Yeah, Sandman Mystery Theatre (and the sequel Sleep of Reason) are connected to James Robinson's Starman, Robinson's JSA and Gaiman's Sandman, so ignoring it would be more than slightly stupid.
However, it could be argued that DC is becoming it's own more... mature variant (in terms of violence it certainly is, being able to show most things in terms of nudity, but with some of the swearing censored).
Especially when they appear to use rejects from the Hellblazer comics, like that poop-eating dead-baby monster from Countdown.