Trivia / Lifetime

• California Doubling: A fair amount of the original movies are shot in California, but a bunch are also made in Canada (Vancouver and Ottawa especially), and states with big film production tax credit programs (like Georgia, Oklahoma and New Mexico) also get well-represented. However, the Canadian movies are invariably set in the US, and the non-California movies go for an Everytown, America setting.
• Dawson Casting: Very common for the network's Teen Drama movies. One extreme recent example is 29-year-old Catharine Daddario (Alexandra Daddario's sister) starring as a high school senior in Dying For A Crown.
• Directed by Cast Member/Written by Cast Member: Several of the recurring stars of Lifetime original movies have branched out to the other side of the camera. Brittany Underwood directed 2021's Dangerous Snow Day, and the team of Lindsay Hartley and Jason-Shane Scott (also a Creator Couple at one point) have written several movies (some of which they've starred in as well), with Hartley also directing a few.
• Distanced from Current Events: The Bad Seed (2018) was scheduled to air on May 30, 2022, followed by the premiere of its sequel The Bad Seed Returns. After the Uvalde, Texas school shooting on May 24, Mckenna Grace (who starred in both films and also co-wrote and co-produced the sequel, and also a native of Texas) didn't feel comfortable promoting a movie about a young murderer and Lifetime pre-empted both movies, postponing Returns' debut to September.^note Whether Lifetime's replacement for the Bad Seed movies—a Fifty Shades of Grey mini-marathon—was a more tasteful choice is open for debate.
• Follow the Leader: The Mount Rushmore for Lifetime's current Thriller-focused slate of original movies would seem to be Fatal Attraction (the Yandere), Sleeping with the Enemy (woman tangles with a psycho ex), The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (married couple unwittingly hires a psycho woman to work for them) and probably Mean Girls (high school tales with an Alpha Bitch villain, but in this case always Played for Drama). Probably around 75% of Lifetime movies can be classified as rewrites of those films (several of which also get played frequently themselves on the network).
• Hey, It's That Place!: Specific locations are seen multiple times in many different Lifetime movies. The Los Angeles suburbs of Santa Clarita and Sierra Madre pop up quite a bit, since they have photogenic suburban neighborhoods, some old small-town downtown sections, and they're within the thirty mile zone. The similar mix of quaint neighborhoods and a cozy downtown means that Langley, British Columbia appears frequently in the Vancouver-shot movies.
• No Budget: In general, Lifetime's movies have budgets well under a million dollars and an Absurdly Short Production Time (usually around two weeks).
• Produced by Cast Member: Barbie Castro, who's also a Florida real estate agent, has produced a number of Lifetime movies (mainly the [X] Killer Thematic Series), and also has prominent acting roles in many of them. Her daughter Taylor Castro appears in most of them as well.
• Real-Life Relative: A few examples in its movies. My Husband's Secret Wife went a step further and cast Real Life sisters Helena Mattsson and Sofia Mattsson as In-Universe sisters.
• Working Title: As mentioned on the main page, Lifetime quite often changes the titles of its movies, usually to something more sensationalistic and eye-catching, before they hit air. The filmmakers themselves aren't always thrilled about this. In one podcast interview, Doug Campbell specifically mentions how much he hated Lifetime bestowing titles like Dirty Teacher (originally High School Crush) and Double Mommy on his movies.
• You Look Familiar:
  • The original movies have a rotating set of actors and actresses, and it's quite common to see someone play a hero in one movie, then turn around and play a villain in the next movie. Allison McAtee is a good example: in her Lifetime career she's played a Yandere villain (Deadly Mile High Club), a Cute and Psycho villain (The Wrong House), a sympathetic Gaslighting victim (Deceived by My Mother-In-Law) and a Mama Bear (Cheer For Your Life).
  • Matt Pohlkamp played a handsome, charming sociopathic villain in no less than four movies (Dangerous Snow Day, Deadly Dance Competition, Deadly Garage Sale, The Wrong Blind Date) that debuted over six weeks at the end of 2021 and the start of 2022.
  • Annika Foster co-starred in two movies that debuted within weeks of each other with the exact same basic premise: a young woman learns she has a long-lost half-sister, but the sister ends up being dangerous and psychotic. In the first one (A Deadly Grudge) she plays the heroine, in the second (Sinister Stepsister, though, again, it's about an evil half-sister) she's the villain (and the aforementioned Matt Pohlkamp gets a Nice Guy role as the father).