Trivia / Ted Lasso

• Acting for Two: Susanna Redhead plays both young Rebecca and the Dutchman's daughter.
• Acting in the Dark: Attempted. Billy Harris wasn't told by the creators that Colin is a closeted gay man until Season 2 finished filming because they felt Harris not knowing as he played the character would help convey just how well Colin is hiding his secret. However, Harris figured it out himself from Colin's offhand mention of Grindr in early Season 2.
• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • As Jason Sudeikis revealed on Late Night, Colin's love for Drake and ability to rap all his songs comes from Billy Harris' own.
  • All of Beard's soccer books were chosen by Brendan Hunt. All but one of them are real, with that fake one being made by the props department.
  • Roy's love of The Muppets, shown in the SAG Awards clip, is shared by Brett Goldstein.
  • Isaac's barber skills were inspired by Kola Bokinni's own experiences giving his friends and family haircuts while barbershops were shut down during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
  • According to Hannah Waddingham, Rebecca's singing ability wasn't added until after the creators saw her audition. Hannah being an Olivier-nominated West End musical theatre luminary, this was kind of inevitable.
  • That really is Nick Mohammed playing his own childhood violin in "International Break". What's even sweeter is his wife was the one playing the piano as a duet.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Nick Mohammed actually does live in Richmond upon Thames and was a regular at many of the show's locations long before he was cast as Nate.
  • All of the international players' cities listed in "Carol of the Bells" correspond to their actors' real hometowns, with the exception of Toheeb Jimoh.
  • Sam Richardson's (Edwin Akufo) mother is Ghanaian and would often visit Ghana with his family growing up. He was even Conan O'Brien's tour guide when he took Conan Without Borders to Ghana.
  • In Season 3, Jade is revealed to be Polish, as is her actress Edyta Budnik.
• Approval of God:
  • Dan Brown was very flattered by Roy Kent reading The Da Vinci Code.
  • Liverpool FC manager Jürgen Klopp, who has inspired several story beats of the show i.e. the karaoke night, is a huge fan of the show.
    Klopp: Ted Lasso mentioned me [...] that's better than getting the trophy for the best manager.
  • During a Reddit AMA, Gina Gershon jokingly referenced her fictional dating history with Roy Kent and claimed she'd love to date Ted Lasso himself.
  • Rick Astley was "blown away" by the way his Signature Song was used in "No Weddings And a Funeral". He particularly praised Hannah Waddingham's rendition.
  • Rapper and clock afficionado Flavor Flav really enjoyed getting namechecked by Ted in a speech about the meaning of time, citing he once had to wait 18 months for one of his favourite TV shows to come back.
  • Rock band Midlake was grateful to see Trent Crimm showing his support for them in Sunflowers, calling the shot of Trent's Midlake shirt "epic".
  • In season 3, Sam is told to "shut up and dribble" when he talks about politics, which was a clear reference to Lebron James being told the same thing when he spoke out against Donald Trump. James showed his appreciation by wearing an AFC Richmond hoodie to one of his games.
• Award Category Fraud: Even though Ted and Rebecca receive equal screentime and narrative focus, Hannah Waddingham was placed in the Best Supporting Actress category at the 2021 Emmys while Jason Sudeikis was placed in Best Lead Actor.
• Backed by the Pentagon: After seeing the critical and popular acclaim the show received, the Premier League gave blanket permission for its branding as well as that associated with teams and sponsors to be used.
• Billing Displacement:
  • During the first two seasons, the cast is billed with established actors Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, and Jeremy Swift getting the top three spots, followed by the other main cast members being listed in alphabetical order before Juno Temple's And Starring billing. As a result, despite playing the Tritagonist Roy Kent, Brett Goldstein is only billed fifth.
  • Toheeb Jimoh is still only listed as a recurring actor in Season 2 despite Sam's greatly expanded role.
  • Season 3's expanded billing to include Anthony Head (Rupert), Toheeb Jimoh (Sam), Cristo Fernández (Dani), Kola Bokinni (Isaac), Billy Harris (Colin), and James Lance (Trent) makes things even more complicated, as those six are billed in that order after Nick Mohammed and before Juno Temple. This results in several curiosities such as Head getting billed ahead of the others despite Rupert not appearing in every episode and Harris being the last of the actors playing the AFC Richmond players billed despite Colin having the most expanded role out of all of them.
• Breakthrough Hit: The show is widely accepted to be Apple TV+'s first real hit and a key draw for the service.
• …But I Play One on TV: During a Reddit AMA, Brendan Hunt preemptively told fans to not spread any of the hate given to Dr. Jacob to his actor Mike O'Gorman, who Hunt called the "menschiest of mensches" and was only the messenger for the character rather than an endorsement of it.
• The Cast Showoff:
  • Hannah Waddingham's award-nominated musical talents are written into Rebecca's character, and she shows them off when indulging in some karaoke. More exaggerated in the Christmas episode, when she breaks out in song near the end for no reason other than it's Christmas.
  • Nick Mohammed, who plays Nate, knows how to play the violin, and he plays the beautiful violin solo in "International Break" while accompanied by his wife Becka on piano.
• Cast the Expert: Cristo Fernández, who plays Dani Rojas, actually played soccer professionally in Mexico. All of Dani's soccer stunts are performed by Cristo. Kola Bokinni (Isaac) also played soccer semi-professionally before becoming an actor.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • Phil Dunster and Nick Mohammed both auditioned for Higgins before they were cast as Jamie and Nate, respectively.
  • Cristo Fernández auditioned for the role that became Jamie. While he was unsuccessful, the creators were impressed enough that they created Dani Rojas to replace another character so they could cast him.
• Creator Backlash: Hannah Waddingham says that the biscuits from Season 1 were awful and that she complained enough so that they'd improve the recipe for Season 2.
• Creator Couple: Mrs. Higgins is played by Mary Roscoe, who is Jeremy Swift's actual wife.
• Dark Horse Casting: While they weren't total unknowns, most of the cast had very few, if any, high-profile roles prior to being on the show. Jason Sudeikis is the only cast member who was already a household name before the show came out, and even then most of his post-Saturday Night Live work had only been moderately successful. Juno Temple was also moderately better-known than most of the cast, having co-starred with big actors like Michael Cera, Jack Black, Ben Stiller, and Brie Larson in prominent roles and receiving a "with" credit in the opening titles to reflect that, though she still wasn't a household name status prior to the show.
• Dark Horse Victory: MJ Delaney's Emmy win for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series in Season 2 (for "No Weddings and a Funeral") was a surprise turn, as the odds at the time largely favored Bill Hader to win for Barry, followed by Lucia Aniello for Hacks and Cherien Dabis for Only Murders Inthe Building.
• Dear Negative Reader:
  • In response to growing criticism online that the first episodes of Season 2 were too upbeat and positive and signaled a decline in the show's quality, Bill Lawrence took to Twitter to advise critics to wait until the whole season was released before casting judgement. By the time episode 8 premiered, most of those critics conceded Lawrence had a point.
  • To address viewers' mixed response to Nate's ultimate arc, Nick Mohammed put out a lengthy statement explaining that the character's story was never one about redemption but rather catharsis and the ability to move forward and grow while acknowledging and owning one's past sins.
  • When asked a question regarding if Jane was abusive to Beard, Brendan Hunt denied labeling her as abusive; while he conceded that she is toxic, he notes that Beard's baggage fits right in with her and that at the end of the day, they both think they're right for each other and make life more fun.
• Descended Creator: Brett Goldstein was originally hired as a writer and didn't intend to act in the show, but when they were having trouble finding the right actor for Roy, as he describes it, it just suddenly hit him that he might be perfect for the role. He filmed a tape of himself performing the character and emailed it to Bill Lawrence, telling him not to say anything if he didn't like it. Lawrence showed the tape to Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt and they all agreed Goldstein was actually the perfect fit.
• Dueling Works:
  • With the BBC's The First Team, another comedic show about a misfit football club, albeit one focused more on the players rather than coaching and management.
  • Also 2020's Intelligence, as it similarly involves an American being brought into an English setting and stars Nick Mohammed. Unlike Ted, though, David Schwimmer's Jerry is a Jerkass.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Nick Mohammed hair is graying so he had those portions dyed black during Season 1 to reinforce Nate's youthfulness. In Season 2, his hair was dyed progressively lighter to represent Nate's growing cynicism.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Apple generally gives the creators a lot of leeway with the show's language. The exception to this is the word "cunt", which the company forbids them to use even though the word is common slang in Britain. They eventually got around this in season 3 by having Jamie gift Roy a jersey, but mentioning that he changed the "E" in "Kent" to a "U" without actually saying the word or showing it.
  • Crystal Palace FC's blowout win over Richmond in "Biscuits" was part of the agreement between the show and the club to allow filming to take place at Selhurst Park.
  • Season 2 was originally planned to have ten episodes just like the first season. Then Apple decided to expand the order to 12 episodes after the writers had written all of the scripts. Rather than revise the planned arc to span 12 episodes, the writers decided to create two episodes ("Carol of the Bells" and "Beard After Hours") that were largely self-contained.
• Fake American: Gus Turner, who is British, plays American Henry Lasso.
• Fake Nationality:
  • Phil Dunster, who was born in Reading, plays the very Mancunian Jamie Tartt.
  • While Toheeb Jimoh (Sam) is ethnically Nigerian, he was born and raised in the United Kingdom so he has to put on a Nigerian accent to play the role. The same goes for Nonso Anozie, who plays Sam's father Ola.
  • Sam Richardson, playing Ghanaian billionaire Edwin Akufo, is American (though his mother is Ghanaian).
  • Austrian-born, American raised Maximilian Osinski plays the vaguely Eastern European Zava.
  • The very Welsh Colin is played by the English Billy Harris.
• Friendship on the Set:
  • Much like their characters, Juno Temple and Hannah Waddingham became close friends.
  • The actors who play the AFC Richmond players also became close friends and frequently hang out together off set.
  • Per Hannah Waddingham, the entirety of the onscreen AFC Richmond is actually as close in real life as their characters are.
• Hiding the Handicap: In-between seasons 2 and 3, Anthony Head (Rupert) lost a concerning amount of weight and gained a limp. The editing and staging try to work around this (such as by having him lean against walls and doorways), but it's visible any time he walks, making it obvious it's not a character choice. It's most noticeable in the finale; in all the shots where Rupert is confidently striding with his full body visible, it's clearly a body double, while any close-up shot of his face has him limping so severely that he almost falls out of the frame with each step. Fans even took to the show's subreddit to see if he was okay, which in turn prompted think pieces on the intrusive nature of fan concerns toward celebrities who have not publicly revealed any health problems^note As of the show's conclusion, neither Head nor the show's cast and crew ever publicly addressed any potential health concerns. At least one Reddit user reported finding a picture where Head appeared to be concealing a cane, but it remains unverified if the picture does indeed show a cane.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Despite playing superstar player Zava, Maximilian Osinski had the least amount of soccer experience out of everyone in the cast.
• Life Imitates Art:
  • A few months after Season 2 had Sam leading the club in protesting Dubai Air (and their parent company Cerithium Oil) for causing environmental damage to Nigeria by covering up their logo on their kits, real life club FC Schalke 04 removed the logo of their sponsor Gazprom from their kits to protest the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
  • Albeit far from Premier League tier, in 2023 Macclesfield FC player Tom Clare followed Jamie Tartt's footsteps and took a temporary leave from his club to join the cast of Love Island.
  • Although tearful retirement press conferences are not an invention of the show, when Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce announced his retirement, fans were quick to point out the parallels to Roy Kent's emotional farewell speech, down to the pauses and the grunting at his own tears. It helps that the two men are quite similar in beardedness and certain personality traits.
• Out of Holiday Episode: The Christmas Episode "Carol of the Bells" premiered on August 13, 2021.
• Permanent Placeholder: Roy Kent's name was originally just a placeholder for the character until the writers came up with a different one, as evidenced by how similar it is the the character's inspiration Roy Keane. Eventually, they all realized they couldn't come up with anything better so it stuck.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Ted's retool from the snarky Know-Nothing Know-It-All in the original NBC Sports promos to the earnest Nice Guy in the series was a deliberate choice on Jason Sudeikis' part as he wanted to show he could play more than the brash characters he's mainly known for.
  • Juno Temple hadn't much done comedy before, having mostly played very dark roles in serious movies, and was completely baffled as to why she was even considered for Keeley.
  • Anthony Head will be most familiar to American audiences as Buffy Summers' kind and fatherly mentor Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Rupert Mannion is a complete jerkass billionaire who never misses an opportunity to be cruel to Rebecca and the club.
• Production Posse: Series co-creator Bill Lawrence, known for his work on Scrubs, brought on Scrubs star Zach Braff to direct "Biscuits".
• Promoted Fanboy: Maximilian Osinski was a big fan of the show before he was cast as Zava in Season 3.
• Promoted to Opening Titles: Toheeb Jimoh (Sam), Cristo Fernandez (Dani), Kola Bokinni (Isaac), Anthony Head (Rupert Mannion), James Lance (Trent Crimm), and Billy Harris (Colin) in Season 3.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Coach Beard being Ted's Hypercompetent Sidekick who has to teach him about the finer things about Association Football reflects his actor Brendan Hunt being a huge fan of the game and teaching Jason Sudeikis about it when the two were performing improv in Amsterdam before their careers took off.
  • The Dubai Air plotline in season 2 resembles the Real Life quarrel of sports teams bearing the logos of unethical corporations. And though the company isn't affiliated with the Dubai government, their name is a nod to FIFA getting slammed for repeatedly looking away on human rights violations in the Emirates.
• Real-Life Relative: The "ussie" guy and his mother, the dentist who fixes Phoebe's halitosis, are played by real-life mother and son Claire and Bill Skinner.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Keeley's plot in Season 3, which saw her separated from Richmond for much of the season, was partly necessitated by the show accommodating Juno Temple, who was working simultaneously on Season 5 of Fargo.
• Recycled Script: Many of the jokes used in the series are adapted from the Ted Lasso promos shot for NBC Sports.
• The Red Stapler:
  • There was such a large demand for AFC Richmond merchandise that many people created and sold unauthorized products before the official merchandise line was launched.
  • An official recipe for Ted's homemade biscuits was eventually released because so many viewers wanted to try them.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: AFC Richmond's blue and red color scheme is a result of Crystal Palace FC having the same colors and their home ground Selhurst Park being used as the stand in for the fictional Nelson Road Stadium.
• Shoot the Money: Season 3 features lots of official Premier League branding and Richmond playing away matches with opponents' genuine grounds used for background plates. This is all thanks to the Premier League coming on board for the series after its positive reception and the production team wanted to take full advantage of the licensing agreement.
• Shrug of God: When Brendan Hunt was asked on Reddit if Ted and Michelle get back together after the finale, all he acknowledged was that Jake seemed to be absent and that while they both care about each other, they're different people than they used to be. The one thing he did nail down was that no matter what, they'd do their best to be good parents to Henry. He also did not rule out the idea that Roy and Keeley could eventually get back together but did respond that Roy has issues he has to work on before that can happen.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: According to Bill Lawrence, the reason for the delay in releasing licensed AFC Richmond merchandise stems from the unexpected demand for it as well as the rights to Ted Lasso being shared by NBC (who ran the original promotional spots), Warner Bros. (who produces the show), and Apple (who distributes the show). The three entities needed to negotiate a deal that satisfied all parties before launch.
• Sleeper Hit: While the series didn't get as much promotion as Apple TV+'s other titles, it became increasingly popular with both fans and critics as the first season progressed, mainly due to Word Of Mouth. Following several award wins, the service pivoted towards marketing the show as their flagship series and gave it a big promotional boost prior to the second season. Jason Sudeikis joked about the show's success during his monologue when he hosted Saturday Night Live in October 2021.
  Jason: It's truly shocking to me because it's built around two things Americans hate: soccer and kindness.
• Star-Making Role:
  • Brett Goldstein went from a little known actor/writer with no exposure beyond the UK to an Emmy award winner well known across the globe thanks to playing Roy Kent.
  • While she was already a beloved musical theatre star amongst West End and Broadway aficionados, this is the role that turned Hannah Waddingham into an international treasure.
• "Take That!" Tit-for-Tat: "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" features a Take That! at Hallmark Channel's Christmas movies where Ted explains their Strictly Formula nature to Roy and claims "They're good with the sound off.". The Hallmark Channel responded with their 2023 Christmas movie Christmas in Notting Hill by having the main characters, one of whom is a British footballer, discuss Ted Lasso and mock the show's unrealistic premise and idealism.
• Throw It In!:
  • Roy singing along to Rebecca's rendition of "Let It Go" wasn't scripted. Brett Goldstein did it absentmindedly and it was decided to leave it in since it was funny and perfectly in-character given how much time Roy spends with his niece.
  • The bit in "The Hope That Kills You" where Ted hits his head on Rebecca's office door when leaving was actually a complete accident. The scene even cuts quickly because Jason Sudeikis cut his head open and needed medical attention.
  • Also from "The Hope That Kills You," the scene where Ted asks the team for trick play suggestions was largely unscripted. The actors were asked to come up with names for trick plays on their own and let Jason Sudeikis improvise Ted's reaction to each name.
  • In "Beard After Hours", when Beard prays to God with "It's me, Margaret's little boy", the original line was just "It's me, Beard", but Brendan Hunt improvised the line and Jason Sudekis went with it.
• Tourist Bump: Richmond upon Thames has seen a noticeable uptick in tourism following the series' release, with Ted's flat building, the street corner across from Richmond Green, and The Prince's Head (the real name of The Crown & Anchor) in particular being popular destinations for fans.
• Trolling Creator: Jason Sudeikis did an interview with Late Night with a fake Season 3 storyline outline in the background that included plots such as Ted dying in Episode 2 and Jamie being revealed as a ghost in Episode 11.
• Tuckerization: Jan Maas is named after Saskia Maas, CEO of Boom Chicago. Creators Sudeikis, Hunt, and Joe Kelly are all former members of the improv troupe.
• Underage Casting:
  • Flo is supposed to be around the same age as Rebecca, but Ellie Taylor is 9 years younger than Hannah Waddingham and looks it.
  • Will is said to be 25 in the third season, but is played by 23-year-old Charlie Hiscock.
• What Could Have Been:
  • AFC Richmond was originally going to be another fictional club named "Greenwich FC" based in that borough and Ted was originally supposed to be a college football coach for the real life Pittsburg State Gorillas.
  • Roy was originally supposed to be an Irishman, just like his inspiration Roy Keane, rather than a Englishman from South London.
  • Dani Rojas was originally conceived as a player from Iceland named Gunner. After Cristo Fernández auditioned for the show, they changed the character to be Mexican to match Fernández's background.
  • The Pilot was going to have a gag that revealed Freddie Mercury briefly owned Richmond in the late '70s- early '80s (a Shout-Out to Elton John's real life ownership of Watford FC). However, the show couldn't get the rights to Mercury's likeness in time so it was scrapped. "Mom City" would later establish Mercury's previous ownership, but without using any imagery of the man.
  • One early idea for the Season 1 finale was to have all the AFC Richmond fans in the stands wearing fake mustaches that were given out to show how much they've grown to support Ted. In the end, it was changed to just having pub regulars Baz and Jeremy growing their own mustaches.
  • The Season 1 finale was also originally going to end with Richmond avoiding relegation and remaining in the Premier League. However, Bill Lawrence felt that it would be more impactful emotionally if Richmond was relegated despite the team's best efforts, so the creators went with that ending instead.
  • Florence Pugh, who was in a relationship with series director Zach Braff at the time, filmed a cameo that wound up getting cut.
  • Hannah Waddingham filmed an alternate take of Rebecca singing karaoke using "I Will Survive" just in case Disney decided not to allow the show to use "Let It Go".
  • Brett Goldstein came on the show as a writer, and was originally considered to play Higgins, until they saw Jeremy Swift's showreel, where (according to Goldstein) Swift got as far as introducing himself and they realised he was perfect for Higgins. He ended up playing Roy because he started to love the character.
  • Rebecca was originally supposed to come from blue-collar roots that she worked hard to conceal. This idea was scrapped at some point, and the Rebecca we see in the show comes from a rich family.
  • Prior to Season 2, the creators had considered introducing a new player for Richmond that would eventually be revealed as gay in Season 3. Then they decided the storyline would be more impactful if it were a player who was with the team since the series' beginning and settled on Colin.
  • "Sunflowers" was originally going to give Coach Beard a storyline where he reconnects with an old flame in Amsterdam. Then the writers decided it was too similar to Rebecca's plot in that same episode and scrapped it.
  • According to Brendan Hunt, there was briefly an idea to have Trent read an excerpt from his book as a voiceover during the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, but the crew ultimately decided that a narrator was unnecessary.
• Word of God: After the series ended, Brendan Hunt gave a Reddit AMA where he answered fan questions. A few of his answers cleared up some of the more ambiguous parts of the finale and parts of the show in general:
  • The ending montage actually happened and is not simply Ted dreaming on the plane back to Kansas. The montage was supposed to ignore the timeline of the flight and depict events in the months after, not imply that Ted was dreaming.
  • Sam was able to make it onto the Nigerian national team despite Edwin Akufo's attempts to interfere because there was national outcry after he was snubbed in season 3.
  • Ted missed Beard's wedding because the date was short notice and conflicted with one of Henry's big soccer games. Hunt feels that their relationship would not be impacted by this at all.
  • Jacob and Michelle's relationship was discussed thoroughly in the writer's room to make sure the timeline, while still scummy, was not outright illegal (in some locations, such relationships become legal after 18 months of no-contact, and the timeline places the final session and Henry revealing he's in the house around 20 months apart).
  • Despite the number 1,236 reappearing in several places, it has no actual significance and was just chosen because it's fun to say.
  • Hunt could not recall any instances of storylines for seasons 2 and 3 being altered due to fan responses or theories.
  • A Ted/Rebecca relationship was considered out of "professional obligation", but it was never seriously discussed.
• Word of Saint Paul:
  • Arlo White posted a tweet in character that includes several background tidbits about AFC Richmond's players, such as that Roy Kent played for England's national team with his last appearance being their infamous loss to Iceland at the 2016 European Championship.
  • James Lance, who plays Trent Crimm, revealed in an interview that he suspects Trent has a crush on Ted and played Trent with that in mind.
• Written by Cast Member: Three of the show's main cast members are also staff writers: Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt, and Brett Goldstein, all of whom have written multiple episodes. Phoebe Walsh (Jane) and Keeley Hazell (Bex) also write for the show.