Trivia / For Better or for Worse

• Celebrity Voice Actor: Vanessa Lengies as Liz in the 2000s series.
• Children Voicing Children: Bryn McAuley as April in the 2000s series.
• Creator Backlash: Johnston has redrawn several strips because she hated the result years later.
• Creator Breakdown: The strip manages to subvert this, though arguably not for the better. Author Lynn Johnston started going through a mess of personal problems late in the comic's run. Her reaction to this, oddly enough, was to start writing material considerably less inflammatory and dramatic than what had made her famous. Her marriage falling apart apparently greatly increased her desire to see two characters finally getting married without all the usual hang-ups weddings in Tropeville are generally known for. Then we got the ReFOOB, which was mostly reprints of earlier strips, with art and dialogue changed to cast the alter ego of Lynn's ex-husband in a bad light, and making it look like (even moreso than the first-runs) Elly is living a bored, insufferable existence with an uncaring husband and bratty kids. This is especially distressing as it literally rewrites history with a joyless existence.
• Creator's Pest: By the end of the strip, Lynn regretted April Patterson, the youngest child of the family. She was created as a stand in for her considering having a third child. But after she changed her mind and April started getting too old for cute little kid shenanigans, April first became a Manchild to keep her as a toddler while aging her and then became The Unfavorite, expected to sacrifice and put aside her problems and life for her family without getting anything back.
• Cross-Regional Voice Acting: The 2000s series' voice cast was based primarily in Ottawa, with the exceptions of Bryn McAuley (April) and Terrence Scammell (John) who recorded their lines from Toronto and Montreal respectively.
• Dear Negative Reader: Lynn was absolutely unhappy that people didn’t like Anthony and made an entire essay on why he was actually a good guy.
• Executive Meddling: Lynn Johnston wanted to end the strip in 2008, however executives didn't want to give up her spot in the paper given how long it's been there, and they weren't willing to rerun it like they do Peanuts.
• International Coproduction: The 2000s series between Canadian-based companies Funbag Animation, Salter Street Studios and Mumbai's UTV Toons.
• Reality Subtext: The character of Lawrence was partly based on a gay friend of the author's, Michael Boncoeur, who was murdered by a bicycle thief. The attitude of the police at the time was to make the murderer into the victim solely because Boncoeur was gay, which may be why the strip differs from other family strips in its unwillingness to uncritically praise the police.
• Role Reprise: For the 2000s series, the only major voice actor returning from the specials was Terrence Scammell as John.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Elizabeth was initially going to be set up with Christopher Nichols, the son of Elly’s friend Anne. But then Lynn had the family Put on a Bus and created Anthony Caine instead.
  • One concept for the future of the strip was to have it undergo a Time Skip, with a teenage Meredith as the protagonist.
  • An early strip had a little Tomboy girl named Janice, who was planned to be one of Mike’s friends. Lynn liked her, but many readers objected to a "non-feminine" girl, and she was taken out. Lynn would later give her a full backstory and explain her disappearance (she was in a military family and they didn’t live in Milborough very long).
  • On her website, Lynn posted various storyline concepts that never happened:
    • One was an early one where Elly met a woman named Marta. They met at a "Housewives for Horticulture" event and she would’ve become a friendly rival.
    • Another was an expansion on an early story arc where Elly and Connie go to night school together. But Lynn didn’t like the direction it was headed with Elly getting a crush on her teacher, so it was quietly cut short.
    • Another early concept was Anne going to a weight loss group alongside Elly and Connie. Lynn wasn’t sure where to take this, or explain how they could afford it, so it was scrapped.
• Write What You Know: A number of the stories in this strip are almost certainly based off of Real Life experiences Lynn Johnson has. Averted with Elly and John's third child, April; Johnson had been debating having a third child, but was unsure if she wanted to go through it all again. Rod advised her to have Elly get pregnant instead, and she did so.

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