Line #61 Trivia/TheOrville


1	* ActorAllusion:
2	** The cowboy outfits Ed wears in "About a Girl" and "Gently Falling Rain" are very similar to the costume Seth [=MacFarlane=] wore in ''Film/AMillionWaysToDieInTheWest''.
3	** Creator/VictorGarber, who played Admiral Halsey in the pilot, had been the warden of the Klingon prison colony Rura Penthe in a DeletedScene from ''Film/StarTrek2009''.
4	** Creator/BrianGeorge (Richard Bashir on ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]]'' and Ambassador O'Zaal on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'') had a guest role in the pilot.
5	** Creator/StevenCulp (Major Hayes on ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'') plays an alien publicist in "Majority Rule".
6	** Creator/BrianThompson, who had several guest spots across the ''Trek'' franchise (being one of the biggest go-to "scary badass" guest actors of the '90s), plays an antagonist in "Into the Fold."
7	** Creator/RobertPicardo (the Doctor program on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'') plays Alara's father.
8	** Her mother was played by Creator/MollyHagan, who played the first Vorta we ever saw on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''.
9	** As noted in the Main page, co-star Penny Johnson Jerald had a recurring role on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''.
10	** Creator/JohnBillingsley, who played Dr. Phlox on ''Star Trek: Enterprise'') plays a guest character with a grudge against Alara's father.
11	** [=MacFarlane=] himself had made a cameo appearance as a crewmember in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''.
12	** Creator/MarinaSirtis (Deanna Troi) plays a teacher aboard the Orville.
13	** Creator/BruceBoxleitner plays [[Series/Babylon5 the president of an interstellar alliance]] in season 3.
14	* ActorSharedBackground: Ed's bad experience with pot as revealed in "Command Performance"[[note]]once getting so high that he thought he would literally die if he remained seated[[/note]] is also really what happened to Seth [=MacFarlane=], and is in fact the reason he no longer smokes it in real life.
15	* TheCastShowOff: Several actors/actresses on the show are talented musicians and singers, with several of them being given moments to sing (such as Bortus' concert in "A Tale Of Two Topas" and Gordon singing at least once a season).
16	* ChannelHop: ''The Orville'' will hop from Creator/{{Fox}} to Creator/{{Hulu}} for its third season. WordOfGod is this is so the crew can take the time they need to properly build up their ambitions for the season without worrying about a January deadline.
17	* CreatorsFavorite: Seth [=MacFarlane=] has acknowledged in at least one interview that Teleya is one of his favorite characters on the show; this combined with Michaela [=McManus=]'s performance convinced him to bring her back for Season 2.
18	* CreatorsOddball: This is the only serialized live action show that Seth [=MacFarlane=] has created, as opposed to his animated works, ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow''. It also takes place in a serious setting that just happens to have a lot of jokes sprinkled into it, rather than just being a constant joke machine.
19	* DescendedCreator: As is typical of Creator/SethMacFarlane works. [=MacFarlane=] plays the protagonist, Captain Ed Mercer.
20	* DuelingShows:
21	** Emerged as a rival to ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' for the first two seasons. One is a WorkCom InSpace heavily influenced by Star Trek and one plays it completely straight, both with a cast of veteran character actors, and both with vastly superior special effects to any previous Star Trek series. The fact the release of ''Discovery'' was delayed by nearly a full year resulted in the unintended scenario where ''The Orville'' debuted only two weeks before ''Discovery'', leading to much head-to-head comparison of the two series. Expressed [[https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1299313-distracted-boyfriend here]] as a [[MemeticMutation variation]] on the "Distracted Boyfriend" meme. This became downplayed as the shows went on, both due to the huge ScheduleSlip for ''The Orville'' and the massive expansion of the ''Star Trek'' franchise in the Creator/ParamountPlus era, which made ''Discovery'' into just one facet of the franchise rather than its current central pillar; ''Trek'' also got its own WorkCom entry with the animated ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks''.
22	** The long-awaited ''New Horizons'' found a new rival in the form of ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'', a SpinOff of ''Discovery'' with a more traditional episodic format matching ''The Orville''.
23	* GeniusBonus: The ship is named "The Orville" in reference to Orville Wright, one of the two Wright Brothers who pioneered heavier-than-air flight; Mercer has a model of the Wrights' plane on display on his desk.
24	* InspirationForTheWork: [=MacFarlane=] made the show primarily due to his dismay at the DarkerAndEdgier direction the sci-fi genre had taken, as an attempt to bring back a sense of optimism to it. It's worth repeating that ''The Orville'' was not created as an intentional counterpoint to ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery''; a year-long delay in ''Discovery's'' release resulted in the two shows going head to head.
25	* LoopingLines: Mark Jackson plays Isaac in the same way all the other actors play their characters - that's him in the full-body costume (he describes himself as a "puppeteer" and it ''is'' similar to [[Series/SesameStreet Big Bird]] and other full-body Muppets) and he speaks all of his dialogue on-set (how his voice naturally sounds captured by live mics can be heard on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVSYfg7We3Q the series gag reel]]). However, because the costume muffles his voice, he is forced to re-record all of his dialogue in ADR.
26	* PosthumousCredit:
27	** Creator/NormMacDonald passed away prior to Season 3's release, making this show one of the last works released after his death.
28	** Creator/LisaBanes, who played Speria Balask in Season 3, was killed in a traffic accident prior to her episodes being released.
29	* ProductionPosse: The show's production cast and crew are a marriage of production posses: an increasing number of ''Franchise/StarTrek'' alumni as well as actors, writers, and producers from Seth [=MacFarlane=]'s other projects.
30	** Behind the scenes, Creator/BrannonBraga is an executive producer, Andre Bormanis (who served as a science consultant and story editor from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' all the way to ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'') is a supervising producer, and [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Robert Duncan McNeill]], David A. Goodman, James Conway and Creator/JonathanFrakes are involved as well.
31	** Seth [=MacFarlane=] had previously gotten the chance with the crew from ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' through a guest role as an engineer aboard the ''Columbia''.
32	** Penny Johnson Jerald previously had a major recurring role on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' (as Kasidy Yates, Captain Sisko's love interest and eventual wife) and is a part of the main cast as Doctor Claire Finn.
33	** Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, a producer and writer on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', is also a producer and writer on ''The Orville''.
34	** Scott Grimes and Seth [=MacFarlane=] work together on ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''.
35	** Creator/RachaelMacFarlane, Seth's younger sister, provides the voice of The Orville's computer. She has a history of doing voice-acting for some of Seth's previous shows, most prominently as Hayley Smith from ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''.
36	** Two of Seth's ''Film/AMillionWaysToDieInTheWest'' costars, Creator/LiamNeeson and Creator/CharlizeTheron, have made appearances.
37	** Several actors with ''Star Trek'' credentials made appearances. Season 1 included Robert Picardo (''Series/StarTrekVoyager'') and Steven Culp (''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''). Likewise, Season 2 has one-episode guest appearances by John Billingsley (''Star Trek: Enterprise''), Tim Russ (''Series/StarTrekVoyager''), and Marina Sirtis (''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'').
38	** Mike Henry (Cleveland Brown and a few other notable ''Family Guy'' characters) plays Dann, a recurring engineer.
39	* RealLifeRelative: Much of the cast are made up of Seth [=MacFarlane=]'s personal friends:
40	** He has been friends with Creator/ScottGrimes for over 20 years, although of course the two have since worked together in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' and then ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. [=MacFarlane=] had to fight for Grimes to be cast as Malloy, a role he wrote specifically for him, who wasn't cast until the two submitted an informal screen test to network executives.
41	** [=MacFarlane=] has also been friends with Creator/AdriannePalicki for over 10 years, the two having met at an ''Entertainment Weekly'' party and then campaigned for UsefulNotes/BarackObama together. Again, Palicki was his first choice for Grayson, and given her ample and recent experience in the genre and on network television, she was presumably a much easier sell to network executives.
42	** Although he technically met J. Lee when he started working as an intern at Fuzzy Door Productions, the two became fast friends (they, along with Grimes and Palicki, are all part of the same social circle). Lee being even more obscure than Grimes (a veteran TV actor since childhood), [=MacFarlane=] couldn't even offer him the part informally, persuading Lee to go through the formal audition process before he was cast.
43	** [=MacFarlane=] likes to cast his girlfriends as regulars on the show: Creator/HalstonSage was part of the original cast (and then left the show after they broke up), and then Anne Winters joined the show in season 3. Even Jessica Szohr, who replaced Sage, was an ex-girlfriend of [=MacFarlane=]'s who joined the cast in season 2.
44	** Seth's sister Rachael voices the Orville's computer.
45	* RecycledSet:
46	** Ed and Kelly's offices are the same set with the furniture rearranged.
47	** In season 3, the same set is used to depict different Moclan bases, one a classified torture site and the other a publically known science outpost. The former uses red lighting, the latter blue lighting.
48	* RomanceOnTheSet:
49	** Creator/SethMacFarlane and Creator/HalstonSage were in a relationship during the first season, after their breakup she left the show and was replaced by Jessica Szohr, who had been in a relationship with Seth years before.
50	** For Season three the role of new main character Ensign Burke is filled by Anne Winters, who [=MacFarlane=] started dating in 2019.
51	** Scott Grimes and Adrianne Palicki were revealed to be dating when the cast appeared at [=ComiCon=], and eventually got married but then separated just months into the marriage.
52	* ScheduleSlip: Due to the scale of Creator/SethMacFarlane's ambitions for this show, the series hasn't been able to stick to a regular yearly release schedule. This contributed to ''Series/TheOrville'''s ChannelHop to Creator/{{Hulu}}, as an online streamer simply has to release episodes rather than find space in a broadcast schedule. There was an 18-month gap between Seasons 1 and 2 and a whopping ''three-year'' gap between Seasons 2 and 3 because COVID-19 caused a production stoppage followed by the release date being pushed back a further three months.[[note]]For perspective, during that time, the ''Star Trek'' franchise saw third and fourth seasons of ''Discovery'', the first season of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' and the start of a second, the start of ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'', the first two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' and the first season of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekProdigy''.[[/note]]
53	* ScullyBox: Creator/SethMacFarlane is one inch shorter than StatuesqueStunner Adrianne Palicki but he's an inch taller due to his boots in the show.
54	* SpoiledByTheCastList: Purposely [[AvertedTrope averted]] for the appearances of Music/DollyParton and Creator/HalstonSage in their respective episodes of "Midnight Blue" and "Future Unknown," with them both receiving SpecialGuest Star credits at the beginning of the closing credits.
55	* TechnologyMarchesOn: Since the communicator from ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' predicted/inspired the cell phone, it appears that the commscanner every crewmember has is an {{Expy}} of the smartphone by combining the functions of a communicator and a tricorder/scanner.
56	* TroubledProduction: Getting Season 3 finished proved to be much tougher than anticipated due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. First, the show was hit with a months-long forced shutdown in the middle of filming. When production resumed, precautions needed to be taken to make sure no one got infected. However, this made the make-up process more arduous for cast members playing aliens. Also, new pandemic-related rules meant that only 30 actors could shoot a scene at once, which put a spanner in Creator/SethMacFarlane's hope to have scenes featuring more than one hundred people. Undaunted, he decided to achieve those shots using visual effects, which added to the workload of the effects houses already going full bore to complete complex sequences. The decision was also made to shoot every remaining episode simultaneously, which was draining for the cast and crew. Luckily, everyone involved was hellbent on making things work and banded together to complete production.
57	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: According to Midnight's Edge, Seth [=MacFarlane=] pitched a new ''Franchise/StarTrek'' series to CBS in 2014, which would have been a sequel to the TNG era. But it was obviously rejected. It's likely at least some elements of this pitch made it into ''The Orville''.
58	* WordOfGod:
59	** According to Supervising Producer Andre Bormanis (also a long-time ''Star Trek'' science advisor), the fuzzy material that covers the ''Orville'''s bulkheads is organic matter that absorbs the carbon dioxide exhaled by the crew and releases oxygen back into the ship.
60	** Seth [=MacFarlane=] says that Bortus is actually speaking English, rather than speaking his native tongue while using a translator, and his stilted demeanor comes from not being fully comfortable communicating in his second language.
61	* YouLookFamiliar: Creator/MichaelaMcManus played the Krill Teleya in Season 1 and returned, sans alien makeup, to play the human Lieutenant Tyler in Season 2. [[spoiler:Oddly enough, there's a reason for this: Tyler ''is'' Teleya under extensive surgical alteration, as revealed in "Nothing Left on Earth Excepting Fishes".]]

Context Trivia / TheOrville