Trivia / iZombie

• Actor Allusion:
  • In "Dead Air," Lowell refers to Liv's look as "ethereal Tinker Bell." Rose McIver was Tinker Bell on Once Upon a Time.
  • Lowell dyes his hair because he says he would "look freaky as a blond." Bradley James's most famous role is the blond King Arthur in Merlin.
  • Ryan Hansen of Party Down guest stars in "Flight of the Living Dead". In the same episode, a kid at the skate park references the iconic Catchphrase from the series: "are we having fun yet?"
  • Similar to the one above, Vaughn Du Clark's actor Steven Weber was a guest star on Party Down and also uses the Catchphrase "are we having fun yet?" in "Salivation Army".
  • Blaine says that he's not a doctor. He once was. And briefly returned to that role, which required an explanation of his blonde hair.
  • In Method Head, there's a mention of the Victim of the Week leaving the show he was on to be in the upcoming Power Rangers movie, which Liv scoffs at. Liv's actress, Rose McIver, was the Yellow Ranger in Power Rangers RPM.
  • Peyton (Alyson Michalka) is a lawyer. Aly Michalka's last show, Hellcats, had her studying to be one (and there was even a line in the Pilot where she expressed a wish to work in a DA's office somewhere up North).
  • Jason Dohring is playing a zombie. But this isn't his first time playing someone undead. Also not his first time in a uniform.
• Actor Leaves, Character Dies: Vivian Stoll dies when her helicopter is shot down after Andrea Savage's series "I'm Sorry" was picked up by TruTV.
• Actor-Shared Background: Clive mentions being from Brooklyn, just like Malcolm Goodwin.
• California Doubling: As usual, Vancouver stands in for Seattle. There isn't much effort made to hide it either:
  • "Flight of The Living Dead" features a scene of Liv riding a bike up and down the stairs at Vancouver's Oceanic Plaza; the sign identifying the location is clearly visible in multiple shots.
  • "Fifty Shades Of Grey Matter" has The Lions visible in the background◊ in the scene when Rose and Clive walk to the home of the murder victim.
  • Lampshaded by the show during "Method Head", where the Show Within a Show "Zombie High" is filmed in Seattle but is meant to be L.A. The justification? "Tax breaks"
• The Cast Showoff:
  • Rose McIver can sing and play the guitar. So they let her do exactly that in "Even Cowgirls Get the Black and Blues".
  • David Anders is singing and playing the piano several times in the series.
  • Averted, with former pop star/recording artist Alyson Michalka, who despite having had a successful singing career with her sister A.J. when Peyton is shown singing karaoke she is pitchy to downright flat, off-tempo and stale sounding. Then again Peyton was drunk at the time, so that could play into it.
• Casting Gag: David Anders would know a few things about people coming back from the dead.
• Creator Backlash: Rahul Kohli expressed disappointment with the show's ending.
  Michael Rosenbaum: (reading a listener question) "What does [Rahul] think about the ending of iZombie? I thought it seemed rushed and could have been done differently. Thoughts?"
  Rahul Kohli: Yeah, I thought it sucked.
  Rosenbaum: Did you?
  Kohli: Yeah, I did. I was super disappointed. I didn't like that...we jumped 10 years. You know, we just did a wrap-up exposition scene in a VR Room. It made no fucking sense.
  Rosenbaum: Were people just pissed?
  Kohli: I don't know, I never really cared enough to look how other people felt. I know that we were sitting there like, "Is this how it ends? Is this what we're doing?" But, you know, you still do your job.
• The Danza: Sort of. Isobel is played by Izabela Vidovic
• Deleted Scene: Deleted scenes in Season 2 include Evan approaching Liv and coming out to her as gay. She in turn reveals her zombie status and why she refused to donate blood to him when he was in the hospital, and Evan forgives Liv. The scenes were ultimately dropped and Liv's entire family was completely left out after the first episode in Season 2 until they return in mid-season 5. The way she reveals her status to Evan was reshot for her reveal to Clive at the end of Season 2.
• Directed by Cast Member: Malcolm Goodwin directed the Season 5 episode "The Scratchmaker".
• Fake American: Rose McIver (Liv) is from New Zealand. Not to mention numerous Canadians playing Americans, since the filming is in Vancouver.
• Playing Their Own Twin:
  • In "He Blinded Me... With Science," Ali Liebert plays burn victim Annie Rosine and her sister Jenny Rosine; Jenny murdered one of the scientists responsible for her sister's disfigurement, and pretended to be a facially-reconstructed Annie - the real Annie remains disfigured.
  • Scott E from season 1 (and later murder victim) just happened to have a twin brother, Don E.
  • Quinta Brunson plays Dr Collier and her twin sister, Laila.
• Production Posse:
  • Behind the scenes, John Enbom, Diane Ruggiero, Danielle Stokdyk, and Dan Etheridge have been frequent Rob Thomas collaborators since Veronica Mars.
  • Mark Piznarski, who directed the pilot of Veronica Mars, and after whom the character Stosh "Piz" Piznarski in that series was named, directed a Season 2 episode.
  • Josh Kramon scored both Veronica Mars and iZombie.
  • Percy Daggs, Daran Norris, Francis Capra and Chris Lowell were on Veronica Mars, as well as its online spin-off Play it Again Dick.
  • Steven Weber was on Party Down.
  • Both Rose McIver and Robert Buckley showed up on Play It Again Dick after having been cast on iZombie.
  • Jeffrey Vincent Parise had guest appearances in Cupid, Veronica Mars and Party Down.
  • Ryan Hansen was a regular castmember in Veronica Mars, Play it Again Dick and Party Down.
  • Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, and Jason Dohring were regulars in Veronica Mars, and showed up in Play it Again Dick and Party Down.
  • Ken Marino was a regular in Party Down, as well as a recurring actor in Veronica Mars.
  • Paul Rudd was in a Veronica Mars episode and co-created Party Down.
• Production Throwback:
  • In "Real Dead Housewife", Liv muses "a long time ago, we used to be friends", the theme song of Veronica Mars by Rob Thomas.
  • In "Love & Basketball", one suspect bets on Hearst College basketball games - the fictional alma mater of Veronica Mars, which featured in seasons 2 and 3 of her own show.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Actress Alyson Michalka was scheduled to shoot a pilot after Season One, which is why Peyton's situation was left vague, with her abruptly leaving town after learning about the zombie situation. Since the pilot wasn't picked up, she returned in Season Two.
• Real Song Theme Tune: "Stop, I'm Already Dead" by Deadboy & the Elephantmen.
• What Could Have Been: Word of God is that there were once plans to give Blaine a redemption arc, but they ultimately fell through.

---