New York Times, Thursday, May 28, 2020

These days most puzzle themes come to me in the liminal space between dreaming and waking. Other times I'll stumble on an idea while I'm in a rabbit hole researching a clue in editorial or fact-checking mode. I don't remember how this theme idea began. I do recall that the R&D phase was absorbing because it involved sorting, combining, and regrouping; tasks I find soothing whether I'm manipulating words, colored pencils, or socks.

I wanted to achieve formal as well as syntactical integrity in the theme, so I ultimately focused on TV shows that would fit a 2-word + 1-word pattern, though I considered other permutations along the way. The first version I submitted had four entries, two of which were deemed stronger than two others (alas, my Kung Fu Entourage will have to kick a$# in another theme). I did a second round of brainstorming, and we settled on three solid 15s in a 72-word grid.

It's great to be back in the NYT. I miss seeing my tribe at the ACPT!

Tracy's back in the NYT! She's editing the Inkubator puzzle, publishing some neat themes with interesting fill. I've been enjoying those.

I don't watch much network TV, but even this pop culture idiot recognized the six shows Tracy mashed up. I appreciated that she kept things consistent, always jamming a two-word show into a one-worder.

I wasn't sure what fueled these combinations, though. With a huge universe of shows to choose from, why DOCTOR WHO plus CHEERS, for example? Maybe BREAKING BAD BONES is too macabre and FULL HOUSE GLEE is too soon for this quarantine era, but the possibilities seem endless. Tightening up the theme would have been nice.

A revealer would have helped, too. I think most people will figure out that these are plays on TV shows, but how about something like MASHUPS to provide a lift?

Hey, wait a second ... M*A*S*H is a one-word TV title. How meta!

With just three themers, I expect a ton of goodies and virtually no crossword glue. I loved VISIGOTH, FREE AT LAST, BAD KARMA, ORTHODOX — PASS MUSTER is spot on.

Not as hot on the shorter material. It's not unfair to cross EBRO with ESOS on a Thursday, but it's still not ideal. Pepper in some ENNE, HSI, OVO, RAH, EDEMA, AS NEAT (sounds partialish), and it's not as polished as a three-themer ought to be.

Crosswords have mashed up many things—candy bars, movie titles, countries, and more. Sure, why not TV shows? It would have been nice, though, to have more of a raison d'etre. Some extra layer — a snappy revealer, an extra layer like a common actor linking the pairs of shows, etc. — could have helped tremendously.