Trivia / Tales of the City

• Executive Meddling: The publishers kept a close eye on the number of queer and straight characters to avoid Cast Full of Gay.
• Throw It In!: Mostly this, with a dash of Schrödinger's Gun and Ascended Fanon, in regards to Anna Madrigal. As the first novels were serialized and written shortly before publication in a newspaper, Armistead Maupin may have had an idea for what her mysterious past was, but once a fan wrote in pointing out the Significant Anagram in Anna's name (a man and a girl) and asking if it meant anything, Maupin admitted to "appropriating" the idea and going with it.
• Trans Character, Cis Actor: Trans woman Anna Madrigal is played by cis actress Olympia Dukakis. When a sequel series was produced for Netflix in 2019, Dukakis was allowed to reprise the role, despite increased awareness of how this practice affected trans actors; the producers also elected to cast a number of trans actors in roles as a way of compensating.