Trivia / W817

• Acting for Two: In one season 5 episode, Danny Timmermans, who normally plays Tom, also played the role of Tim, a Doppelgänger of Tom with whom Birgit had a short-lived relationship.
• Adored by the Network: While the series was only produced from 1999 to 2003, the Flemisch public television's children channel still airs reruns of the series on an almost daily basis as of 2021.
• Actor Allusion: Tom has once said that Carlo made him think of the famous actor Jan Decleir. Jan Decleir is actually the father of Jenne Decleir, the actor who plays Carlo.
• The Cast Showoff: Jenne Decleir got to show off his musical skills several times on the show and made several hits, such as "Zoë eet pita" and "We zijn er voor elkaar".
• The Danza: A good example of this would be Zoë's childhood-friend-turned-priest Marc, who was played by Mark Tijsmans.
• Dawson Casting: All main actors were older than the characters they play. While most of the residents are supposed to be in their early to mid twenties, most actors that played them were rather in their late twenties to early thirties. Jasmijn, who was supposed to be in high school for most of the series, was played by Aagje Dom who whas already at college age when the series started. Averted with Kim however, who was also supposed to be in high school, but whose actress Kalina Malehounova was no more than 17 years old when she played her.
• Fake Nationality: Aron Wade, who normally played Akke in the series, also played the role of a Peruvian exchange student named Paco in a few season 5 episodes.
• Follow the Leader: The series strongly resembles Friends, in particular because most of the character archetypes are the same, and the showrunners aren't afraid to make fun of how strong the resemblance is (see Hypocritical Humor on the Series' page).
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Zoë was absent during the majority of season 4, due to her acress Britt Van der Borgt being pregnant at the time. In the few appeareances Zoë makes during the season, she is always brought into view in such a way that her belly isn't visible.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Britt van der Borght and Govert Deploige, the actors who play Zoë and Steve, are married in real life.
  • Danny Timmermans and Machteld Timmermans^note who are, despite their names, no blood relatives, the actors who play Tom and Tom's fiancé Ellen, are also married in real life.
  • Carlo's father in the series was played by Jan Decleir, the father of the actor who played Carlo, Jenne Decleir.
• Recycled Set: The movie 8eraf reuses the original living room set from the series as Carlo's thinktank / panic room. This is even commented upon by Carlo.
  Carlo: It cost me an arm and a leg to collect all of the original pieces of that room.
• Technology Marches On: W817 was made around the turn of the century and this is quite visible as well, from all of the old school technology that was state of the art at the time. One of the most obvious examples, however, was a scene where Akke asked the rest of the gang to not use the phone, as he was expecting e-mail, which would be unfamiliar for anyone who didn't consciously experience the late 90's or early 00's.
• Vindicated by Reruns: While the series was already popular when it first aired, the fact that it was rerunned so many times probably helped to get new audiences even after the production was halted.
• You Look Familiar: Some actors have appeared throughout the series in many different minor one-off roles; Joris Hessels and Christophe Stienlet, to name two of them.