Keep Circulating the Tapes: In spite of the book series' evergreen status, the television series is notoriously difficult to come across. Fudge-a-Mania and a few random episodes were released on VHS back in the 90s, but that's it. You can find some episodes if you dig around online, but nothing close to the complete series.
The Other Darrin: In the Fudge-a-Mania movie, Grandma Muriel is portrayed by Florence Henderson. In the TV series, she is instead played by Nancy Jeris.
In "The Fat Guy Strangler", when Peter goes missing, Lois asks Brian how they're going to find him before Patrick does and kills him. Brian assures him that he's good at finding people, as he found President George W. Bush after Hurricane Katrina hit. What follows is a cutaway where Brian finds Bush hiding in a treehouse in Crawford, Texas. When Brian tries to alert Bush of the disaster in New Orleans, Bush tells him to go away, as he's reading Superfudge.
One episode is titled "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing", a reference to the first book in the series, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, whose protagonist is likewise named Peter. In this epsiode, Peter needs to repeat the third grade in order to earn a promotion at work.
A series of books based on The Muppets is titled "Tales of a Sixth Grade Muppet", a reference to the first book in the series, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.
Schedule Slip: Blume wanted to do a sequel to Fourth Grade Nothing right away, but had tremendous trouble coming up with what it could be about, until - as she describes it - the entire story of Superfudge suddenly popped into her head while she was in the shower.
In the first book, elevator buttons are presented as new technology. The newer editions still include it.
In the final chapter of the first book, Peter is forced to wait around at the hospital with nothing to do. In a more contemporary time, Peter probably would've had a smart phone that he could use to keep himself occupied.
In Superfudge, Peter mentions that he is unable to contact Jimmy while he is in Vermont, due to them not having access to a phone. While it's possible that Jimmy was somewhere without a landline, nowadays it'd be strange for him to not have access to either a cell phone or the internet.
One of Peter's Christmas gifts in Superfudge was originally a calculator (which he had requested from Santa) from his grandmother. This would have been a pretty big deal in 1980, but would seem really weird to any kid after 1990 or so. It's later changed to a check in revised editions. He also jokes around, asking for a stereo for his room and six albums in the original version, which is replaced with a laptop, an MP3 player and six CDs in the reprints.
Write What You Know: Fudge swallowing Dribble in Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing is based on a real experience that one of Judy Blume's friends recounted.
