History Trivia / Monk

* DawsonCasting:
** Tony Shalhoub is actually six years older than Monk is supposed to be. Hence, though he turns 50 in "Happy Birthday, Mr. Monk," he's actually 56 in that episode, which aired in 2009.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend," Stottlemeyer is revealed to be 51, which is just a year older than Ted Levine actually was in 2007. Monk is supposed to be three years younger than Stottlemeyer, but Tony Shalhoub is actually four years older than Levine.
** Ambrose is Adrian's older brother, while Creator/JohnTurturro is four years ''younger'' than Tony Shalhoub.
** Shalhoub was 53 when "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion" was produced. In contrast, Cynthia Stevenson, who plays Dianne Brooks, was 45 years old at the time, and her character is supposed to be 47 years old at that point.
** Depending on how you interpret it, it is possible Natalie may count as this due to OlderThanTheyLook, as Traylor Howard was in her early forties, when [[OlderThanTheyLook Natalie could easily be mid to late-thirties]].
** All of the flashbacks with Trudy are this. Incidentally, if Trudy were alive today, she'd be five years older than Creator/MeloraHardin. But it's played straight: the flashback to Trudy's death in the series finale, for instance, depict a 42 year old Hardin playing a 35 year old Trudy.

* ChannelHop: When the show premiered in 2002, episodes were broadcast first on ABC and then rerun later that week on USA. Within a few weeks ABC lost interest in the show, leaving it airing on USA only.

* TheCastShowoff: Creator/StanleyKamel had a very strong singing voice, which he got to show off in "Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy" when Kroger sings a few bars of "John Henry."

* ChannelHop: When the show premired in 2002, episodes were broadcast first on ABC and then rerun later that week on USA. Within a few weeks ABC lost interest in the show, leaving it airing on USA only.
* TheCharacterDiedWithHim: Creator/StanleyKamel died of a sudden heart attack on April 8, 2008 during the production hiatus between seasons 6 and 7. There was no way the producers could try recasting a new actor as Dr. Charles Kroger (as Kamel had played the part in close to half of the 93 episodes that had been aired to that point) or have him PutOnABus, so the same heart attack fate was given to Dr. Kroger. As a result, "Mr. Monk Buys a House" has an InMemoriam to Kamel before the closing credits at the end. The episode also introduced Creator/HectorElizondo as Dr. Neven Bell, to replace the void left by Dr. Kroger for the remaining two seasons of the show. The usage of Dr. Bell instead of Dr. Kroger does seem to have a noticeable effect on the feel of the remaining episodes, especially season 7.

** According to the novel ''Mr. Monk Helps Himself'', Grooms's first name is '''Joshua'''. He's played by Josh Stamberg.

** And Shalhoub was 53 when "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion" was produced. In contrast, Cynthia Stevenson, who plays Dianne Brooks, was 45 years old at the time, and her character is supposed to be 47 years old at that point.

** All of the flashbacks with Trudy are this. Incidentally, if Trudy were alive today, she'd be five years older than Creator/MeloraHardin. But it's played straight: the flashback to Trudy's death in the series finale, for instance, depict Trudy when she was 35. Hardin was 42 at the time.

** The first season, because it was filmed in Vancouver and Toronto, gave us lots of Canadian-sounding Californians. These include Michael Hogan (Warren St. Claire in "Mr. Monk and the Candidate"), Linda Kash (Dolly Flint in "Mr. Monk and the Psychic"), Creator/StephenMcHattie (Lt. Adam Kirk in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival"), Maria del Mar (Monica Waters in "Mr. Monk and the Other Woman").

** "Mr. Monk Gets Married" was actually meant to be aired during the first half of season 2 (the late summer 2003 schedule), but instead aired as the penultimate episode to the set of episodes aired in February.
** "Mr. Monk Is On The Air" was shot in the summer of 2006, but aired as part of the second half of season 5. This discrepancy explains why Natalie is back to driving the Jeep Grand Cherokee she drove in the first half of the season, when she'd only traded it for a Buick Lucerne just prior to "Mr. Monk and the Leper".
** It's notable that often the episodes were not aired in the order they were produced. "Mr. Monk and the Other Woman" was the seventh episode aired but the third to be filmed, which accounts for why Stottlemeyer and Disher suddenly seem to have regressed to being openly antagonistic towards Monk when they had begun to mellow towards him in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival".

* UnfinishedEpisode: The author's notes for ''Mr. Monk Gets on Board'' state that there was an episode written for season 3 involving Monk and Sharona solving a murder while on a cruise. The cruise line company that owned the ship was okay with it until they started making numerous demands. The producers eventually decided it was more trouble than it was worth and scrapped the episode. The script didn't go to waste though; it was adapted into the 2014 novel ''Mr. Monk Gets on Board''.

** "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger" was originally supposed to feature Music/RingoStarr as the musician accused of murder. However, since the crime involved the victim being shot in an alley, the producers thought it too reminiscent of Music/JohnLennon's assassination. They also considered singers Brian Wilson and James Taylor, before deciding to go with Willie Nelson.

** Adrian Monk was originally going to be named Adrian Rodriguez, but the show's creators decided to change it to Monk after seeing a sign for a street named "Monk Place" in San Francisco.

** Brooke Adams, Shalhoub's wife, appears several times (always as different characters):

** [[Creator/{{MSNBC}} Lawrence O'Donnell]] plays Judge Lawrence Barr in two episodes.

* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/AlfredMolina and Creator/StanleyTucci were also considered for the role of Monk before Tony Shalhoub was picked. Both would be guest star in ''Monk'' episodes and get Special Guest Star billing. Tucci plays David Ruskin in "Mr. Monk and the Actor", [[MetaCasting an actor who's to play Monk in a TV movie]], while Molina plays Peter Magneri in "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man", who has some of Monk's eccentricities.

** Stottlemeyer's son Jared has changed actors multiple times, as he ages: in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame," he's played by Cameron Cush, and by child actor Jesse James in "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife". In Jared's DayInTheLimelight episode, "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert", he's played by John Kyle Hansen.

* YouAllLookFamiliar: Marc Vann (who crime drama fans in general would also recognize as Conrad Ecklie from ''{{Series/CSI}}'') is the VictimOfTheWeek in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater" and a museum curator in "Mr. Monk and the Lady Next Door".

** Sharona's son Benjy is played by Kane Richotte in the season 1 pilot, as well as all of his appearances in season 2 and season 3, but is played by Max Morrow for all of season 1 except the pilot episode. This is because Richotte's episodes were filmed in Vancouver and also in Los Angeles, while episodes with Morrow were shot in Toronto, and the respective actor couldn't travel to the other coast for filming.

* CaliforniaDoubling: Very blatant in Season 1, which was shot in Toronto, something that's visible in the constantly overcast weather and lack of any recognisable San Francisco landmarks outside of StockFootage. A lot less blatant from Season 2 onwards, for which production moved to Los Angeles, somewhere that obviously has a much closer architectural style to San Francisco seeing how the cities are just a few hundred miles apart (which also permitted them to shoot on location in the latter city on occasion).

** Vancouver-born Jason Gray-Stanford portrays the American Randy Disher.

* DirectedByCastMember:
** Tony Shalhoub was Monk as well as one of the show's executive producers.
** Creator/AdamArkin was involved in two season 1 episodes. He wore a fatsuit to portray bedridden Dale "the Whale" Biederbeck in "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale". He also directed "Mr. Monk and the Other Woman".

* YouAllLookFamiliar: Marc Vann (who crime drama fans in general would also recognize as Conrad Ecklie from ''{{Series/CSI}}'') is the VictimOfTheWeek in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater" and a museum curator in "Mr. Monk and the Lady Next Door").

*** Once this had been done, a few ideas as to how Dr. Kroger would be involved floated around. Having Dr. Kroger help Monk solve the case had to be shot down because this would ruin the clinical doctor-patient detachment. This is the reason why Dr. Kroger doesn't show up during any of the investigation scenes, and the scene where Dr. Kroger and Monk investigate Francis Merrigan's office has them peer through the window instead of breaking into the office proper because of this.

* {{Jossed}}: The plot of ''Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants'' (about a Sharona/Natalie crossover) cannot happen thanks to the final season featuring "Mr. Monk and Sharona" for a Sharona/Natalie crossover.

* TheCharacterDiedWithHim: Creator/StanleyKamel died of a sudden heart attack on April 8, 2008 during the production hiatus between seasons 6 and 7. There was no way the producers could try recasting a new actor as Dr. Charles Kroger (as Kamel had played the part in close to half of the 93 episodes that had been aired to that point) or have him PutOnABus, so the same heart attack fate was given to Dr. Kroger. As a result, "Mr. Monk Buys a House" has an InMemoriam to Kamel before the closing credits at the end. The episode also introduced HectorElizondo as Dr. Neven Bell, to replace the void left by Dr. Kroger for the remaining two seasons of the show. The usage of Dr. Bell instead of Dr. Kroger does seem to have a noticeable effect on the feel of the remaining episodes, especially season 7.

* BackedByThePentagon: In addition to letting the show shoot on location at Edwards Air Force Base, the US Air Force also allowed Creator/JeffreyDonovan to ride around in a then-brand-new F-22 and Creator/TonyShalhoub to run around the flight line for the the climax of "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut."

* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/AlfredMolina and Creator/StanleyTucci were also considered for the role of Monk before Tony Shalhoub was picked. Both would be guest star in ''Monk'' episodes and get Special Guest Star billing, Tucci as David Ruskin in "Mr. Monk and the Actor", and Molina as Peter Magneri in "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man". Amusingly, David Ruskin is [[MetaCasting an actor playing Monk in a TV movie.]] Peter Magneri has some of Monk's eccentricities.

* TheCharacterDiedWithHim: Creator/StanleyKamel died of a sudden heart attack on April 8, 2008 during the production hiatus between seasons 6 and 7. There was no way the producers could try recasting a new actor as Dr. Charles Kroger (as Kamel had played the part in close to half of the 93 episodes that had been made to that point) or have him PutOnABus, so the same heart attack fate was given to Dr. Kroger. As a result, "Mr. Monk Buys a House" has an InMemoriam to Kamel before the closing credits at the end. The episode also introduced HectorElizondo as Dr. Neven Bell, to replace the void left by Dr. Kroger for the remaining two seasons of the show. The usage of Dr. Bell instead of Dr. Kroger does seem to have a noticeable effect on the feel of the remaining episodes, especially season 7.
* TheCSIEffect: There is a point in the novel ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany'' where this trope is discussed. Stottlemeyer says he hates ''Series/{{CSI}}'' and personally wants to punch the person "who had the brilliant idea of doing a show that teaches crooks how to avoid being caught".

** Ambrose is Adrian's older brother. In real life, John Turturro is four years ''younger'' than Tony Shalhoub.
** And Shalhoub was 53 when "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion" was produced. In contrast, Cynthia Stevenson, the actress playing Dianne Brooks, was 45 years old at the time, and her character is supposed to be 47 years old at that point.
** Depending on how you interpret it, it is possible Natalie may count as this due to OlderThanTheyLook, as Traylor Howard is in her late thirties/early forties, when [[OlderThanTheyLook Natalie could easily be mid to late-thirties]].
** All of the flashbacks with Trudy are this. Incidentally, if Trudy were alive today, she'd be five years older than Melora Hardin. But it's played straight: the flashback to Trudy's death in the series finale, for instance, depict Trudy when she was 35. Hardin was 42 at the time.

** The first season, because it was filmed in Vancouver and Toronto, gave us lots of Canadian-sounding Californians, [[CanadaEh eh?]] These include Michael Hogan (Warren St. Claire in "Mr. Monk and the Candidate"), Linda Kash (Dolly Flint in "Mr. Monk and the Psychic"), Creator/StephenMcHattie (Lt. Adam Kirk in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival"), Maria del Mar (Monica Waters in "Mr. Monk and the Other Woman").
** To some extent, Monk is one as far as his ancestry. Monk has American ancestry. While Tony Shalhoub is American by birth (having been born in Green Bay, Wisconsin), he has Lebanese ancestry.

* HideYourPregnancy: Traylor Howard became pregnant before shooting began for the second half of season 5. To avoid causing problems, it was necessary for writers to position Natalie during scenes such that her midsection and below is hidden by items like bags, tables, or car doors. This is evident in "Mr. Monk Makes a Friend" and "Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy". In "Mr. Monk Is at Your Service," the writers took advantage of Traylor's pregnancy by incorporating it into the episode. For most of her scenes, Natalie stands or sits in positions that make it so that we see only the section above her chest, (like behind a desk or leaning against her car with the driver's side door open). However, when she needs to rescue Monk from her old obsessive boyfriend, she wards off his advances [[PillowPregnancy by stuffing a pillow down her chest]]. For these scenes, they just filmed her like they would in normal episodes, like in the first half of the season.

** In fact, the only relatives of the main characters who are played by the same actors in all of their appearances are Adrian's brother Ambrose (John Turturro), Sharona's sister Gail (Amy Sedaris), Stottlemeyer's first wife Karen (Creator/GlenneHeadly), as well as Natalie's daughter Julie (Emmy Clarke) and parents Bobby and Peggy (Michael Cavanaugh and Holland Taylor).

** Dale "the Whale" Biederbeck, Monk's recurring ArchEnemy, is played by a different actor in each of his appearances because [[IncrediblyLamePun the role is too large for one guy to carry]]. He's played by Creator/AdamArkin in "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale," by Creator/TimCurry in "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail," and by Ray Porter in "Mr. Monk Is On the Run, Part II".

** Three actresses played Trudy Monk: Stellina Ruisch for the first two seasons, Melora Hardin for all appearances from "Mr. Monk and the Game Show" onwards, and Lindy Newton for flashback scenes with a younger Trudy in "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion".