Acting for Two: Will Arnett voices both BoJack and his father Butterscotch. Taken to an extreme in "Free Churro", when BoJack and Butterscotch are the only two characters to speak during the whole episode.
Actor Existence Limbo: The underwater setting and the No-Dialogue Episode nature of "Fish Out of Water" allowed for the brief return of Abe, though Garry Marshall could not return to voice him (he passed away just before Season 3 came out).
Actor-Inspired Element: Jessica Biel was dissatisfied with the initial script for the episode where she plays Mr. Peanutbutter's second wife, feeling that she wasn't mean enough. She was the one who suggested turning her character into an outright bitch and, later, a total psychopath in season 4.
"I Will Always Think Of You," the 1940s-style duet sung by Honey and Crackerjack Sugarman, and later, Honey Sugarman and Eddie the dragonfly in the season 4 episode "The Old Sugarman Place," is sung by their respective voice actors, Jane Krakowski, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Colman Domingo.
"Don't Stop Dancing Til The Curtains Fall," Gina Cazador's musical number in the season 5 episode "The Show Stopper," was sung by her voice actress, Stephanie Beatriz.
Both Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Alison Brie expressed their regret of having Diane Nguyen voiced by a non-Vietnamese woman, with Brie apologising for taking the role.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg admitted that part of the reason that led him to making Todd asexual was based on the stereotype that asexual people are too innocent or childlike for sex; a stereotype he now understands is harmful.
Well, to a certain degree. Shortly after BoJack Horseman premiered on Netflix, another show popped up - Horsin' Around. Or at least, the full intro to the show. The reviews are full of people claiming to have watched the show all the time back in The '90s, and it being a big part of their childhoods.
Denied Parody: The Stylistic Suck prestige drama Philbert was described by most reviewers as a parody of True Detective, particularly when we see the show's opening (which begins with the line 'Well, I went down to the girly club with a hot glue gun full of beans'), but the creator said that it was meant to be a parody of overly-serious, pretentious drama in general, and that seeing it as only about True Detective would be to let a lot of other shows off the hook.
Well, unless I’m misreading it, Philbert seemed like a pointed send-up of True Detective, especially when you have a line like, “Time is like a woman: completely impossible to comprehend.”
Yes. [Laughs.] Certainly True Detective was one of the things on our mind as we were working on the season. But I would say that reading is very generous to a lot of other shows that I would put in that same category. True Detective maybe announces itself the most and is the most flagrantly that, but there are a lot of shows that are invested in the trials of difficult men and the women who get in their way and/or sleep with them.
Directed by Cast Member: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Fabiola Stevenson was the ADR Director as well as the voice of Diane Nguyen, Vanessa Gekko and Ana Spanakopita.
Executive Meddling: The crew was told that "Say Anything" didn't have enough BoJack, when the whole point is that it's a switch to Princess Carolyn's viewpoint. They responded with the BoJack cut-out that spouts random lines from Jerry Maguire.
A central struggle for Princess Carolyn is her inability to have a baby and her advanced age making it difficult for her to marry and start a family. Her actress, Amy Sedaris, has said in interviews that she has never wanted to marry or have children.
Gina Cazador is shown to be a weak singer (during her audition for Flip), while Stephanie Beatriz isn't (as shown in Bojack's drug trip in "The Showstopper").
Keith Olbermann plays Tom Jumbo-Grumbo, a Professional Butt-Kisser news anchor who always takes the side of the biggest/strongest/likely winner in any argument. This is the complete opposite of Olbermann himself, a Knight in Sour Armor notorious for never being afraid to speak his mind as a news anchor and political pundit as well as advocating for the marginalized, exploited, working poor, and anyone else who has been a victim of prejudice, big business, and the worst parts of government.
Rachel Bloom, known for her comically raunchy music videos and playing the quirky, dysfunctional lead of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, plays Lora, a perfectly normal, competent secretary.
Rami Malek, who is best known for portraying beautiful well-meaning and kind characters portrays the sexist/misogynist Jerkass Flip McVicker.
Deidrich Bader is usually notable for his playing aggressive, Large Ham types. His character, Judah, is both extremely passive and has a quiet, no-nonsense demeanor.
Business negotiator, Mary-Beth, who was introduced in season 5 to settle a dispute between Princess Carolyn and Todd is a lesbian. She's also voiced by Wanda Sykes, a lesbian.
Yolanda, a woman Todd dated, is asexual and is voiced by the queer actress Natalie Morales.
The asexual Maude introduced in season 6 is voiced by the asexual Echo Gillette.
Taneisha, a lesbian getting married to her fiance, is voiced by the bisexual actress Tessa Thompson.
At the end of season 3, Diane tells BoJack that watching the happy family on Horsin' Around so easily resolve their problems was a favorite way of her's to escape her abusive family. Indeed, Full House, the show Horsin' Around is obviously spoofing, is very popular among children who came from abusive or otherwise difficult upbringings.
Will Arnett voices BoJack through all stages of his life in flashbacks, including an awkwardly high-pitched voice as a child. This is averted in the Japanese dub, where young BoJack is dubbed with a child's voice.
In "The Old Sugarman Place" and "Time's Arrow," Wendie Malick voices Beatrice Horseman through all stages of her life, from an eight-year-old to a young adult to an elderly woman.
Trolling Creator: Amy Sedaris was the first to voice complaints about the Running Gag involving tongue-twisters. The writers responded to this by... giving most of the tongue-twister lines to Princess Carolyn.
Unspecified Role Credit: The cast is listed by name, but not associated with the character(s) they play. Some of the cast are celebrities (e.g. Will Arnett, Alison Brie, Paul F. Tompkins) with distinct enough voices.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg's initial pitch to Lisa Hanawalt featured a slightly different main cast: Princess Carolyn was going to be two characters, BoJack's dog-person agent and BoJack human ex-girlfriend, respectively, while Diane was a development executive rather than a writer. Meanwhile, Mr. Peanutbutter was a horse-person and named Mr. Honeybucket and Todd was named Topher.
Sarah Lynn was originally supposed to die as early as Season 1.
Near the end of "That's Too Much, Man!", Lady Gaga was originally going to be hosting the Oscars instead of Wiz Khalifa. Had she not been removed from the final cut, it's unknown if Lady Gaga would've actually starred as herself.
BoJack's absence at the start of Season 4 was going to be longer.
The staff of the show believed they were going to get at a full Season 7 order after finishing Season 6, but instead the show was cancelled with an additional 4 episodes given to finish. As Season 6 was already in the can, the intended final season had to be heavily compressed compared to a usual 12 episode season.
There were originally plans for Barry Jenkins to guest star in an episode.
Paul McCartney's cameo at the end of "After the Party" was originally planned to be Michael Bublé, but Buble declined. Kevin Bigley was going to impersonate Buble instead, but they seized the opportunity to get McCartney.
One plan for Season 6 was the history of horses in America, but it was scrapped in favor of keeping the mythology vague.
There were some more clear-cut ideas for Butterscotch's book before BoJack was confirmed to have never read it in full. One idea was a sci-fi story about animals being slaves to humans who walked on all fours.
The assistants' strike subplot was originally pitched as a Newsies parody with a big musical number. This was scrapped partly to avoid spending too much time on new, minor characters.
The show's creators have said there are no hybrids. A child of two different animals will be one or the other, not both.
When asked about the ending of "Escape From LA", Raphael Bob-Waksberg has all but stated that BoJack did, in fact, intend to sleep with Penny, and would not have come to his senses or changed his mind if Charlotte hadn't intervened. Though Bob-Waksberg has pointed out that this was not out of malice, and more because BoJack has the mentality of a teenager and, therefore, doesn't realize that what he's doing is wrong. However, which of them instigated it is deliberately left ambiguous until season 5, when it was revealed to have been Penny.
In response to the series' finale, Bob-Waksberg has refuted the fan theory that the last episode is a continuation of BoJack's Dying Dream; according to him, BoJack canonically survives his suicide attempt in "The View From Halfway Down".
Todd crashing on BoJack's couch came from Raphael Bob-Waksberg living out of his friend's spare closet in Hollywood Hills when he first moved to Los Angeles.
Writer Kate Purdy used her experience with her great-aunt's dementia to write Beatrice's dementia in season four. At one point her great-aunt asked where her "baby" was, and her heartbroken sister (Purdy's grandmother) got her a baby doll to pacify her, which inspired Beatrice asking for her "baby" and being given a baby doll that she treats like her own baby.
Joanna Calo was struggling to become pregnant while she was writing "Ruthie," and cites some of the feelings she was having during that time as an influence on the story.
, with the Chinese distributor stating "Adjustments need to be made to the content".