History Trivia / NewsRadio

** NBC was doing a theme night of "Three Funerals and a Wedding" (a parody of the new movie at the time, ''Film/FourWeddingsAndAFuneral''), and requested ''Newsradio'' do a plotline in which a character dies. The writers wrote an episode about a dead rat in retaliation.

** "Mistake" was based on a real incident where show creator Paul Simms [[http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/features/no-news-is-bad-news-19970417 griped to Rolling Stone]] about how the show was treated by NBC. He didn't expect his comments to actually be printed verbatim, and was embarrassed when NBC called him on it (though, lucky for him, NBC didn't fire him for it).

** The Halloween episode when Dave dressed up as a woman was no surprise to anyone who knew of the many convincing female characters Dave Foley played as a member of the all-male comedy troupe TheKidsInTheHall.

** NBC was doing a theme night of "Three Weddings and a Funeral" (a parody of the new movie at the time, ''Film/FourWeddingsAndAFuneral''), and requested ''Newsradio'' do a plotline in which a character dies. The writers wrote an episode about a dead rat in retaliation.

* VindicatedByReruns: The show was not popular at all during its original NBC run, largely because NBC kept moving the show around on the schedule (specifically, the show never reached higher than 26th place in the Nielsen ratings). It also didn't win any awards, save for "Outstanding Costuming For a Series", of all things. When the show hit syndication, however, it gained more fans and is now considered a CultClassic.

* ActorAllusion: The Halloween episode when Dave dressed up as a woman was no surprise to anyone who knew of the many convincing female characters Dave Foley played as a member of the all-male comedy troupe TheKidsInTheHall.

* MissingEpisode: The episode "Injury" was withheld from broadcast for nearly two years due to concerns about the script's excessive use of the word "penis". The word appears three times in the version that eventually made it to air, but was reportedly a lot more in the original version of the episode.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: The show changed time slots 11 times in five seasons.
** Network head Warren Littlefield actually ''admits this was a mistake'' on a DVD commentary.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/RayRomano was originally cast as Joe Garelli.

* RealitySubtext: Phil Hartman's death

* WriterRevolt: ''[=NewsRadio=]'' was the king of this trope. The writers intensely disliked the story directives NBC would impose on them and would protest by subverting those demands in some way. For instance, they were told to add a WillTheyOrWontThey plot to the show. The answer was "they will", in episode ''two''. Later they were told to do a funeral story as part of a cross-series promotional gimmick. They created an episode about the death of a rat.

** "Bill's Autobiography" has a scene where Bill is given a tape recorder to write his thoughts for his autobiography, which includes a tape of Bill singing the song "A Horse with No Name" by Music/{{America}}. Creator/PhilHartman, during his time working as a graphic artist, designed three of that group's album covers; while his brother John was the band's manager.

** Joe Garrelli continually espoused his beliefs in conspiracy theories, such as man never landing on the moon; Joe Rogan is similarly known for his comments on conspiracy theories. In addition, Joe and Matthew once faced each other in a no-holds-barred ultimate fighting match; Rogan has been a martial artist for most of his life and started working for UltimateFightingChampionship in 1997, a year before [=NewsRadio=] went off the air.

** "Bill's Autobiography" has a scene where Bill is given a tape recorder to write his thoughts for his autobiography, which includes a tape of Bill singing the song "A Horse with No Name" by Music/{{America}}. Phil Hartman, during his time working as a graphic artist, designed three of that group's album covers; while his brother John was the band's manager.

* WriterRevolt: ''NewsRadio'' was the king of this trope. The writers intensely disliked the story directives NBC would impose on them and would protest by subverting those demands in some way. For instance, they were told to add a WillTheyOrWontThey plot to the show. The answer was "they will", in episode ''two''. Later they were told to do a funeral story as part of a cross-series promotional gimmick. They created an episode about the death of a rat.

* WriterRevolt: ''NewsRadio'' was the king of this trope. The writers intensely disliked the story directives NBC would impose on them and would protest by subverting those demands in some way. For instance, they were told to add a WillTheyOrWontThey plot to the show. The answer was "yes", in episode ''two''. Later they were told to do a funeral story as part of a cross-series promotional gimmick. They created an episode about the death of a rat.

** Also notable is the episode "Chock", in which [[MrShow David Cross, Bob Odenkirk]], and Brian Posehn show up playing characters named David, Bob, and Brian, respectively.

** Also notable is the episode "Chock", in which [[MrShow David Cross, Bob Odenkirk]], and Brian Posehn show up playing characters named David, Bob, and Brian, respectively.