Line #1 Trivia/CriminalMinds


1	* ActingForTwo: Creator/ElisabethHarnois in "Broken Mirror", when the Davenport twins briefly talk on the phone.
2	* ActorSharedBackground:
3	** Derek Morgan is biracial like his actor Creator/ShemarMoore.
4	** Dr. Reid is from Las Vegas like Creator/MatthewGrayGubler and often goes home to visit his mother.
5	** Creator/JoeMantegna agreed to become the new lead actor on the show on the condition that his character be Italian, just like him. Thus, his character was named David Rossi.
6	* BillingDisplacement: Creator/PagetBrewster became the third highest billed actor on the show upon her first appearance in the second season, rather than receive an AndStarring credit. Similarly, when Creator/MandyPatinkin left the series & Creator/JoeMantegna arrived in the third season, Mantegna became the highest billed actor whilst Gibson received an AndStarring credit. Every addition to the cast following this would be billed by order of their first appearance on the series, with the exception of Creator/AdamRodriguez & Creator/PagetBrewster, who received AndStarring credits in season 12, after Gibson’s departure.
7	* CaliforniaDoubling: Almost every episode. The BAU travels around the country to solve crimes, but filming is limited to LA and surrounding areas. LA has so far passed for New York City, New Orleans, countless small towns in the Midwest and South, and even Mexico, among other places.
8	** In "Amplification," the climactic scene takes place in what's supposed to be the [[http://blog.aia.org/mt-static/plugins/Ajaxify/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/imagemanager/images/favorite_architecture_images/106_washington_d.c._metro_lg.jpg Washington D.C. Metro]]; it's the [[http://www.metro.net/about_us/rail_ops/rail_operations.htm Los Angeles Metro]] standing in for Washington.
9	** In "The Thirteenth Step", what is obviously the trunk of a palm tree can be spotted in what is supposed to be Billings, MT, where the only palm trees you're likely to find in real life are on signs for travel agencies.
10	** Likewise in "Conflicted", which supposedly takes place on South Padre Island, some rocky hills can be clearly seen in the background during the rooftop scenes. South Padre is a flat, sandy barrier island along the equally flat and sandy Texas coast.
11	** Averted in the PoorlyDisguisedPilot that took place in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco (although it's still California...)
12	* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/LukasHaas was offered the role of Dr. Spencer Reid. He agreed to guest star as the stuttering Footpath Killer in the opening two-parter.
13	* TheCastShowoff:
14	** Matthew Gray Gubler does magic tricks in RealLife; they incorporated it into his character on the show. Not to mention his talent for artwork, which has also been used in several episodes.
15	** As is usual for him, Creator/MandyPatinkin got to show off his real-life skills as a home-taught chef in at least two episodes.
16	*** Also Creator/JoeMantegna showed off his own cooking skills.
17	** Guest star Creator/ForestWhitaker got to show off his awesome stick-fighting skills.
18	** Guest star Gavin Rossdale, who is the frontman of Bush, got to show off his singing skills in "The Performer".
19	* CreatorBacklash:
20	** Creator/MandyPatinkin has gone on record saying he considers his tenure on the show the biggest mistake of his acting career, due to how disturbing he found its content, despite critics widely praising his performance.
21	** Since leaving the show, Creator/PagetBrewster [[http://my.xfinity.com/blogs/tv/2012/09/19/paget-brewster-i-never-got-over-being-fired-from-criminal-minds/ admitted she "never got over" being fired during the Season 6]] [[ExecutiveMeddling fiasco]], and later admitted [[http://www.enstarz.com/articles/111795/20151003/criminal-minds-season-11-news-paget-brewster-talks-leaving-show-calling-cbs-scummy-video.htm she considers CBS "scummy" for how they treated her (including firing her and then forcing her to return suddenly due to the backlash and her contract)]] - she clarifies however that she ''did'' love the cast and crew themselves, it was the network she took issue with and that was why she left as a regular after Season 7 but eventually made guest appearances in Season 9 and 11 before promoted back to series regular in Season 12.
22	* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer:
23	** In the Season 7 episode "There's No Place Like Home" which aired in late 2011, a newscaster says a recent tornado was rated an F2 on the Fujita Scale. Except the Fujita Scale was replaced by the Enhanced Fujita Scale in February 2006 and the rating scale changed to [=EF0-EF5=].
24	*** Also, the damage shown is much, much worse than EF2 damage.
25	** IMDB's trivia page stated at one point that Gideon and Prentiss are the only two main characters to have died on the show. While Gideon was shown to be murdered several seasons after Mandy Patinkin left, Prentiss has ''never'' been killed off. She faked her death sure, but she returned soon afterward. She also appeared in the 200th episode, never getting killed off. However, this has since been changed to state (correctly) that Gideon died after he left the show, and that [[spoiler:Stephen Walker]] is the other main character to die.
26	* TheDanza: Subverted. Although Creator/AJCook jokes that the character was named JJ so she'd be able to remember it (being a blonde), the producers swear they came up with the name before Cook was cast.
27	* DevelopmentGag: Gideon was originally going to be named "Jason Donovan". In "Extreme Aggressor" that name appears on the cover of a book Gideon finds in a suspect's room.
28	* DirectedByCastMember:
29	** Recently Creator/MatthewGrayGubler got to take the directing skills he's honed on other projects and direct episodes of the show ("Mosley Lane", "Lauren").
30	--->The writers of the show have evidently said that they always loved it when Creator/MatthewGrayGubler was going to direct, as that meant they got to have a lot more freedom with the Unsub. If you take a look at his episodes, the Unsubs tend to be some of the weirder ones in the show.
31	** Creator/ThomasGibson directed episodes "Gabby", "Boxed In" and "Lockdown".
32	** Joe Mantegna directed the episodes "The Road Home" and "Anonymous" (which serves as a tribute to his good friend Meshach Taylor, who played Rossi's former sergeant Harrison Scott).
33	** A.J. Cook directed season 14's "Chameleon."
34	** Aisha Tyler and Adam Rodriguez have also directed episodes.
35	* ExecutiveMeddling:
36	** Following the completion of the fifth season, the decision was made to write JJ & Prentiss out of the show, publicly citing budget cuts - although Creator/PagetBrewster would later state that the actual reason was a CBS executive demanding “new women” on the show. This decision led to A.J. Cook leaving in the second episode of the season in a plot rife with RealitySubtext about the cast & crew’s displeasure about the decision, whilst Brewster negotiated a reduced schedule of 17 episodes with instructions to kill Prentiss off at the end of those episodes, and co-showrunner Simon Mirren quit the show entirely. Following the backlash (From fans, cast & crew) over the firings, the sixth season subsequently ended on the reveal that J.J. was returning to the BAU, and it was revealed early in pre-production on the seventh season that Brewster would also be returning as a regular due to a clause in her contract being invoked by the producers.
37	** As confirmed by showrunner Erica Messer, Damon Gupton was directly hired by the network to play Stephen Walker in season 12, following their dismissal of Thomas Gibson for his involvement in an on-set altercation before his departure after the end of the season.
38	* FakeAmerican:
39	** [=AJ=] Cook, who plays [=JJ=], is Canadian.
40	** British actress Creator/JayneAtkinson playing the German-American Erin Strauss.
41	* FakeNationality: Actress Lola Glaudini is of Italian and Jewish heritage, but Elle claims her mother is Cuban and she speaks fluent Spanish.
42	* HostilityOnTheSet: Thomas Gibson was fired after he fought one of the episode writers while filming Season 12. As a result, Aaron Hotchner left the BAU and is PutOnABus.
43	* HideYourPregnancy: Subverted - both of Creator/AJCook's pregnancies were written into the show proper (JJ's sons Henry and Michael are even played by Cook's own real-life sons), and the same rules were applied to Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt's pregnancy (and her going on a year-long maternity leave) towards the end of Season 10. The one variable is that the characters became pregnant at a later point than their respective actresses, but this is excusable given the time needed to write them in (and the fact that early pregnancy can vary to an extent in how much it shows).
44	* LifeImitatesArt: In "Cradle to Grave", the [=UnSub=] kidnaps women, hides them in his own home-made dungeon, rapes them, impregnates them, and forces them to help each other in giving birth under threat of death. While the BAU compares the perp to Gary Heidnik and Josef Fritzl, his MO is far more close to Ariel Castro, whose crimes weren't discovered until four years after the episode aired.
45	* TheOtherDarrin: Randall Garner (the Fisher King) is played by Charles Haid (Part 1) and Charley Rossman (Part 2), though due to the make-up and dubbing, you can't actually tell.
46	* PlayingAgainstType: Former child star Creator/FrankieMuniz as psychotic serial killer Jonny [=McHale=] in "True Night".
47	** Michelle Tractenberg, 90s Hollywood's most adorable moppet/Buffy the Vampire Slayer's sweet little sister is now a serial killer who kills off a major character's partner.
48	* PopCultureUrbanLegends: Following the firing & reinstatements of Creator/AJCook & Creator/PagetBrewster over the course of the sixth season, and in light of the producer's comments about always intending to bring JJ and Prentiss back, an alternative explanation from industry workers has appeared on several sites - that explanation being that the producers wanted to more heavily focus on Prentiss for at least part of the season and explore her mysterious past, and as part of this they needed someone to have the access that JJ's new job gave her for story reasons.
49	* QueerCharacterQueerActor: Bisexual actress Nicole Pacent plays Tara's girlfriend Rebecca on the revival ''Criminal Minds: Evolution''.
50	* RealitySubtext:
51	** Gideon left the BAU due to emotional distress; Creator/MandyPatinkin left the series due to the emotional distress the role was putting on him due to his discomfort with the subject matter. Additionally, the letter Gideon left for Spencer explaining his decision mirrored Patinkin leaving letters for his cast mates doing the same thing.
52	*** Patinkin’s misgivings over the series glorifying horrific crimes would later be acknowledged by the writers, as David Rossi would admit that Gideon expressed worries that Rossi writing books about his time in the BAU would glorify the horrific aspects of their job.
53	** JJ’s departure in "JJ" & the narrative that she was being forced to leave the BAU is just the writers voicing their complaints over the ExecutiveMeddling that forced A.J. Cook to leave the series.
54	** Emily Prentiss leaving the BAU for greener pastures in the seventh season is ultimately down to Creator/PagetBrewster’s heart no longer being in the role after being killed off in the sixth season & brought back in the seventh season due to a clause in her contract allowing the network to do so.
55	** Garcia’s animosity towards Alvez over his replacing Morgan on the team is the writers making her an AudienceSurrogate for fans expressing displeasure over the various changes to the cast over the course of the series.
56	** Matt Simmons joining the team in season 13 is accompanied by various references to the IRT being shut down, in reference to the cancellation of ''Series/CriminalMindsBeyondBorders''.
57	* RealLifeRelative:
58	** The victim the team is working to save in "3rd Life" is played by Gia Mantegna, Joe Mantegna's (Agent Rossi's) daughter in RealLife. [[spoiler:She later returns in Season 12 as Cat Adams' partner-in-crime.]]
59	** The two oldest Galen children from the episode "Damaged" are played by real-life twin brother and sister Nicholle Tom and David Tom.
60	** JJ's sons Henry & Michael are played by Mekhai Andersen and Phoenix Sky Andersen respectively, AJ Cook's sons and the actual result of the pregnancies that put JJ into maternity leave in the first place.
61	** In the season 3 episode "Seven Seconds" the victim's father and uncle are played by real-life twin brothers Emmanuel and Salvator Xuereb.
62	* RealLifeWritesTheHairstyle:
63	** The [[https://www.looper.com/395621/the-real-reason-garcias-hair-turns-red-in-criminal-minds/ reason]] why Garcia's hair is red in the second half of season 5 and the first half of season 6 is because her actress Creator/KirstenVangsness, who is a natural blonde, had dyed her hair to this colour for her role in a webseries called ''Vampire Mob''.
64	** Prentiss' actress Creator/PagetBrewster wears a wig in the last two seasons of the show's original run as she had cut her hair short to a BoyishShortHair due to her hair prematurely going gray. Indeed in the GrandFinale, Prentiss tells her teammates that she is getting a haircut soon. She opted not to dye her hair for the Paramount+ revival, hence Prentiss appears with grey hair instead.
65	* RecycledSet: Some of the local police stations of entirely different cities have suspiciously similar design choices and layouts.
66	** Season 10's "Lockdown" has a prison that may seem strangely familiar to anyone who watched Season 6's "25 to Life," complete with the "No Profanity" warning on the wall.
67	* RecycledScript:
68	** Billy Flynn's origin is nearly identical to Frank's, and he has a lot of similarities to Karl Arnold/The Fox.
69	** The team must have caught more serial-home-invader-family-annihilators-with-daddy-issues in ten years than there are recorded in human history.
70	** In “Fisher King Part 2”, we learn Elle’s father was a police officer who died when she was young, and it’s implied in later episodes that she was raped when she was younger. Once Lola Glaudini left the show, they gave this exact plot line to Derek Morgan in “Profiler, Profiled.”
71	* RoleEndingMisdemeanor:
72	** Jeanne Tripplehorn was let go after two seasons, [[http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/08/19/jeanne-tripplehorn-tells-off-mandy-patinkin-after-slammed-criminal-minds-for/ due to publicly criticizing Mandy Patinkin's remarks on the series.]] Patinkin may have abandoned the show, but apparently he's still respected amongst the cast and crew.
73	** During the filming of season 12, Thomas Gibson assaulted one of the producers, which resulted in CBS terminating him from the show.
74	* ScrewedByTheNetwork: JJ's departure was a decision by CBS to cut costs in order to help create one of the [[Series/CriminalMindsSuspectBehavior short-lived spin-offs]].
75	* StarMakingRole: For most of the show's cast with the exception of Creator/MandyPatinkin, Creator/ThomasGibson, Creator/JoeMantegna, Creator/RachelNichols, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt and Creator/AdamRodriguez, all of whom were already well-known prior to the show.
76	* ThrowItIn: Morgan & Garcia’s flirtatious banter ultimately stemmed from Creator/ShemarMoore “feeling goofy” on one take, which was then used in the final episode.
77	* {{Transplant}}: Matt Simmons (Played by Creator/DanielHenney) moved from the cancelled spin-off ''Series/CriminalMindsBeyondBorders'' to the parent show in season 13 as a series regular.
78	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
79	** The show was originally going to be called ''Quantico'' and Gideon was originally named Jason Donovan. An early version of Hotch was described as a "blond haired, blue eyed Mormon" and Lukas Haas (the guy who played The Footpath Killer) originally auditioned for the part of Reid, and might have even got it if he hadn't begun expressing doubts about doing a series.
80	** When Creator/MandyPatinkin left the show, the producer's first choice for a replacement was Creator/HarveyKeitel.
81	** A tweet by the creators mentions that Reid was originally intended to be bisexual. It was scrapped by the fourth episode.
82	** Originally an episode which revealed Elle had been raped when she was younger was planned, but the actress decided to leave. This was hinted at twice and explains further why she [[spoiler: went crazy and shot the Unsub.]]
83	** The original plan for season 11 was to have Tara Lewis as a temporary replacement for both Kate and JJ in the first six episodes. However, Tara proved to be popular with fans and critics that the character became a FakeGuestStar and would become a permanent member of the BAU after JJ's maternal leave ended, thus being promoted to series regular the following season in addition to Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt opting to depart than returning midway in the season.
84	** According to Kirsten Vangsness in a 2015 interview, the writers originally wrote Emily as a lesbian and there would've been a storyline where she had a female lover but it was reportedly nixed by CBS.
85	** Walker was going to remain on the show for season 13 before Damon Gupton departed after the season 12 finale aired. As a result, [[spoiler:he was killed off in the season 13 premiere and was replaced by Matt Simons]].
86	** According to Erica Messer, she considered having Mr. Scratch continue as the BigBad for season 13 with his final confrontation being in the season 14 premiere, which would be the 300th episode but due to fears from fans that it could result in ArcFatigue, the storyline eventually concluded in the season 13 premiere.
87	** Prentiss was originally going to return on a recurring basis in season 12, but after Thomas Gibson's firing, she was upgraded back to series regular.
88	** Gideon was going to commit suicide in the end of his last episode but Mandy Patinkin disliked it, so the ending was changed to him leaving after writing a letter to Reid.
89	** "Lauren" was going to end with Prentiss being KilledOffForReal but just weeks before the episode was set to air, a new ending was shot for the episode by revealing that Prentiss had faked her death to go undercover. This is evident with Prentiss being played by a stand-in than Creator/PagetBrewster as you don't see her face in this scene.
90	** There were plans for a prequel series focusing on a young Gideon and Rossi but CBS opted to pick up ''Beyond Borders'' for a full series instead, so elements of the aborted series would be incorporated into "Nelson's Sparrow".
91	** There were plans to bring back Hotch and Morgan for the GrandFinale but it never materialised due to Creator/ShemarMoore's current commitments on ''Series/SWAT2017''.
92	* WordOfSaintPaul: Matthew Gray Gubler says that Reid is mildly [[http://tvdramas.about.com/od/criminalminds/a/matgraygubint.htm autistic]].
93	* WriterRevolt: "JJ" was an episode loaded with RealitySubtext and double-meanings considering it was the (planned) last episode for the fan-and-cast-favorite character of the same name, such as her referencing her status as being KickedUpstairs caused by [[{{Creator/CBS}} "people above their pay grade"]].
94	* WrittenByCastMember: Kirsten Vangsness co-wrote episodes "Nelson's Sparrow" and "A Beautiful Disaster" with showrunner Erica Messer in seasons 10 and 11, respectively.

Context Trivia / CriminalMinds