History Trivia / DemoReel

** Fans noticed that Rob always got the most {{fanservice}}y shots of Doug, whether it was him in the shower or just showing he had legs. So, in ''Film/{{Transformers}}'', Karl's camera being in love with Donnie gets lampshaded in the first five minutes.

* OldShame: ''Not'' for Doug, but for Rob. While Doug had wanted to do it for five years and literally bounced every time he mentioned getting to create something new and dark, it was viewed by Rob as just something to do while getting the game show ready. While Doug has never outright disowned the show, he did later tacitly admit during his Nostalgia Critic review of ''Film/ChristmasWithTheKranks'' that he shouldn't have tried replacing that show with this one, seeing how they were really nothing alike.

** Fans noticed that Rob always got the most {{fanservice}}y shots of Doug, whether it was him in the shower or just showing [[ShesGotLegs He Had Legs]]. So, in ''Film/{{Transformers}}'', Karl's camera being in love with Donnie gets lampshaded in the first five minutes.

* UnderminedByReality: A lot of the HorribleHollywood themes for the series became bitterly ironic in early 2018, when a Google Doc by several former contributors airing their grievances about Website/ChannelAwesome and its upper management came out, such as how badly its female creators were treated, a lack of any real effort put into resolving complaints, and the overreliance on specific talent to sell the site to the detriment of everyone else, giving the impression that [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis Channel Awesome is a sort of Hollywood in itself]].

* PropRecycling:
** Averted. Tacoma was going to originally wake up in Snow White's dress instead of Belle's, as it was the [[https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=469734449759688&id=127127037353766&comment_id=78023938 "... second funniest dress we could imagine on Malcolm"]]. The most funniest? Snow White, however this idea was scrapped as Creator/AllisonPregler had already worn it in ''WebVideo/SuburbanKnights''.
** The Catwoman costume Rebecca wears in ''The Dark Knight Begins Rising'' (as Anne Hathaway's portrayal) is later reused when Rachel plays Michelle Pfeiffer in the ''Nostalgia Critic'' ''Film/Catwoman2004'' review.
** Notably avoided with Donnie's fedora. Doug has worn a few fedoras in reboot (as mostly AcceptableTargets jokes) but ''never'' the same one as he did in WebVideo/DemoReel. He said in the Shining commentary that if he did he would get nothing but venom, so that's probably the reason why it hasn't appeared again.

* DawsonCasting: Rebecca was 23 but Rachel was 21 when the show aired, which makes her partly improvised speeches about harassment and already feeling washed up in the industry even sadder.

* CreatorBreakdown: The more the show went into [[FormerChildStar Donnie's backstory]] the more it became apparent that [[WriteWhatYouKnow was writing about his own regret]] for mocking child actors like Creator/JakeLloyd and Creator/MaraWilson. There's also the fact that Donnie sucks (intentionally or not) as a director and Doug's not-so-great directing skills caused a lot of issues on the anniversary movies, ''and'' Donnie having a lot of people creep on him while Doug has expressed discomfort with being a ChickMagnet plenty of times. As Rob said later, he left Doug to write everything regarding Donnie because they were so much alike.

* FanNickname: The Fanatic Fan Family have earned the surname "{{Yandere}}s".

* GenreKiller: The “I want reviews!” reaction a lot of the forums had to it had made Rob admit in a post that Doug would never try to create a serious original work again.

** Retroactively. In this show, Jim Jareoz plays an Irish badass HiddenHeartOfGold former member of the IRA. In the Critic reboot, his two main roles are the simpering condescending ''Film/{{Catwoman}}'' therapist and the lisping loud flamboyant CreepyCrossdresser head of TMZ.

** The Catwoman costume Rebecca wears in ''The Dark Knight Begins Rising'' (as Anne Hathaway's portrayal) is later reused when Rachel plays Michelle Pfeiffer in the ''Nostalgia Critic'' ''Film/{{Catwoman}}'' review.

* OldShame: ''Not'' for Doug, but for Rob. While Doug had wanted to do it for five years and literally bounced every time he mentioned getting to create something new and dark, it was viewed by Rob as just something to do while getting the game show ready.

* UnderminedByReality: A lot of the HorribleHollywood themes for the series became bitterly ironic in early 2018, when a Google Doc by several former contributors airing their grievances about [[WebSite/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses Channel Awesome]] and its upper management came out, such as how badly its female creators were treated, a lack of any real effort put into resolving complaints, and the overreliance on specific talent to sell the site to the detriment of everyone else, giving the impression that [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis Channel Awesome is a sort of Hollywood in itself]].

** Doug mentioned in the [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/specials/42223-nc-commentary-ai A.I. commentary]] that he would've gotten around to having a TMZ-centric episode had the show continued. And due to his regret that the Critic episode was so cruel, and Demo Reel's AWorldHalfFull optimism, it probably would have been LighterAndSofter than ''AI''.

** Walkers did learn their lesson in one respect though. Both Lindsay and Allison have gone on record to say they hated their characters in their anniversary specials and didn't get listened to when they had complaints (Allison even said they only know the “swoony girly” type or the “tough bitch”). In this show, it was said that both Rachel and Malcolm had a hand in the scripts and could improvise anything emotional, which was why Rachel continually expressed delight with Rebecca's character.

* WriterRevolt: "All our hopes rest on the Nostalgia Critic. People will love that" was a clue of RealitySubtext. On the commentary, Doug talked about how even though he was given the choice to keep the show, Critic still had to come back to get the site back on good terms with money.

* ApprovalOfGod: Tamara likes the idea of her character being Rebecca's unseen girlfriend who she lives with outside of Demo Reel.

* CreatorBreakdown: The more the show went into [[FormerChildStar Donnie's backstory]] the more it became apparent that [[WriteWhatYouKnow was writing about his own regret]] for mocking child actors like Jake Lloyd and Mara Wilson. There's also the fact that Donnie sucks (intentionally or not) as a director and Doug's not-so-great directing skills caused a lot of issues on the anniversary movies, ''and'' Donnie having a lot of people creep on him while Doug has expressed discomfort with being a ChickMagnet plenty of times. As Rob said later, he left Doug to write everything regarding Donnie because they were so much alike.

* DawsonCasting: Inverted. Donnie is 42, and Doug Walker is about ten years younger. As Doug makes no attempt to make himself look older, it's a weird age choice.
** Rebecca was 23 but Rachel was 21 when the show aired, which makes her partly improvised speeches about harassment and already feeling washed up in the industry even sadder.

** Before Demo Reel began, fans noticed that Rob always got the most {{fanservice}}y shots of Doug, whether it was him in the shower or just showing [[ShesGotLegs He Had Legs]]. So, in ''Film/{{Transformers}}'', Karl's camera being in love with Donnie gets lampshaded in the first five minutes.

* RuleThirtyFourCreatorReactions: Bless his heart, Doug was shameless this time around and outright asked for SlashFic in-character. Fandom eagerly obliged. He then used his extra spot in ''The Uncanny Valley'' DVD extra to read Donnie/Yo SlashFic.
* ScheduleSlip: Slightly. The second episode of Demo Reel missed a week because Creator/DougWalker wanted to [[ReTool tweak the show's direction.]] The second episode ended up focusing more on the actual characters and put the parody scenes on the back burner. The 4th episode came after 3 weeks. On a grander scale, see above.

** There was a Demo Reel reunion (of sorts) in January 2017. It came at the end of the Let's Play Awesome Resident Evil 7 Demo: http://youtu.be/NdsYUpBvKlo?t=28m50s.

* TypeCasting: The sexist type is discussed. The two examples are Kathy Bates; psychos and smarmy bitches, and Meryl Streep; shrews, cartoons, cougars and [=MILF=]s.

** Doug wanted Lewis and Lindsay on the show to play different people other than themselves or TGWTG characters, and prove [[WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee again]] they could do drama.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Adam and Jill are sociopaths who kidnap a FormerChildStar and raise their daughter to be as mentally ill as they are. Jason and Jori are perfectly lovely people who [[ThrowTheDogABone threw Doug a bone]] and helped him get out of his head with the at-that-point-suffering in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' vlogs.

* [[WordOfGay Word Of Bi]]: Rob confirmed it for Donnie after the pilot [[note]]Doug would confirm it at Shadocon in the filming of his [[http://blip.tv/nostalgiacritic/demo-reel-lost-in-translation-bromance-version-6458197 said-to-be]] [[http://blip.tv/nostalgiacritic/demo-reel-lost-in-translation-bromance-version-part-2-6458053 favorite episode]][[/note]], when all he had done sexuality-hint wise was manipulate Tacoma with bedroom eyes. He'd go on to do much more.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Doug wanted Lewis and Lindsay on the show to play different people other than themselves or TGWTG characters, and prove [[WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee again]] they could do drama.
** As much of a DownerEnding as ''The Review Must Go On'' is, it could have been even worse. Brian wanted Fabrizio to return to the studio in TheStinger, only to now find a completely abandoned warehouse. This was replaced with [[spoiler:a more humorous alternate take of BradJones' phone call scene, with Brad asking Doug when he's going to bring back [[OldShame Melvin]].]]

* ActorAllusion: In the ''Film/LostInTranslation'' episode, Donnie and Uncle Yo run into a cosplayer dressed as WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic. Donnie has no idea who she's supposed to be; Uncle Yo quips that she's dressed as [[WebVideo/BumReviews some homeless person]].