Trivia / Parenthood

The film

• Acting for Two: In the opening scene Gil Buckman is reminiscing as his younger self at the ballpark In the background a peanut seller can be heard yelling out "Hot peanuts!". It's the voice of Steve Martin.
• California Doubling: In the 1989 film, Florida (mostly Orlando) doubled for Missouri (mostly St. Louis).
• Dawson Casting: Steve Martin was thought of by some as miscast due to being 44 and playing a 35 year old when his age obviously showed.
• Friendship on the Set: Keanu Reeves became best friends with River Phoenix onset, as his younger brother Joaquin Phoenix and then-girlfriend Martha Plimpton are in the film.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Steve Martin plays the father of several children. In reality, he did not become a parent until he was 67 years old, in 2012.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: Martha Plimpton was bald at the beginning of filming, because she had just finished Silence Like Glass, in which she played a cancer patient. She wore a wig throughout filming, and a hairpiece, when Julie has a mohawk.
• Technology Marches On: Some of the events in the film just wouldn't take place today. Helen wouldn't discover Julie's nude photos because of a mix-up at the developers; she'd be more likely to stumble across them on her cell phone. And parents no longer have to go to the trouble of unravelling video cassettes, as we see Gil and Karen doing at one point.
• Typecasting: This isn't the first or last time that Jason Robards plays a man who was a neglectful father in his younger years and expresses regret for it and tries to make up for it late in life.
• Wag the Director: As originally written, Karen would smoke a joint every night. Mary Steenburgen argued that this was out of character for a woman strong enough to confront her family's problems head on. The filmmakers agreed, and changed the script.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Tim Allen, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Billy Crystal, Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton, Bill Murray, Tom Selleck and Robin Williams were considered for Gil Buckman.
  • Jeff Goldblum turned down both roles of Gil Buckman and Larry Buckman.
• Write What You Know: This movie is based on Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Lowell Ganz, and Babaloo Mandel's experiences as parents. According to Howard, the scene where Helen discovers the nude pictures was actually an incident that happened to Grazer.

The series

• Cast Incest: Lauren Graham and Peter Krause, who play siblings Sarah and Adam, are currently dating.
• The Danza: Max Burkholder as Max Braverman.
• Dawson Casting: Avoided with most of the teen characters, but Max is 12 playing 8 at the start of the series and Mae Whitman is 21 playing a 15-year-old.
  • It gets particularly Egregious with Max when the actor's voice gets deeper and the character is suppose to be in 5th grade.
• What Could Have Been: Maura Tierney was originally cast as Sarah, but she developed breast cancer during production of the first season, which led to the role being recast with Lauren Graham and the series premiere being pushed back from September 2009 to March 2010.

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