Trivia / One Day at a Time (2017)

• Actor Allusion:
  • A whole bunch for Rita Moreno:
    • Lydia's costume for Alex's movie looks straight out of West Side Story. Later, she says "I like to be in America."
    • Lydia's handkerchief analogy for virginity is similar to the flower one from Jane the Virgin, where Justina Machado and Rita Moreno both have recurring roles.
    • She says her Catchphrase from The Electric Company (1971), "HEY YOU GUYS!"
  • Joe Manganiello has a brief appearance in season three as Schneider's sponsor, where he mentions playing D&D. Manganiello is a long time D&D fan, even appearing in a few web video games such as Critical Role.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Much like the immigration office worker that interviewed Schneider, Mindy Sterling is from New Jersey.
  • Tony Plana, who plays Lydia's late husband Berto, fled Cuba with his family after Fidel Castro took power, just like Berto.
  • Todd Grinnell gave an interview where he explained that he was an alcoholic much like Schneider and helped come up with a large part of the arc for Schneider's recovery and eventual relapse.
• Casting Gag:
  • Ivonne Coll has a guest appearance as Lydia's romantic rival, while she and Rita Moreno are the grandmothers of the title character in Jane the Virgin.
  • Thanks to their roles as Latina cops on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Stephanie Beatriz and Melissa Fumero guest star in season 3 as members of the Alvarez extended family.
  • Mackenzie Phillips (who played the "older sister" Elena equivalent in the original series) as Pam, Penelope's group lead.
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda guest stars in the animated special as a conservative relative, and at one point dresses exactly like Alexander Hamilton in a fantasy sequence.
• The Cast Showoff:
  • The show takes several opportunities to show that Rita Moreno can still dance in her 80's. The audience is very appreciative.
  • In the Season 3 premiere, Moreno and a guest-starring Gloria Estefan sing "Ave Maria" as a duet.
• Channel Hop: After being cancelled by Netflix, the show was picked up by Pop TV (a cable channel run by CBS, the home of the original One Day series; in it's distant past, it was previously the scrolling cable listings channel known as the Prevue Channel) for a fourth season, making it the first series to begin on a streaming service and migrate to a broadcast or - in this case - cable network.
  • It also counts as Loophole Abuse — typically, Netflix's contracts forbid shows moving to another streaming service if Netflix cans them. So instead, Sony struck a deal with CBS to move it to Pop TV, a traditional, linear cable network.
• Directed by Cast Member: "She Drives Me Crazy" from season three was directed by Todd Grinnell, who plays Schneider.
• Evolving Title Screen: From seasons 1 to 3, the intro was a longer, Through-the-Years Credits montage featuring various moments of the Alvarez family from Lydia being in Cuba to Lupe being in the Army to Alex playing magic tricks to showing the family at home with Schneider, with credits being displayed at the same time. For season 4, there was a much shorter new intro with the main characters in the logo and Leslie promoted to opening titles, with credits being pushed back to the first scenes of each episode.
• Fake Nationality:
  • Despite playing a Cuban-American family, Isabella Gomez is Colombian, and Justina Machado, Marcel Ruiz, and Rita Moreno are Puerto Rican. Machado has talked about the weird feelings she had getting to work with one of her country's most famous actresses, but while both were playing another nationality.
  • Todd Grinnell is American, not Canadian.
  • Stephanie Beatriz, who guest-starred as Pilar, a relative of the Alvarezes, is Colombian/Bolivian.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Quite a few jokes are made about Elena's lack of Spanish fluency, when the Colombian-born Isabella Gomez is fully bilingual, and actually knows more Spanish than Justina Machado.
• Life Imitates Art: After Elena mentioned the ComicCon "Supergirl (2015) Supergay Meet-up", a piece of fan art◊ depicting Alex Danvers holding a Pride flag with Elena became popular. It may not be ComicCon, but at the similarly-named ClexaCon, Isabella Gómez and Chyler Leigh made it happen◊. It's LIA example for both the fan-art and for Elena wanting to meet Chyler on the show.
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: Justina Machado, Rita Moreno and Isabella Gomez voiced themselves in Season 1 of the Latin American Spanish dub.
• Playing Against Type: Ivonne Coll, best known as the perpetually kind and wise Alba on Jane the Virgin, has a guest appearance as a catty rival to Lydia.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: Elena's gay relative Pilar is played by Stephanie Beatriz, who had recently come out as bisexual at the time of her guest spot.
• Real-Life Relative: Todd Grinnell's wife India de Beaufort plays Schneider's love interest in Seasons 3 and 4.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Lydia came to America during Operation Pedro Pan, like creator Gloria Calderon Kellett's parents.
  • Elena is annoyed at passing as white, and though Penelope does say that not experiencing discrimination isn't a bad thing, there are some genuine reasons to be annoyed at this — the Caxcan-native Mexican actor Froy Gutierrez is vocal about not erasing people of color, and in this show he plays Josh who could easily just be a white kid from Elena's school, but specifically has the last name Flores to establish Hispanic heritage.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Alan Ruck, who plays Schneider's father, does indeed have a very similar facial structure to Todd Grinnell.
• What Could Have Been: The show was sadly one of the many entertainment casualties of the COVID-19 Pandemic shut down, so they were cancelled midway through their fourth season. A few months afterwards, Gloria Calderon Kellet revealed the fully scripted storylines that never got to be filmed, including:
  • Lydia having a crisis of faith when her Catholic priest says that Elena’s marriage to another woman will never be blessed by the church.
  • The family taking a road trip to Yale for Elena’s college interview in Schneider’s RV that he intentionally modeled after their living room. Valerie Bertanelli from the original ODAAT would have guest starred as a Yale admissions recruiter.
  • Elena facing a decision between Yale and staying closer to home at UCLA, ultimately picking the latter.
  • Schneider and Avery having their baby in the finale, a little girl they name Penny in honor of Penelope.

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