History Trivia / MissionHill

* DigitalPiracyIsOkay: [[https://www.polygon.com/2017/9/6/16256458/mission-hill-simpsons-bill-oakley-josh-weinstein-matt-groening In a 2017 article from Polygon]], Bill Oakley stated that he was "totally fine" with people torrenting the series because of how badly it was ScrewedByTheNetwork.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Even though the show is out on DVD, all the licensed music has been overdubbed with generic music, so if you have any episodes from when it aired on The WB, Creator/AdultSwim, or TBS, then keep those (whether you taped from a VCR, owned a recordable DVD player, had them [=DVR=]'d, or downloaded them one way or another). Website/YouTube has the Creator/AdultSwim cut of the series with the licensed music, so catch them before they're pulled for copyright violations. In 2023, Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein themselves toured across the country with screenings of a fan-made restoration of the show with the original soundtrack.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes:
** Even though the show is out on DVD, all the licensed music has been overdubbed with generic music, so if you have any episodes from when it aired on The WB, Creator/AdultSwim, or TBS, then keep those (whether you taped from a VCR, owned a recordable DVD player, had them [=DVR=]'d, or downloaded them one way or another). Website/YouTube has the Creator/AdultSwim cut of the series with the licensed music, so catch them before they're pulled for copyright violations.
** In 2023, Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein themselves toured across the country with screenings of a fan-made restoration of the show with the original soundtrack.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork:
** This is one of the best examples of truly screwed by the network. ''Mission Hill'' was essentially doomed to fail almost a year before the show aired thanks to The WB. According to Bill Oakley, the show's staff was told that their upfronts "didn't matter", and so Oakley and Weinstein submitted a poorly edited two minute long clip. Later, during The WB's schedule presentation, they failed to air anything about ''Mission Hill''. For a whole seven months before the show's premiere, journalists knew nothing about the show except the bad two-minute upfront that was submitted, leading to nearly universally bad reviews.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Even though the show is out on DVD, all the licensed music has been overdubbed with generic music, so if you have any episodes from when it aired on The WB, Creator/AdultSwim, or TBS, then keep those (whether you taped from a VCR, owned a recordable DVD player, had them [=DVR=]'d, or downloaded them one way or another). Website/YouTube has the Creator/AdultSwim cut of the series with the licensed music, so catch them before they're pulled for copyright violations.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: This is one of the best examples of truly screwed by the network. ''Mission Hill'' was essentially doomed to fail almost a year before the show aired thanks to The WB. According to Bill Oakley, the show's staff was told that their upfronts "didn't matter", and so Oakley and Weinstein submitted a poorly edited two minute long clip. Later, during The WB's schedule presentation, they failed to air anything about ''Mission Hill''. For a whole seven months before the show's premiere, journalists knew nothing about the show except the bad two-minute upfront that was submitted, leading to nearly universally bad reviews.

* ThrowItIn: Jane Wiedlin auditioned for Gwen immediately after a dentist appointment and, as a result, was still loopy from the anesthetic, resulting in Gwen's breathy voice. She was able to recall it for the rest of the series.

* FanNickname: The businessman who repeatedly whispers "penis" to people is officially called the Concerned Businessman, but most people just call him the Penis Pervert.

* QuoteSource:
** OddFriendship

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
** The show was a very detailed and accurate satire of city life and youth culture in the late 1990s. This makes it impossible to separate the show from the era it was made in, a high point just before 9/11 and the War on Terror devastated the country. In particular, the episode "Stories of Hope and Forgiveness" portrayed overreaction to media saturation during artificially pumped-up "crises" in a way that was utterly prescient to 9/11 but which nobody would dare write after that disaster.
** Zigzagged with "Kevin vs. The UsefulNotes/SATs". In 2006, the College Board split the Verbal section into Reading and Writing and, with 3 sections as a result, adapted a 2400-point system. However, in 2016, Reading and Writing scores were merged back into one and as a result the 1600-point system was reinstated, ''but'' the non-mathematic half of scoring is now called "Evidence-Based Reading and Writing" rather than Verbal.
** The gag of Toby calling his mother from a pay phone as a rabid dog slowly follows him around is firmly planted in the pre-cell phone era, as it relies entirely on him being unable to stand next to the pay phone long enough to even finish a sentence. Another gag has Kevin call Andy at work, only for Ron to broadcast it over the PA system, something that doesn't work if everyone has a cell phone.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: There were 18 planned episodes, with two of them ("Freaky Weekend" and "Pretty in Pink") having partial animatics and voice recording finished, and the three others ("Death of a Yale Man", "How to Get Head in Advertising" and "I Was a Teenage Pornstar") fully scripted. The series was canceled before any of them could be finished. The remaining material can be found in various places online. If the show hadn't been canceled, viewers would have seen Kevin finally standing up to his parents ("Bye, Bye Nerdie" or "I Was a Teenaged Porn Star") and Ron's Waterbed Store (which was seized by the government after Ron got busted on tax evasion) would have been taken over by a man who looks like Ron, but is Southern ("Crap Gets in Your Eyes" or "Pretty in Pink").

** Even worse, the WB immediately scheduled ''Mission Hill'' for the "death slot" – Friday at 8PM. The producers once lamented this decision, stating that Friday evening was "exactly the time the target audience was trying to ''not'' be at home watching WB." It aired before a black sitcom block consisting of ''For Your Love'', ''The Jamie Foxx Show'' and ''The Steve Harvey Show'', a completely polar opposite audience than what Mission Hill was aimed at. The show was put on hiatus after only two episodes. A full ten months later, the show was aired again, this time making it to five episodes before it was canceled for good.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen[=/=]UnfinishedEpisode: There were 18 planned episodes, with two of them ("Freaky Weekend" and "Pretty in Pink") having partial animatics and voice recording finished, and the three others ("Death of a Yale Man", "How to Get Head in Advertising" and "I Was a Teenage Pornstar") fully scripted. The series was canceled before any of them could be finished. The remaining material can be found in various places online. If the show hadn't been canceled, viewers would have seen Kevin finally standing up to his parents ("Bye, Bye Nerdie" or "I Was a Teenaged Porn Star") and Ron's Waterbed Store (which was seized by the government after Ron got busted on tax evasion) would have been taken over by a man who looks like Ron, but is Southern ("Crap Gets in Your Eyes" or "Pretty in Pink").

** The gag of Toby calling his mother from a pay phone as a rabid dog slowly follows him around is firmly planted in the pre-cell phone era, as it relies entirely on him being unable to stand next to the pay phone long enough to even finish a sentence.

** One episode, Posey, played by Vicki Lewis, tries to "find herself" by meditating. At point, her spirit guide – a ghost version of her – says she has to walk across an incredibly long bridge, then say they can take her Miata instead. In the season two Christmas episode of ''Series/{{NewsRadio}}'', Beth (Lewis) and every one in the office is given a Mazda MX-5 Miata.

** Zigzagged with "Kevin vs. The UsefulNotes/SATs". In 2006, the College Board split the Verbal section into Reading and Writing and, with 3 sections as a result, adapted a 2400-point system. However, in 2016, Reading and Writing scores were merged back into one and as a result the 1600-point system was reinstated, ''but'' the non-mathematic half of scoring is now called "Evidence-based Reading and Writing" rather than Verbal.

** Zigzagged with "Kevin vs. The UsefulNotes/SATs". In 2006, the College Board split the Verbal section into Reading and Writing and, with 3 sections as a result, adapted a 2400-point system. However, in 2016, Reading and Writing scores were merged back into one and as a result the 1600-point system was reinstated.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The show was a very detailed and accurate satire of city life and youth culture in the late 1990s. This makes it impossible to separate the show from the era it was made in, a high point just before 9/11 and the War on Terror devastated the country. In particular, the episode "Stories of Hope and Forgiveness" portrayed overreaction to media saturation during artificially pumped-up "crises" in a way that was utterly prescient to 9/11 but which nobody would dare write after that disaster.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Even though the show is out on DVD, all the licensed music has been overdubbed with generic music, so if you have any episodes from when it aired on The WB, Creator/AdultSwim, or TBS, then keep those (whether you taped from a VCR, owned a recordable DVD player, had them [=DVR=]'d, or downloaded them from a torrent site). Website/YouTube has the Creator/AdultSwim cut of the series with the licensed music, so catch them before they're pulled for copyright violations.

* ActorAllusion: Gwen has a poster of Music/TheGoGos and it's established that she's a fan of the group. Gwen was voiced by Jane Wiedlin, rhythm guitarist of The Go-Go's.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The show was a very detailed and accurate satire of city life and youth culture in the late 1990s. This makes it impossible to separate the show from the era it was made in, a high point just before 9/11 and the War on Terror devastated the country.

* HeyItsThatVoice:
** Jim is voiced by Creator/BrianPosehn.
** Kevin is Creator/ScottMenville (for ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' fans [both the original and ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo''], it's Robin)
** Wally is Creator/TomKenny (sounding like WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants if he were an elderly, effeminate man).
*** Creator/TomKenny was also almost every unnamed male character on the show. At least half of them. Including an actor who played an Ewok in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' who sounds exactly like [=SpongeBob=]. Tom Kenny was to this show what Creator/BillyWest is to...a lot of animated shows from 1990 to the present (read: he voices a lot of characters).
** Andy is [[Franchise/{{CSI}} David Hodges]].
** Gwen is Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go's (which explains why Gwen's favorite band is The Go-Go's).
** Posey is [[Series/{{NewsRadio}} Vicki Lewis]]. Her voice for Posey was a case of ThrowItIn, as she came into the recordings from the dentist's office, sounding really weird from being under anesthesia. Fortunately, she was able to re-create it for future episodes.