Zed is pretty much a giant allusion to Christian Potenza's role as Jude Lizowski. Heck, one of his fellow Skaters even closely resembles Potenza's other iconic character, Chris McLean.
Adored by the Network: During its time on Teletoon, Detentionaire enjoyed the spotlight as one of the channel's flagship shows of the early 2010s, consistently garnering some of the highest ratings for the channel since Total Drama Island. It was heavily hyped up by the network with a sneak peek several months before its official debut and became a mainstay of the Can't Miss Thursdays block alongside their main heavy-hitters Total Drama and Johnny Test (and popular Cartoon Network imports like Adventure Time), giving the show good airtimes, quite a bit of promotion, and a lot of bonus online content (including exclusive clips, promotional trailers, and demos of games related to the show on the Teletoon website). The only reason why the series was cancelled prematurely was because of its poor performance in the US market (see Screwed by the Network below), but even then, Corus Entertainment-owned kids' channels like the Canadian versions of Cartoon Network and Disney XD still air it in reruns pretty regularly, with the show even returning to Teletoon for the summer of 2021 to celebrate Nelvana's 50th anniversary and (in Corus' words) "the best of Canadian children's media". It's suffice to say that somebody at Corus must really like the show.
Banned in China: In the US, Cartoon Network has opted to leave out six episodes from their release of the first two seasons on their streaming service, most likely due to their subject matter.
Colbert Bump: Got one in 2019, following Cosmodore's review of the series.
Invisible Advertising: Thanks to being shafted to Cartoon Network's online app, this was its fate in the United States, which unfortunately ended up killing the show in Canada (as Teletoon had decided they would order more seasons based on how well it did in the US market).
No Budget: Impressively, the show was made with a budget of about 300 thousand dollars per episode (which is about 4 million per season); for comparison, American cartoons typically cost about 1 million dollars per episode. While Canadian TV shows (both animated and live-action) on the whole are cheaper than American TV shows for various reasons, the fact that Detentionaire achieved so much acclaim from viewers while only costing a relatively modest amount of money for a cartoon certainly stands out.
No Export for You: The series suffered from a lack of distribution due to many international networks being turned off by its heavy serialization, which played a major role in its premature cancellation. In the United States in particular, the third and fourth seasons never made it there, thanks to the show getting colossally Screwed by the Network.
Playing Against Type: While Irwin Dexter shares the cocky attitude seen in many of Lyon Smith's characters, Lyon's roles are generally not known for being nerdy, booksmart types.
Screwed by the Network: While Teletoon was kind to Detentionaire, the show had a much more unfortunate fate in the United States. When Cartoon Network got the series' American broadcasting rights, they only released the first two seasons on their streaming service completely out of order, with episodes being censored or outright removed. This led to low viewership in the US and, ultimately, its cancellation.
Short Run in Peru: The first 27 episodes aired from May to September, 2012. This means the second season was aired in other countries before Canada got it. The third and fourth seasons were also aired in Australia before Canada aired them.
Throw It In!: In an interview with the podcast Movie Madness, Charles Johnston revealed several plot developments to have started off this way, among them, Brandy and Camilio becoming a couple, Jenny joining the main circle of characters, and the reveal that all the teachers were clones of historical figures (the resemblance was originally conceived as a joke, but they ended up deciding to take the idea more seriously).
The show's creators drew a lot upon their experiences in high school for the series, particularly in depicting the school's racially and physically diverse body of students, dealing with school rules and restrictions, and defying stereotypes (especially regarding cliques). Similarly, the city that the show is set in (unofficially named Ottington by Charles Johnston in a Twitter post) is heavily inspired by Toronto, especially in regards to the series' depiction of an urban high school.
Holger was named after a classmate of Charles Johnston from his days as an exchange student at a boarding school in Singapore.
Lee's habit of sneaking out of detention was inspired by Johnston's own adventures sneaking out of boarding school.
Biffy was based on an old co-worker of Charles Johnston who, like the character, was larger, muscular, and considered extremely intimidating by everyone else, but nonetheless managed to befriend Johnston.
Lee's relationship with his mother drew heavily upon Daniel Bryan Franklin's relationship with his own mother.
Lee and The Serpent were inspired by a childhood friend of Johnston who was the second-born child but named after his late brother (who died as a child) as a tribute, as well as Johnston himself discovering later in his life that he had a brother raised separately from him.
Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Series co-creator Charles Johnston admitted that the show was written in this manner to a degree. For instance, when the pilot was originally produced, he actually had no ideas regarding the identity of the real prankster, and the crew only decided on Lynch and VP Victoria being the culprits later on as they went back to previous episodes and made decisions based on what they had established.
, Charles Johnston revealed several plot developments to have started off this way, among them, Brandy and Camilio becoming a couple, Jenny joining the main circle of characters, and the reveal that all the teachers were clones of historical figures (the resemblance was originally conceived as a joke, but they ended up deciding to take the idea more seriously).