TV Plot Land Redux
So none of the CSIs can be part of the same TV Plot Land as The West Wing. This is because CSI: New York explicitly had 9/11, and The West Wing explicitly did not; since all three CSIs are part of the same universe1, eliminating NY gets all of them. Which is too bad, because I rather like the idea of Gil Grissom and Jed Bartlett living in the same universe.
It's also tough to cross NY and any of the Law and Orders, though if you're really determined you can decide that the crime lab Mac and Co. work out of just covers a different part of the city2. But I don't like to do it. Also, I think L&O had 9/11 as well, which cuts out WW again if you include L&O. Cold Case is in Philly, and so causes no problems; NCIS is in Baltimore or Washington or summat and is similarly OK with CSI. All of these also mesh with Criminal Minds, Shark, and Numbers--you can rationalize Shark and Numbers, which are both in LA, by saying that all of the Numbers cases end up in federal court, and the guys from CM are always busy when serial-killer storylines show up in the other shows. House fits neatly into the universe as established so far. The short-lived Three Pounds (which was about brain surgeons, which probably explains why it was short-lived, because how many shows can you do about brain surgery?) is ok if you don't mind two series about maverick genius doctors no one wants to talk to. However I do mind, and since House is in its third season and I think Three Pounds lasted three episodes (of which I saw one and a half), House wins. I'm pretty sure Desperate Housewives can fit in here, but since I have no idea of the canon of that show I'm not sure. You can have 24 in here if you really want it. I don't, but it's a matter of taste. You can't have Ally McBeal because House watched the show (unless that was a fanfic. I get confused). Actually there are a lot of shows House knocks out by virtue of the main character watching them, including Beverly Hills 90210, The OC and General Hospital3. I don't watch Bones.
Where things really start getting sticky is shows with occult, er, occultness. For example, if you want Buffy and Angel, you pretty much can't have any other show with a vampire and it's tough to fit in other shows with magic--Charmed, for example, is completely incompatible with B/A, and you can't have Forever Knight because vampirism there doesn't work like vampirism in B/A. I dunno enough about Charmed to know how it meshes with FK or any other show. So you can have B/A or Charmed or FK and Highlander. Fortunately, FK and Highlander are both very easy to work into "normal" shows, because their magic and weirdness is so rare and under the radar (despite Duncan's weekly parade of evil Immortals, they were actually supposed to be rare, and I'm pretty sure we never saw a vampire other than Nick's little brood and the one the blond chick was boffing). I don't think you can have Highlander along with B/A for the simple reason that I seem to recall a "there can be only one" joke in some Buffy ep or other. B/A and The Dresden Files are also both a wee bit too blatant with their magic--Angel had the thing with all of LA going dark, and Harry Dresden is in the phone book as "wizard". I prefer to keep my tenuous hold on realism, so FK and Highlander it is. You can fit the SciFi Channel's late lamented Invisible Man, though, if you really want to. Sadly, The X-Files is right out because of the weirdness of the last couple of seasons and the whole alien invasion thing, which also takes out Millennium if you care (I don't).
In case you're wondering, yes I am aware that I've put way too much thought into this.
1: There's an actual character crossover between the original CSI and the Miami CSI, and I'm pretty sure there's something obvious with NY as well.
2: Without a Trace has the same problem, and in addition is horribly, horribly depressing so I'm not including it.
3: Plus I'm pretty sure GH is part of the Mind of Tommy Westphall, which kills of a whole hell of a lot of shows.