hogg from The Dukes of Hazzard showing up on Alice.

Wait…

Boss Hogg wanted to buy Mel’s Diner.

Hold on…

But he failed.

This actually happened?

Yes.

Wait, so Boss Hogg, from Hazzard County, almost went and bought Mel’s Diner?

In Phoenix, yes. He walks in and tries to buy it and he’s interacting with Alice and Vera and Mel and the whole gang.

And he’s wearing his white outfit and talking like Boss Hogg and all that?

Yes.

Let me tell you something, I watched both those shows and I never knew that!

It’s all on YouTube.

This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. I always wanted Knight Rider to go through Hazzard County. And Roscoe P. Coltrane has to chase them and Michael Knight hits turbo boost and goes out of the whole county.

A lot of what makes you tick and putting these Marvel movies together is really coming into focus now. You loved crossover events as a kid and now here we are.

Yeah, you’re totally right. And now I’m going to go watch that now. Thanks to you I’ve now lost 30 minutes of my life because I’m going to go watch that.

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