History Trivia / TheOrville

* TheCastShowsOff: Several actors/actresses on the show are talented musicians and singers, with several of them being given moments to sing (such as Bortus' concert in "A Tale Of Two Topas" and Gordon singing at least once a season).

* ActorSharedBackground: Ed's bad experience with pot as revealed in "Command Performance"[[labelnote: Note]]once getting so high that he thought he would literally die if he remained seated[[/labelnote]] is also really what happened to Seth [=MacFarlane=], and is in fact the reason he no longer smokes it in real life.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: According to Midnight's Edge, Seth Macfarlane pitched a new Star Trek series to CBS in 2014, which would have been a sequel to the TNG era. But it was obviously rejected. It's likely at least some elements of this pitch made it into The Orville.

* TheWikiRule: [[http://orville.fandom.com/wiki/ The Orville Wiki]].

* YouLookFamiliar: Creator/MichaelaMcManus played the Krill Teleya in Season 1 and returned, sans alien makeup, to play the human Lieutenant Tyler in Season 2. [[spoiler:Oddly enough, there's a reason for this: Tyler ''is'' Teleya under extensive surgical alteration, as revealed in "Nothing Left on Earth Excepting Fishes".]]

* DoingItForTheArt:
** [=MacFarlane=] made the show primarily due to his dismay at the DarkerAndEdgier direction the sci-fi genre had taken, as an attempt to bring back a sense of optimism to it. It's worth repeating that ''The Orville'' was not created as an intentional counterpoint to ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery''; a year-long delay in ''Discovery's'' release resulted in the two shows going head to head.
** A lot of the space shots are done with practical effects on a large model of the ''Orville'', despite the technical difficulty (each shot requires at least six passes with a motion-controlled camera), to give the ship a solid on-screen presence that CGI can't achieve.
** As seen by his use of UsefulNotes/NeilDeGrasseTyson as a scientific advisor on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', and his executive producer credit on ''Series/CosmosASpacetimeOdyssey'', Seth [=MacFarlane=] has a massive amount of respect for space and the exploration thereof, which comes through in the show ''constantly''.

* SpiritualAdaptation: The show is effectively a more comedic version of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. Despite Seth [=MacFarlane=]'s presence, it's also mostly a dramatic story. Given the involvement of so many Star Trek alumni, it's arguably got as much title to being a ''Star Trek'' show as the official ones by Paramount and Creator/{{CBS}}.
** There have also been a few jokes about it being ''Film/GalaxyQuest: TheSeries''.
** It could also be said to be ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' InSpace, in exactly the same manner as the original ''Star Trek'' was promoted as ''Series/WagonTrain'' InSpace.
** Fans of Peter David's Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse works say it's as close as we'll probably get to ''Literature/StarTrekNewFrontier''.

* TheWikiRule: [[http://orville.wikia.com/wiki/ The Orville Wiki]].

** Victor Garber, who played Admiral Halsey in the pilot, had been the warden of the Klingon prison colony Rura Penthe in a DeletedScene from ''Film/StarTrek2009''.

** Steven Culp (Major Hayes on ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'') plays an alien publicist in "Majority Rule".

** [=MacFarlane=] himself made a cameo appearance as a crewmember in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''.
** John Billingsley (Phlox, the doctor from ''Star Trek: Enterprise'') plays a guest character with a grudge against Alara's father.
** Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) plays a teacher aboard the Orville.
** Bruce Boxleitner plays [[Series/Babylon5 the president of an interstellar alliance]] in season 3.

** In season 3, the same set is used to depict different Moclan bases, one a classified torture site and the other a well-known science outpost. The former uses red lighting, the latter blue lighting.

* RecycledSet: Ed and Kelly's offices are the same set with the furniture rearranged.

** The cowboy outfits Ed wears in "About a Girl" and "A Tale of Two Topas" are very similar to the costume Seth [=MacFarlane=] wore in ''Film/AMillionWaysToDieInTheWest''.

** The cowboy outfit Ed wears in "About a Girl" is very similar to the costume Seth [=MacFarlane=] wore in ''Film/AMillionWaysToDieInTheWest''.[[labelnote: According to Seth...]][[https://twitter.com/SethMacFarlane/status/911042507579912192 It's not the exact same one.]][[/labelnote]]

* PosthumousCredit: Creator/NormMacDonald passed away prior to Season 3's release, making this show one of the last works released after his death.

* DuelingShows: It's shaping up to rival ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery''. One is a WorkCom InSpace heavily influenced by Star Trek and one plays it completely straight, both with a cast of veteran character actors, and both with vastly superior special effects to any previous Star Trek series. The fact the release of ''Discovery'' was delayed by nearly a full year resulted in the unintended scenario where ''The Orville'' debuted only two weeks before ''Discovery'', leading to much head-to-head comparison of the two series. Expressed [[https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1299313-distracted-boyfriend here]] as a [[MemeticMutation variation]] on the "Distracted Boyfriend" meme. This became downplayed as the shows went on, both due to the huge ScheduleSlip for ''The Orville'' and the massive expansion of the ''Star Trek'' franchise in the Creator/ParamountPlus era, which made ''Discovery'' into just one facet of the franchise rather than its current central pillar; ''Trek'' also got its own WorkCom entry with the animated ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks''.

* Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) plays a teacher aboard the Orville.

* ScheduleSlip: Rather than a regular yearly schedule, new episodes come out approximately every year-and-a-half due to the scale of Creator/SethMacFarlane's ambitions for this show. This contributed to ''Series/TheOrville'''s ChannelHop to Creator/{{Hulu}}, as an online streamer simply has to release episodes rather than find space in a broadcast schedule. This long production cycle was delayed further in 2020 when production for Season 3 was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The third season was set to premiere in March 2022, almost a full three years after the end of Season 2. It then got delayed yet again and is now slated for premiere in June 2022 instead.[[note]]For perspective, during that time, the ''Star Trek'' franchise saw third and fourth seasons of ''Discovery'', the first season of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' and the start of a second, the start of ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'', the first two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' and the first season of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekProdigy''.[[/note]]

* DuelingShows: It's shaping up to rival ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery''. One is a WorkCom InSpace heavily influenced by Star Trek and one plays it completely straight, both with a cast of veteran character actors, and both with vastly superior special effects to any previous Star Trek series. The fact the release of ''Discovery'' was delayed by nearly a full year resulted in the unintended scenario where ''The Orville'' debuted only two weeks before ''Discovery'', leading to much head-to-head comparison of the two series. Expressed [[https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1299313-distracted-boyfriend here]] as a [[MemeticMutation variation]] on the "Distracted Boyfriend" meme.

* ScheduleSlip: Rather than a regular yearly schedule, new episodes come out approximately every year-and-a-half due to the scale of Creator/SethMacFarlane's ambitions for this show. This contributed to ''Series/TheOrville'''s ChannelHop to Creator/{{Hulu}}, as an online streamer simply has to release episodes rather than find space in a broadcast schedule. This long production cycle was delayed further in 2020 when production for Season 3 was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The third season was set to premiere in March 2022, almost a full three years after the end of Season 2. It then got delayed yet again and is now slated for premiere in June 2022 instead.[[note]]For perspective, during that time, the ''Star Trek'' franchise saw third and fourth seasons of ''Discovery'', the first season of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' and the start of a second, the first two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' and the first season of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekProdigy''.[[/note]]

* ScheduleSlip: Rather than a regular yearly schedule, new episodes come out approximately every year-and-a-half due to the scale of Creator/SethMacFarlane's ambitions for this show. This contributed to ''Series/TheOrville'''s ChannelHop to Creator/{{Hulu}}, as an online streamer simply has to release episodes rather than find space in a broadcast schedule. This long production cycle was delayed further in 2020 when production for Season 3 was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The third season is set to premiere in March 2022, almost a full three years after the end of Season 2.[[note]]For perspective, during that time, the ''Star Trek'' franchise saw third and fourth seasons of ''Discovery'', the first season of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' and the start of a second, the first two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' and the first season of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekProdigy''.[[/note]]

* [[AuthorExistenceFailure Actor Existence Failure]]: Norm [=MacDonald=] died of cancer during the hiatus between Seasons 2 and 3.

* ScheduleSlip: Rather than a regular yearly schedule, new episodes come out approximately every year-and-a-half due to the scale of Creator/SethMacFarlane's ambitions for this show. This contributed to ''Series/TheOrville'''s ChannelHop to Creator/{{Hulu}}, as an online streamer simply has to release episodes rather than find space in a broadcast schedule. This long production cycle was delayed further in 2020 when production for Season 3 was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The third season is set to premiere in March 2022, almost a full three years after the end of Season 2.[[note]]For perspective, during that time, the ''Star Trek'' franchise saw a third season of ''Discovery'', the first season of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' and the start of a second, the first two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' and the first season of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekProdigy''.[[/note]]