History Trivia / BlackAdder

** Most of the first series' regular and guest cast never appeared in any of the subsequent incarnations -- only Creator/RowanAtkinson and Tony Robinson went onto be regulars in all three subsequent ''Blackadder'' shows (albeit with Tim [=McInnerny=] being a regular in ''II'' and ''Goes Forth'', and having a guest role in ''The Third''). Creator/BrianBlessed is still fondly remembered for his role in that series, but most of the other actors, far less so.

* SerendipityWritesThePlot: Blackadder's amusing and much-imitated pronunciation of "Bob" is a result of Rowan Atkinson's stutter. He has special difficulty with the letter "b". This led to a memorable ThrowItIn in season 4: see below.

* RecastAsARegualr: Creator/HughLaurie made two guest appearances in the second season and joined the main cast in the last two.

** There was also talk of a sixties TuxedoAndMartini spoof called either ''Blackadder MI5'' or ''Blackadder 005''.[[note]]Rowan Atkinson did end up playing hapless secret agent Johnny English in two movies, though that had more in common with Mr Bean[[/note]]

** Lloyd recalls that a colleague commented at the time that the series "looks a million dollars, but cost a million pounds", although admits that they were proud of the result at the time.

** In a case of it applying to a character rather than an actor, Darling is far more well-remembered than either version of Percy, to the point where Tim [=McInnerny=] played one of the former's descendants in ''Back and Forth'', and Percy isn't even mentioned.

* ShootTheMoney: The BBC gave this series an unusually large budget, which is why there was extensive location shooting at a real castle: they didn't necessarily need it but they certainly could afford it. For subsequent series, the budget was cut down to the bone and the show compensated with the clever scripts and storylines it is best known for.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The original pilot episode was much more similar to what the later ''Blackadder'' installments would be like (for example, Edmund was much more savvy and snarky in the pilot than he was in the series, except in "Born to Be King", of which the pilot was an early version), but ExecutiveMeddling resulted in the version we have now. Most fans believe that had the finished series combined the pilot episode's characterisations with the cast that we ended up with, it would have been vastly superior.

* IronyAsSheIsCast: Miriam Margolyes, who played the authoritarian and crazily Puritanical Lady Whiteadder, is actually gay and Jewish.

* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/TimMcInnerny decided not to continue playing the character of Lord Percy for fear of being typecast, although he appeared in a guest role in "Nob and Nobility".
* ThrowItIn: Creator/HughLaurie (as George) referred to Blackadder as "Bladder" at the end of "Sense and Senility". Atkinson replied that the Prince would reward him by not naming him that way.

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** When Flashheart is carrying off Bob the driver and they keep saying "Woof!" to each other, Blackadder sourly remarks "God, it's like Crufts in here." This was an ad lib by producer John Lloyd: the line as originally written was "God, it's like Battersea Dog's Home in here" but Rowan Atkinson's stutter kicked in and he couldn't get around the "b" in "Battersea". After several failed takes, Lloyd instructed the floor manager to tell Atkinson to change the reference to Crufts, Britain's most famous dog show. The result got a huge laugh from the studio audience (partly out of relief). Stephen Fry remarked that it was an inspired bit of on-the-fly producing from Lloyd.
** The TearJerker ending to the final episode, in which the main characters charge into no-man's land but are then obscured by a huge explosion before the image fades to a field of poppies, had to be thrown together in post-production. There was limited filming time, and the director had no experience with action scenes, and there was no money for a stunt co-ordinator in the budget. The resulting footage of Blackadder, George, Baldrick and Darling charging through No Man's Land while shells blew up around them looked distinctly underwhelming (they just fell over and lay on the ground looking not very dead), but the explosion effects were also so terrifying for the actors that Rowan Atkinson refused point-blank to do any retakes. Another take done without explosions was even worse (the actors simply walked a few steps forward and froze in front of the camera with grimaces on their faces). All the footage was deemed unusable, but while the film editor was cycling through it and trying to figure out what to do, he realised that slowing it down made it far more effective. As a result, they re-edited the footage, slowed it down, dropped the audio out and replaced it with the theme music played as a LonelyPianoPiece, and then at the moment a large explosion obscured the actors from view, crossfaded to a still photograph of some poppies. The result was the most hard-earned DownerEnding to any situation comedy.
* ThrowItIn: While interrogating Melchett, Captain Blackadder asks him what are the two great British universities--Cambridge, Oxford, or Hull. It is not known what the Cambridge-educated Stephen Fry was supposed to say, but he managed to catch Oxford graduate Atkinson off-guard by proclaiming that the place was a "complete dump".

* RomanceOnTheSet: Creator/RowanAtkinson met his second wife, makeup expert Sunetra Sastry, while working on this series. (They divorced in 2015.)

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The original pilot episode was much more similar to what the later ''Blackadder'' installments would be like (for example, Edmund was much more savvy and snarky in the pilot than he was in the series, except in "Born to Be King", of which the pilot was an early version), but ExecutiveMeddling resulted in the version of ''The Black Adder'' that we know and... well, treat as a valued and respected ''friend'', but not really love, per se. Most fans believe that had the finished series combined the pilot episode's characterisations with the cast that we ended up with, it would have been vastly superior.

** In a case of it applying to a character rather than an actor, Darling is far more well-remembered than either version of Percy, to the point where Tim [=McInnerny=] played one of the former's descendants in ''Goes Forth'', and Percy isn't even mentioned.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:

** Creator/StephenFry's homosexuality is amusingly alluded (and PlayedForLaughs) to by some of his characters' actions:
** Lord Melchett (''Blackadder II'') had a very... close relationship with Flossie the sheep.
** General Melchett's "one true love" was Speckled Jim, his pet pigeon. In another episode he falls for George's drag act, and considers a woman's "drag act" a disaster. There's also the sheer amount of time he spends calling his 2iC [[UnfortunateNames Darling.]]

* ThrowItIn: While interrogating Melchett, Captain Blackadder asks him what are the two great British universities--Cambridge, Oxford, or Hull. It is not known what would was the Cambridge-educated Stephen Fry supposed to say, but he managed to catch Oxford graduate Atkinson off-guard by proclaiming that Oxford was a "complete dump".

* ThrowItIn: Hugh Laurie (as George) referred to Blackadder as "Bladder" at the end of "Sense and Senility". Atkinson replied that the Prince would reward him by not naming him that way.

* IronyAsSheIsCast: Creator/MiriamMargolyes, who played the authoritarian and crazily Puritanical Lady Whiteadder, is actually gay and Jewish.

* WordOfSaintPeter: According to Stephen Fry, Melchett loudly grunts every time he sits down because has hemorrhoids.

* WordOfStPeter: According to Stephen Fry, Melchett loudly grunts every time he sits down because has hemorrhoids.

* WordOfGod: According to Stephen Fry, Melchett loudly grunts every time he sits down because has hemorrhoids.

* StarMakingRole: For Tony Robinson in the UK.

* RealitySubtext: Creator/StephenFry's homosexuality is amusingly alluded (and PlayedForLaughs) to by some of his characters' actions:

** General Melchett's "one true love" was Speckled Jim, his pet pigeon. In another episode he falls for George's drag act, and considers a woman's "drag act" a disaster.

** The TearJerker ending to the final episode, in which the main characters charge into no-man's land but are then obscured by a huge explosion before the image fades to a field of poppies, had to be thrown together in post-production. There was limited filming time, and the director had no experience with action scenes, and there was no money for a stunt co-ordinator in the budget. The resulting footage of Blackadder, George, Baldrick and Darling charging through No Man's Land while shells blew up around them looked distinctly underwhelming (they just fell over and lay on the ground looking not very dead), but the explosion effects were also so terrifying for the actors that Rowan Atkinson refused point-blank to do any retakes. The footage was deemed unusable, but while the film editor was cycling through it and trying to figure out what to do, he realised that slowing it down made it far more effective. As a result, they re-edited the footage, slowed it down, dropped the audio out and replaced it with the theme music played as a LonelyPianoPiece, and then at the moment a large explosion obscured the actors from view, crossfaded to a still photograph of some poppies. The result was the most hard-earned DownerEnding to any situation comedy.

* PetFadNameStarter: According to producer John Lloyd, the popularity of the series within the British Armed Forces meant that at one point, half of all regimental goats had the name Baldrick. Tony Robinson The Sun in 2017:
-->You can see why. He is an every man and most armies, by and large, are comprised of every men who have to act on the whim of a senior person they think is more stupid than they are. A lot of regimental goats are called Baldrick.

* YouLookFamiliar: Creator/TimMcInnerny, Miranda Richardson, and Creator/StephenFry all made guest appearances in various episodes.

* YouLookFamiliar: Tim [=McInnerny=], Miranda Richardson, and Creator/StephenFry all made guest appearances in various episodes.