Trivia / Atlanta

• Acting for Two: In the "Teddy Perkins" episode, Donald Glover plays Earn in a brief cameo as well as the titular Theodore "Teddy" Perkins, although in the end credits he's credited as as "Teddy Perkins As Himself".
• Actor-Shared Background: Van, like Zazie Beetz, is half-German.
• The Cameo: Former NFL quarterback Michael Vick appears as himself in "Money Bag Shawty".
  • Liam Neeson shows up in "New Jazz", meeting Alfred in a bizarre nightclub and referencing his race-related scandal from a few years prior.
• Cast the Expert: Bryce Hitchcock, who plays the acoustic guitar cover of "Paper Boi" that goes viral on Youtube, is an actual Youtube cover artist and singer. According to Hitchcock, she made the cover version herself and it was so spot-on, the series creators didn't make a single adjustment.
  • The drug dealers in "Go For Broke" turn out to be rap group Migos as themselves.
• The Danza: Cree Summer plays a woman named Cree in the finale, though considering how the finale shakes out, it's very possible she was playing herself.
• Defictionalization: Lemon Pepper Wet (Chicken wings with lemon pepper seasoning and Buffalo sauce) has never been served at J.R. Crickets restaurant in Real Life, but the popularity of the show and customers inquiring to try the wings eventually led J.R. Crickets to create Lemon Pepper Wet for real and served it in their restaurant.
• Method Acting: Donald Glover apparently remained in character as Teddy Perkins throughout all of the episode's filming. The illusion was so complete that Lakeith Stanfield, the only cast member not told the actor's identity, didn't know who it was under the makeup; naturally curious, he tried to engage the mystery actor in conversation between takes to find out more details about him, only for Perkins to give him a pre-prepared life story.
• Reality Subtext: Like Paper Boi, Brian Tyree Henry lost his mother after the first season of the show, and his grief hangs heavy over his storylines from the second season onwards.
• Recycled In Space: Described by Donald Glover as "Twin Peaks with rappers."
• Sleeper Hit: Many critics have noted this, since it is a rather unconventional show with an entirely black main cast. However it receives relatively high ratings and has critical acclaim.
• Schedule Slip & Series Hiatus:
  • The second season didn't premiere until March 2018 due to Donald Glover's busy work schedule between the two seasons, including working on his third studio album "Awaken, My Love!" and his commitment to Solo.
  • The third season was constantly delayed due to Lakeith Stanfield, Brian Tyree Henry, and Glover's tightening schedules, with Stanfield being busy with Sorry to Bother You and Knives Out, Henry being busy with Eternals, and Glover having to produce his last album and promote The Lion King (2019). While it was able to resume filming in early 2020, it was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with its release date being pushed from January to an unknown date in 2021 and then delayed again to March 2022.
• Star-Making Role: For Brian Tyree Henry, Lakeith Stanfield and Zazie Beetz. In fact, Donald Glover was pretty much the only member of the main cast who was already a known star prior to the show.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The network execs suggested that Paper Boi live in a grungy, dilapidated building in order to highlight his shadiness. Glover then pointed out that it'd make no sense for a successful drug dealer to live in absolute squalor, since by definition, successful drug dealers tend to have money.
  • Glover has said that the execs only wanted the n-word used in the sense that one character says it and then other characters say that it's wrong for them to use it. Glover and what he termed a "white translator" managed to convince the execs that omitting the word hampers natural African-American dialogue.

---