Line #177 Trivia/GravityFalls


1	!Trivia tropes for ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''
2	!!Trivia With Their Own Pages
3	[[index]]
4	* [[ReferencedBy/GravityFalls Referenced By]]
5	* [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/GravityFalls What Could Have Been]]
6	* [[WordOfGod/GravityFalls Word Of God]]
7	[[/index]]
8	!!Related Works With Their own Trivia Pages
9	[[index]]
10	* [[Trivia/GravityFallsJournal3 Journal 3]]
11	* [[Trivia/TheBookOfBill The Book of Bill]]
12	----
13	!!General Trivia:
14	* AccidentallyCorrectWriting:
15	** In the "Petting Zoo" short, Octavia the eight-legged cow [[http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2010/12/20/carnivory-in-cows-and-deer/ kills and eats a bird]].
16	** Mabel when flirting with (Austrian) Baron Marius in "Northwest Mansion Mystery" mistakenly thinks he's from Australia and asks if they eat kangaroos or keep them as pets. [[http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23086541 As a matter of fact...]] Also, despite the proliferation of "No Kangaroos in Austria" shirts in real life Austrian gift shops, there are at least two restaurants in Vienna that serves kangaroo, and an escaped kangaroo made the news once.
17	** Quentin Trembley once proclaimed that he jumped out a window to depart as president. While a person didn't depart as president by doing this, there is [[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/abraham-lincoln-window-quorum/ an actual story of an American president jumping out of a window]].
18	* ActingForTwo:
19	** Showrunner Alex Hirsch voices a ''massive'' chunk of the cast, including Grunkle Stan, Soos, Old Man [=McGucket=] and Bill Cipher.
20	** Sev'ral Timez consists of five characters, but are voiced by three actors. You try to sort it out.
21	** This is the case in "Double Dipper" with Dipper and all his clones.
22	** In the Russian dub, Grunkle Stan and [[spoiler: his twin brother Ford]] are voiced by the same voice actor, as are Wendy and Gideon.
23	** In the Danish dub, Signe Vaupel voices every single female character who's not Mabel or Wendy ([[CrossDressingVoices or Grenda]]).
24	* AdoredByTheNetwork: Despite the show finishing its run, Disney XD hasn't taken it off the air and continuously shows it to the point it still gets marathons, proudly runs next to new deals, and still gets commercial focus. They also created a "Broken Karaoke" SongParody featuring Mabel, despite it being off the air.
25	* ApprovalOfGod:
26	** Despite the TakeThatAudience he immediately made while talking about it, Creator/AlexHirsch has stated that he's actually pretty okay with fans making SelfFanservice of Bill Cipher, though it ''does'' (somewhat justifiably) baffle him as to why it happens so often.
27	** Hirsch also gave the fan created DatingSim ''VideoGame/SwooningOverStansAGrunkleDatingSimulator'' a positive review.
28	* AscendedFanon:
29	** A fan asked Alex for Grenda's last name, and he didn't have an answer so he asked the fan to make something up. [[http://sailorleo.tumblr.com/post/148565950205 The fan said "Grendinator" and Alex immediately pronounced it canon.]]
30	** When Alex was asked on Twitter whether Ford had extra toes in addition to his extra fingers, he responded with "Eh, sure. Why not?"
31	* AuthorsSavingThrow:
32	** Fans gave a great deal of backlash at "The Time Traveler's Pig" for Dipper and Mabel's ProtagonistCenteredMorality in getting Blendin' Blandin in trouble [[KarmaHoudini while they get off scot-free of the trouble they caused to the timeline]]. "Blendin's Game" has Dipper and Mabel feeling bad for what they did to him [[spoiler:and helped him get back his job, and got him a head of hair]].
33	** In "The Time Traveler's Pig" and "The Deep End", Dipper has to sacrifice his potential happiness for Mabel, causing fans to complain that she never even considers doing the same. In "Sock Opera," [[BigBad Bill Cipher]] actually uses this argument, and Mabel's treatment of him in that episode, to [[DealWithTheDevil trick Dipper]] into [[GrandTheftMe letting Bill steal his body]]. When Mabel confronts "Bipper" at the end of the episode, he almost talks her into sacrificing Dipper for her own happiness...only for her to remember how often he helped her and refuse, saving the day.
34	** "Into The Bunker" was written to [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap rescue Wendy from the Scrappy heap]]. She's shown to be an ActionGirl who's a huge asset on a dangerous mission; she also lets Dipper down gently when he confesses his crush.
35	* BabyNameTrendStarter: "Mabel" jumped 300 places after the premiere of ''Gravity Falls''. Its popularity outlasted the show; in the UK, it reentered the top 100 girl's names in 2019 and has continued its ascent since. Ironically, the joke with Mabel was that Alex deliberately wanted to give her a name that was ''very'' [[OutdatedName old-fashioned and a bit uncool]], its previous peak of popularity having been in the late 19th century. Pacifica Northwest even lampshaded this in their first meeting, calling it "a fat old lady's name."
36	* BannedInChina: In 2017, the series was banned in Kenya for adult-oriented humor, including depictions of same-sex couples.
37	* BilingualBonus:
38	** In 'Fight Fighters', when Rumble defeats Dipper, his victory pose mimics that of [[Franchise/StreetFighter Akuma]]. However, unlike Akuma's kanji 天 (meaning Heaven), the kanji on Rumble's back is 屁 (meaning a fart, or alternatively something so worthless it's not worth considering - either interpretation satisfies the joke).
39	** The start screen for ''Romance Academy 7'' in "Soos and the Real Girl" has three choices. ''Start'', ''Quit'' and ''SHIZENHAKKA''. The last one translates to "Spontaneous Combustion", which if Soos had known, might have saved him some trouble.
40	* ChannelHop:
41	** The first season premiered its episodes on Creator/DisneyChannel, while the second season had a majority of its episodes first air on Creator/DisneyXD.
42	** Disney itself has the rights, but after a failed attempt at releasing it on home video themselves, they licensed the home video rights to Creator/ShoutFactory, which released the complete series on Blu-ray and DVD on July 24, 2018.
43	* ChildrenVoicingChildren: Young Stan and [[spoiler: his brother Ford]] are voiced by actual boys in the episode "A Tale Of Two Stans"
44	* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: Surprisingly and unfortunately happened in a Disney Channel Scandinavia miniseries called ''The Mystery in Gravity Falls'' (not to be confused with the fan-run website and Website/YouTube channel "The Mystery '''of''' Gravity Falls"). It was a 6-part series that [[ViewersAreGoldfish repeated the same things over and over again]] and, of course, got some things completely wrong. For example, claiming that "ONWARDS AOSHIMA!" was a big mysterious clue when it was just a reference to John Aoshima, who was a director on the show's first season.
45	* CreatorBacklash:
46	** Minor example, but former writer/creative director [[https://www.reddit.com/r/gravityfalls/comments/zzyin/im_michael_rianda_cartoonist_and_creative/c69ad3b/ Michael Rianda said]] they regret giving some characters like Dipper and Mabel [[FourFingeredHands only four fingers]] based on what looked visually better rather than being consistent, since the author of the journals [[ExtraDigits having six fingers]] is a plot point.
47	** Another minor example; Alex Hirsch regrets the placement of "Roadside Attraction" being the second to last episode before the three-part finale.
48	** Years later, Hirsch still remains understandably bitter about Disney's refusal [[HideYourGays to allow explicit homosexual characters in the show]]. When they posted an image of Disney characters in front of a Pride flag for 2021's Pride Month, he gave a ''very'' vitriolic response where he even advised any other showrunners currently fighting with them over the issue to shove the picture in their faces.
49	** Alex also went on a series of angry tweets around the show's ten-year anniversary, revealing several emails he got from the Standards and Practices team about changes he had to make during the show's production, most of them being very minor infractions in his opinion. He drew special attention to a line in "[[Recap/GravityFallsS1E3Headhunters Headhunters]]" which S&P claimed could be rhymed with "Fuck" (The rhyme in question being "There once was a man from Kentucky.") Alex protested that he already censored the rhyme, purely by replacing "Nantucket" with "Kentucky," while giving a demonstration rhyme as an example of what could be made from "The once was a man from Kentucky." S&P's final reply before Alex asked to speak to someone personally was "S&P still feels that 'Fucky' would come from 'Ducky.'" [[{{Hypocrite}} This despite one of Disney's three main mascots being]] WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck. All of this over one line, which was [[{{Bleepdammit}} "censored"]] to "There once was a ''dude'' from Kentucky."
50	** Hirsch is, according to a [[http://www.reddit.com/r/gravityfalls/comments/1kgq85/i_am_alex_hirsch_creator_of_gravity_falls_ask_me/cbosezb?context=3 reddit thread]], not terribly fond of the 11-minute pilot used to pitch the show, though he did release it as a reward for completing the [[AlternateRealityGame Cipher Hunt]].
51	-->"Any chance we'll see the full unaired pilot at some point in the future?\
52	"Oh lord I hope not. That thing was a mess, haha! That would be like showing you awkward photos from my high school prom. We all have dark horrible secrets. That 11 minute Flash pilot was mine."
53	* CreatorCameo:
54	** In addition to [[DescendedCreator voicing four major characters]], Alex Hirsch voices Quentin Trembley, the gnomes and several members of Sev'ral Timez.
55	** Former writer/creative director Michael Rianda voices Lee, Thompson and Mr. Poolcheck.
56	* CreatorsFavorite: Stan and [[spoiler:Stanford]] are the only characters to make Creator/AlexHirsch, who's mostly adamant that Gravity Falls is done for good, at least ''consider'' making a spinoff out of, [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/1436184654143320088 even implying that he pitched such a concept]], only for Disney to reject it because he refused to include [[KidAppealCharacter Dipper and Mabel]].
57	* CrossDressingVoices:
58	** Grenda is voiced by Carl Faruolo.
59	** Gorney from "Summerween" is voiced by Creator/GreyDeLisle.
60	** Celestabellebethabelle from "The Last Mabelcorn" is voiced by Sam Marin.
61	** The "Between the Pines" featurette revealed that Abuelita's voice actor is Matt Chapman.
62	** In the Russian dub, Gideon is voiced by a woman.
63	* DawsonCasting:
64	** 12-year-old Dipper was voiced by Jason Ritter, who was in his mid-thirties at the time of the series' production, same with his twin sister Mabel who was voiced by Creator/KristenSchaal.
65	** 15-year-old Wendy was voiced by Linda Cardellini, who was in her late thirties at the time of production.
66	** Pretty much any kid on the show who's around Dipper's and Mabel's age, are voiced by adults; same with the teenagers.
67	* {{Defictionalization}}:
68	** [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/639562211942207489 A fan sent to Hirsch]] a homemade "Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons" game.
69	** Some official pieces of merch are: Dipper's hats, Mabel's shooting star sweater, Grunkle Stan's fez, Soos's Mystery Shack Staff and Pterodactyl Bros. shirts, Wendy's bomber hat, Robbie's hoodie, Gravity Falls postcards and many more.
70	** Journal #3 was [[Literature/GravityFallsJournal3 published as an official book]].
71	* DescendedCreator:
72	** Hirsch does the voice of both Stan and Soos, as well as recurring characters like Old Man [=McGucket=], President Trembley, Bill Cipher and Mayor Befufftlefumpter.
73	** Writer Matt Chapman (of ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' fame) voices a few minor characters including Soos' abuelita.
74	* DevelopmentGag:
75	** In "Irrational Treasure", the characterization of Quentin Trembley as "America's Silliest President" is based on a short {{Mockumentary}} Alex Hirsch did for the 24-Hour Toons project, ''Teddy Roosevelt: You So Crazy''.
76	** In "The Love God", Mabel's crush on Alexander Hamilton (the "guy on the ten-dollar bill", this was long before [[Theatre/{{Hamilton}} the musical]] made him a household name) was a joke taken from the pilot episode.
77	* EditedForSyndication: When the show initially appeared on Creator/DisneyPlus, the first few episodes removed the symbol from Grunkle Stan's fez, much to the producers' ire. Some time later, after fan outcry, the fez was thankfully restored.
78	* EngineeredHashtag: #[=TakeBackTheFalls=] was used to promote the GrandFinale. True to the fans, some ads [[http://imgur.com/S1Sn2WE hid it]] as a FreezeFrameBonus.
79	* ExecutiveMeddling:
80	** ''Not'' the show ending after two seasons, as Hirsch made sure to emphasize that it was entirely his own decision for quite a while, but it was because of the Disney execs that he didn't tell everyone right when he made that decision, as they hoped he'd change his mind about ending Disney XD's highest rated show. Hirsch also commented that Disney gave him a remarkable amount of creative freedom for a first-time showrunner; his only major complaint was that the legal department would frequently veto jokes, parodies and song choices that were too close to existing material.
81	** One of the couples in "The Love God" was supposed to be a [[https://vraik.tumblr.com/post/156179918032/and-alex-hirsch-has-definitely-been-trying-to-put sweet old lesbian couple]] getting together, but Disney refused to allow Hirsch to feature it; he has an interview discussing that and some other instances of ExecutiveMeddling [[https://www.themarysue.com/alex-hirsch-interview/ here]].
82	*** In the years since the finale of the show, Hirsch has been very vocal about his displeasure of Disney's censorship of LGBT+ themes. After ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' began airing and prominently featured a same-sex couple, Alex congratulated the team of that show (in which he voices two major characters, but isn't involved with the rest of production) while lamenting how he was prevented from doing the same in his.
83	** During the 10th anniversary, Hirsch shared some Standards and Practices notes that he received during the show and his response to them on [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/1537314312926003201 Twitter]]. One joke he had to fight tooth and nail to get in was ''There once was a man from Kentucky'' during [[Recap/GravityFallsS1E3Headhunters Headhunters]] because S&P felt it was too close to a dirty word. Even after explaining that there was no logical way to get to that word, they still didn't back down until he had to personally call them. Even then they still forced him to change the word ''man'' to ''dude''. This was all for a 2 second joke.
84	** According to Hirsch in [[https://youtu.be/KwmqxAdxUKg?si=kpauD23u_vQJCJ4r this interview]] (around nine minutes in), Soos--originally named Jesús--went through several different variations of his name before the final one was settled on, as "Jesús" was deemed to be too close to "Jesus", it couldn't be spelled "Seuss", as that would be too close to Creator/DrSeuss, and "Sus" (pronounced as "Soos") also "had a problem".
85	* FanCommunityNickname: Tumblr fans of the show are called Fallers.
86	* FollowTheLeader: After the show ended, Disney has been pretty clearly trying to recapture its magic with several other shows about young teens/tweens from our "regular" world who find themselves in a new world surrounded by all kinds of weird fantasy stuff. The three most prominent cases, ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'', ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' even share prominent crew members. [[TropesAreTools And for the most part, it went well for them]].
87	* InspirationForTheWork: Hirsch was inspired to make the series by his own childhood experiences spending summer vacation with a great aunt. He's made it clear that [[SeekerArchetype Dipper]] and [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Mabel]] are basically just cartoon versions of himself and his twin sister Ariel, and Stan is based on both his grandfather and great-aunt.
88	* IronyAsSheIsCast:
89	** Cecil Baldwin, [[Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale the preternatural Voice of Night Vale]], is cast as the most normal man in all of Gravity Falls, Tad Strange.
90	** See below with Thurop Van Orman as Li'l Gideon despite Disney trying to rip off his show.
91	* MakeAWishContribution: Micah Amundsen and Nicolas Isler voice animated versions of themselves in the episode "[[Recap/GravityFallsS2E5SoosAndTheRealGirl Soos and the Real Girl]]", made possible through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
92	* ManOfAThousandVoices: Alex Hirsch voices at least five different characters in the show, and they all have their own distinct voice.
93	** More specifically, he voices Stan, Soos, the gnomes, Bill Cipher, Quentin Trembley, Old Man [=McGucket=], Norman, Paper Jam Dipper, and additional background characters, including Mayor Befufftlefumpter, ancient and reclusive mayor of Gravity Falls.
94	** Creator/GreyDeLisle also voices many incidental characters on the show, some of the most notable being Mrs. Gleeful in "Little Dipper," the Summerween Superstore clerk and Gorney in "Summerween", Grunkle Stan's new voice in "Bottomless Pit", and the woman who asks Soos for directions and ends up falling in love with him in "Carpet Diem."
95	* MarketBasedTitle: The French dub is known as ''Souvenirs de Gravity Falls'' (''Memories from Gravity Falls'').
96	* MeaningfulReleaseDate: The very first episode, "Tourist Trapped", is released on 6/15/12 (June 15, 2012, when written using the American date system). The GrandFinale is released on that date with its numbers reversed, 2/15/16 (February 15, 2016), fitting with the series' use of secret messages and codes. Amusingly, Alex Hirsch had to later confirm that this was actually a massive coincidence and not at all intended.
97	* NoExportForYou: Unlike North America, Europe didn't see a DVD release of the series.
98	* TheOtherDarrin:
99	** Strangely enough, in a commercial for ''Gravity Falls'' mealbags at Subway, Kristen Schaal does not voice Mabel. Even stranger, all of the dialogue for the twins in that commercial is taken from clips of previous episodes, and they didn't dub over Jason Ritter's voice for Dipper.
100	** Creator/NathanFillion voices Preston Northwest in Season 2 while Creator/ChrisParnell voiced him in Season 1's "Irrational Treasure".
101	** In the Russian dub of Season 2, Tatiana Vesyolkina was the voice of Wendy in most episodes, until the "Weirdmageddon" episodes, where Olga Shorokhova, Wendy's original voice actress, returned.
102	** In the Italian dub, Mario Brusa originally voiced Bill Cipher in the Season 1 finale, but in Season 2 he's instead voiced by Simon Lupinacci, the same voice actor as Dipper.
103	* TheOtherMarty: Following the public reveal of Creator/LouisCK’s sexual harassment history in December 2017, it was found that Alex Hirsch went back and redid the lines for The Horrifying Sweaty One-Armed Monstrosity, a one-shot character that CK originally voiced in the three-part GrandFinale. This version is currently available on Disney+, has since aired on both Disney XD and Disney Channel and is the version included on the complete series set.
104	* OutOfOrder: Disney XD in the UK airs "[[Recap/GravityFallsS1E1TouristTrapped Tourist Trapped]]" as the fifth episode of the first season, and "[[Recap/GravityFallsS2E1Scaryoke Scaryoke]]" as the third episode of the second season.[[note]]In both cases, this was probably because of the production codes, which only indicate when an episode's ''script'' is finished; "Tourist Trapped" was the fifth-finished Season 1 script, while Scaryoke was the third-finished Season 2 script.[[/note]]
105	* PlayingAgainstType:
106	** Thurop Van Orman's previous famous role, [[WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack Flapjack]], is a kind-hearted, happy, naive and very innocent boy. Meanwhile his role here, Gideon Gleeful, [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon is anything but]].
107	** Tad Strange, the most normal guy in Gravity Falls, is voiced by Cecil Baldwin, whose role as Cecil Palmer in "Welcome to Night Vale" is ''[[{{Understatement}} decidedly]]'' less normal.
108	* PopCultureUrbanLegends: There is a picture circulating the Internet of [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos the Slender Man]] watching Dipper and Mabel from the background in one episode. This is not the case; viewing the episode itself yields no Slender Man. Slender Man would, however, go on to have a cameo in ''ComicBook/GravityFallsLostLegends''.
109	* PostReleaseRetitle: The season two episode, "Northwest Mansion Mystery", was originally called "Northwest Mansion Noir" in promos. Some places still list it with the original title.
110	* PromotedFanboy:
111	** Emmy Cicierega (sister of Creator/NeilCicierega), who has done [[http://emmyc.tumblr.com/tagged/gravity-falls fanart]] for the show, [[https://twitter.com/EmmyCic/status/418164421564055552 eventually worked on the show as a storyboard artist]].
112	** Alex Hirsch himself is a big fan of WebAnimation/HomestarRunner [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bmlAv8RPCk as shown here]]. He openly admits working/being friends with the site's creator, Matt Chapman, on his own series was a dream come true.
113	* RealLifeRelative: If Behind the Voice Actors is to be believed, the Hebrew dub voices of Dipper and Robbie are brothers.
114	* ReferencedBy: Has its [[ReferencedBy/GravityFalls own]] page.
115	* RefittedForSequel: A scrapped idea for Season 2 involved [[spoiler:the universe portal sucking in the Pines family]], at which point they would explore the multiverse. This idea was discarded when they decided it would disrupt the flow of the second season. However, the basic concept was reused for the story "Don't Dimension It" in ''ComicBook/GravityFallsLostLegends''.
116	* RuleThirtyFourCreatorReactions:
117	** [[invoked]] Sort of--in the livestream where [[{{Gonk}} "canon" human!Bill]] was unveiled, Hirsch mentions that he's seen (and been shown by fans) [[SelfFanservice humanized fanart of the character that renders him as a suave pretty boy]]. Though he admits that [[ApprovalOfGod he's perfectly fine with it]], he still considers it more than a little bizarre that the weird little living Illuminati triangle has so many people wanting to make him look sexy.
118	** [[invoked]] Furthermore, Alex has been ''very'' vocal about being {{Squick}}ed out over the [[IncestYayShipping "Pinescest"]] ([[{{Twincest}} Dipper/Mabel]]) ship in the fandom. This is because even putting aside both the societal taboos around incest and the Pines twins being pre-pubescent children, Dipper and Mabel are [[WriteWhoYouKnow based on himself and his twin sister Ariel as twelve-year-old kids]].
119	* ScheduleSlip:
120	** Premieres between episodes ''within the same season'' in the US could be anywhere from two weeks to four months. It took over a year for the first season to air, and it took another year for the second season to make it on-air. In fact, Hirsch himself was happily surprised when he learned that the second season would premiere earlier than he initially believed.
121	** Hirsch learned his lesson from when it happened in Season 1, and constructed Season 2 more like two mini-seasons, suspecting correctly that there would be a long hiatus at the season's halfway point.
122	** For the first few episodes of Season 2, they would air on Disney XD Monday and then on the Disney Channel Friday. But after "Little Gift Shop of Horrors" it was ''months'' before new episodes aired on the Disney Channel.
123	** The hiatuses happened so often and the gaps were so long that some more conspiratorially minded fans believed that Disney was [[ScrewedByTheNetwork trying to kill the show]]. Amusingly enough, Hirsch later revealed that it was actually [[AdoredByTheNetwork the complete opposite]] -- Disney was instead trying to keep the show going for as long as possible (giving them more of an opportunity to milk it for as much money as it was worth) due to the second season being the final one and them being unable to convince Hirsch to continue the series for longer.
124	* SharedUniverse: With WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty, {{WesternAnimation/Amphibia}} (and by extension WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse). This is mostly hinted at in a couple of throwaway gags, and due to the shared production team across the four shows.
125	* ShrugOfGod: Alex Hirsch answered plenty of questions about the show, but since it's a mystery series, he couldn't answer all of them without giving spoilers. He came up with a number of unorthodox things to put in place of spoilers, including just posting pictures of axolotls — which becomes a bizarre sort of BrickJoke in the GrandFinale, as there's a backward message from [[spoiler:a dying Bill Cipher calling out to "Axolotl" as if invoking the power of a god]]. A decent number of the bigger questions were answered in Gravity Falls: Journal 3, such as Dipper's real name, but many others (such as questions to [[AmbiguouslyJewish the Pines family's religion]]) receive either a shrug or have him invoke DeathOfTheAuthor so he doesn't have to think about it.
126	* ThrowItIn:
127	** In "The Legend of the Gobblewonker", the script had Stan say the punchline to his joke once, but when Alex accidentally did it twice, it resulted in an hilariously awkward and memetic scene.
128	** The credits scene of "Weirdmageddon Part 1" is simply Creator/LouisCK being allowed to go nuts.
129	* TrollingCreator: Creator/AlexHirsch is the current page image for the trope, with [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/536054960018825217 this]] being the most infamous example of his shenanigans.
130	** He saved the biggest one of all for the series finale, as [[spoiler:the ten symbols that appear at the beginning and end of every episode, causing every fan to wrack their brains about their meaning and what each one represents, turn out to be an ancient prophecy about the people who can defeat Bill... [[RedHerring and ends up being completely meaningless]] [[ShaggyDogStory when Stan wrecks it]]]].
131	* TroubledProduction: The show suffered constant issues due to Alex Hirsch's lack of experience in running an entire show (he was only 26 years old around the time it was being developed). By the time the first season wrapped, Hirsch was so exhausted that he seriously considered ending the show right there, leaving it forever on an incredibly tantalizing Cliffhanger. It wasn't until he shared his plans with Creator/JonStewart, a huge fan who was horrified at the idea, that he decided to press on for another season. The Disney Channel execs weren't very happy about losing one of their most acclaimed shows so soon, and forbade him from revealing the plan to end the show to the public until the season was almost over, spending the entire time in between trying to talk him into continuing it to no avail. When the announcement finally couldn't be put off anymore, [[https://shmalexsmirsch.tumblr.com/ Hirsch was a complete stand up guy about it]], making clear that the two season run was entirely his own decision and the fans shouldn't blame anyone at Disney for it, and ultimately came out of the experience with a highly acclaimed project he got to end on his own terms, about the happiest ending to the story possible.
132	* UnspecifiedRoleCredit: Starting with this series, end credits of animated Disney shows tend to only identify the main and supporting voices in the end credits, with the other minor characters listed under "Additional Voices" with no specification who voiced who.
133	* WordOfGay:
134	** Alex Hirsch confirmed during a [=YouTube=] livestream charity event hosted by him and Dana Terrace that Deputy Durland and Sheriff Blubs are in a homosexual relationship. This was no surprise there as fans pretty much knew that Durland and Blubs confirmed their relationship in the series finale.
135	** Hirsch also [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/1292342161099300864 confirmed]] that Wendy is bisexual.
136	* WorkingTitle:
137	** "Northwest Mansion Mystery" was first announced as "Northwest Mansion Noir".
138	** As seen on the deleted scenes featurette on the complete series box-set, the original title for "Not What He Seems" was "Return of Stan".
139	* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: Surprisingly enough! The writers elaborate on the series' DVD commentary that, while they knew the backstory of the Author, nearly everything else was thought up as they worked along. Hirsch himself has freely admitted that while a lot of stuff ''was'' planned in advance, the fans are more often than not giving the creators way too much credit in thinking that they'd planned '''everything''' from the beginning. Several details were thrown into the series, with the plan to figure out what they meant later on. Including:
140	** Originally, they had no idea what role Bill Cipher would play in the series, if any role at all. Much less [[spoiler:his connection to The Author and eventual role as BigBad]].
141	** The phrase "Search for the Blind Eye", ArcWords that were teased between the Season 1 and 2 hiatus. Hirsch threw it in because he thought it sounded cool, then had to figure out what it meant later.
142	** The journals and their respective owners were not even conceived until the production of the fourth episode.
143	** Hirsch admits that during production of the pilot, the writers had no idea what was behind [[spoiler:Stan's vending machine.]]
144	** The wheel of symbols surrounding Bill in the opening credits had no meaning upon conception.
145	** Before Old Man [=McGucket=] [[spoiler:was revealed to be The Author's old lab assistant]], he was originally just meant to be a one-off character.
146	* WriteWhatYouKnow:
147	** Hirsch based the series on the childhood summers he and his twin sister spent camping with their great-aunt.
148	** Dipper doing the Lamby Lamb Dance [[https://mobile.twitter.com/michaelrianda/status/1379799998330638338 in]] "The Inconveniencing" was based on an experience Michael Rianda had with his sister when he was young, where she would dress him up in a bunny costume and have him dance when mom was out.
149	** "Dungeons, Dungeons, & More Dungeons" was inspired by a time during the production of ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack'' when Creator/PendletonWard and Patrick [=McHale=] (of ''WesternAnimation/OverTheGardenWall'' fame) invited Alex to try a game of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''.
150	--->'''Alex Hirsch:''' I asked what the rules were, and they said, "It’s a game of imagination! There are no rules!" and then proceeded to argue about the rules for an hour and a half. I haven’t played since. But I should probably give it another try.
151	* WriteWhoYouKnow:
152	** Dipper is based on Alex Hirsch himself and each of the other main characters on people he knows. Mabel is based on Alex's twin sister Ariel, Grunkle Stan on their Grandpa Stan (and a great-aunt he and his sister would spend summers with), Soos on his one-time roommate Jesus Chambrot and Wendy on a girl he had a crush on in his youth.
153	** Wendy's list of ex-boyfriends [[http://ariel-is-mabel.tumblr.com/post/41441015383/instead-of-doing-ask-ariel-today-im-doing uses the names of real people]] Ariel Hirsch had crushes on.
154	* WriterConflictsWithCanon: Alex Hirsch mentions multiple times on the commentary track that he doesn't consider the show to take place in any particular year--usually at points when years are explicitly mentioned in the show. On the track for "Boyz Crazy", creative director Michael Rianda tries to help paper over this by pinning Sev'ral Timez incessant shouting of "2013!" on their loose grasp on reality.
155	* WriterRevolt:
156	** Disney wouldn't allow Alex Hirsch to explicitly show Blubs and Durland as a couple. The solution? Do everything ''but'' explicitly state it by having every one of their scenes be filled with any and every possible form of subtext. This wore Disney down and they eventually allowed it to be confirmed in the series finale.
157	** In "Summerween", the party invitation originally included a subhead reading "Bottles will be spun" (i.e., that Spin the Bottle would be played at the party), but Standards and Practices completely objected to the implication that [[PaedoHunt unsupervised children and teenagers would be kissing]]. Hirsch, who didn't understand how it could be seen as offensive, fought to keep it in (going so far as to watch other Disney Channel shows to see if he could [[CensorDecoy find something comparatively]] ''[[CensorDecoy more]]'' [[CensorDecoy offensive to make his argument look better]]), but Disney wouldn't budge, so "Bottles will be spun" was changed to "[[BitingTheHandHumor Not S&P Approved]]." [[{{Irony}} Which S&P approved]].
158	----
159
160	!!Misc:
161	* The location of Gravity Falls: a postcard in the first episode puts Gravity Falls almost dead center of the state, in Crook County. However, the second season episode "Scary-oke" puts the location around Malheur National Forest.
162	** Never mind that it looks like [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherRainforest the west side of the Cascades]] at times.
163	* [[spoiler:The birthday of the Stans]] is June 15, [[spoiler:making them [[StealthPun Gemini]]'s]]. What happened on that day? Oh, yes, [[spoiler:the party in "Double Dipper"]]...
164	-->'''Mabel:''' But [[spoiler:whose birthday]] is this, Grunkle Stan?\
165	'''Stan:''' No one's, darling. [[BlatantLies It's a party for local kids to buy my merchandise]].
166	* Hidden depths? Judge Kitty Kitty Meow Face-Shwartstein's last name, translated from the closest German sound equivalent, is "Black Stone". William Blackstone, an 18th-Century British Jurist, wrote the definitive guide to British common law. Reaching a LOT further, it could also be "Black Rock." The 1955 American film "Bad Day at Black Rock" (with Creator/SpencerTracy, Anne Francis, Creator/RobertRyan and Walter Brennan) is about a small group of friends trying to help one of their number escape from a town controlled by a seemingly all-powerful enemy. Bad Day in Mabeland?

Context Trivia / GravityFalls