Trivia / Halt and Catch Fire

• Acclaimed Flop: The show performed strongly with critics, but a niche subject matter crossed with Too Bleak, Stopped Caring quickly sank the ratings lower than previous one-and-done AMC shows Rubicon and Low Winter Sun. However, unlike those two shows, Halt and Catch Fire received three additional seasons.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Both Scoot McNairy and Kerry Bishé were portrayed as husband and wife in the 2012 film Argo, a period piece set during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.
  • In "10Broad36," some of Cameron's guys were trying to unscramble a cable signal. It didn't work out, but they say they could see "half a boob" while watching Cat People. Annette O'Toole appears in this episode as Donna's mother, and also starred in Cat People (topless, to boot).
  • In "Tonya and Nancy", Cameron asks Bosworth if he came from a line of trailer folk. He replies she's not far off.
• Blooper: In the scene where Gordon and Joe decompile the IBM PC BIOS, Gordon demonstrates how his LED breadboard works; however, he states that the hex digit "B" is represented as "two on, one off, one on"^note 1101 in binary; "B" in binary is 1011, or "one on, one off, two on", which is actually the hex digit "D". He then correctly states that the hex digit "E" is "three on, one off".^note 1110 in binary
• California Doubling:
  • While the first two seasons were set in the Silicon Prairie of the DFW Metroplex, the show is filmed in Atlanta, Georgia. In particular, Atlanta's tallest skyscraper, the Bank of America Plaza, doubled as the headquarters for Westgroup Energy.
  • In Season 3, the setting moves to Silicon Valley. Most of the filming remained in Georgia; however, scenes with Joe at the Golden Gate Bridge were shot on location.
• Dye Hard: Originally a blonde in the first two season and half of Season 3, by the end of Season 3, Cameron is a brunette with long hair.
• Fake American: Canadian Mackenzie Davis plays Texas native Cameron Howe, which is especially obvious in her accent when she is upset.
• Friday Night Death Slot: The fourth and final season aired on Saturday nights, though it was already announced that it would be the last.
• He Also Did: Manish Dayal, who plays Ryan Ray in Season 3, also appeared as a voice actor in Grand Theft Auto IV as Mohammed, an employee of Roman Bellic's cab company who often throws insults towards Niko whenever he requests free cab rides.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Mackenzie Davis plays coding prodigy Cameron Howe. In real life, Davis revealed that she isn't good at typing. This is unfortunately rather evident in a number of scenes, where the programming virtuoso is seen awkwardly pecking at the keyboard.
• Out of Holiday Episode: A season 3 episode takes place during the 4th of July weekend, however the episode aired three months later in October.
• Playing Against Type: In a Q&A with Toby Huss, he states that the most rewarding part of his role as Bosworth was "[not] playing a dipshit".
• Real-Life Relative:
  • In the pilot Haley and Joanie Clark are played by sisters Lillian Ellen and Maggie Elizabeth Jones.
  • In season 4's "Who Needs A Guy?" Alana Cavanaugh's actual sister Farah plays the younger version of Haley as Alana outgrew the role.
• Time-Shifted Actor: Due to the Time Skip at the end of Season 3, Haley and Joanie Clark each had three different actresses. In the pilot, real-life sisters Lillian Ellen and Maggie Elizabeth Jones portray Haley And Joanie, Alana Cavanaugh and Morgan Hinkleman portrayed Haley and Joanie as children respectively in the first 27 episodes while Susanna Skaggs and Kathryn Newton take up the roles as teenagers in the final 12 episodes of the series.
• What Could Have Been:
  • One of the producers revealed that instead of Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill", the last scene with Joe was originally going to use Phil Collin's "Take Me Home" for the show's final song.
  • The show was planned to be filmed in North Texas, averting California Doubling at least for the first two seasons; however, AMC already had a presence in filming in Georgia for The Walking Dead, and Georgia has more liberal tax breaks for film and TV production than Texas.
  • Brie Larson auditioned, and got down to the final two, for an unspecified regular character.