Trivia / Search Party

• Acting in the Dark: An unintentional example: John Early's habit of not reading ahead in the scripts had the effect of making him perform every scene involving his character making false claims of being a cancer survivor in the first season under the assumption that he was telling the truth.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Chip is incredibly talented at arts and crafts (having a degree in visual design) and also regularly impersonates his elderly aunt to avoid attracting suspicion toward himself. His actor, Cole Escola, is best known for playing Chassie Tucker, a middle-aged woman, on the arts and crafts based comedy series At Home With Amy Sedaris.
  • Ann Dowd previously played Cole Escola's Amazingly Embarassing Parent in At Home With Amy Sedaris. Here, she plays his character's Nosy Neighbor who he ends up murdering. Her character also has a serious nut allergy that leads to her death, which happened to another character during a film she appeared in.
• Actor-Shared Background: Both Dory and her actress, Alia Shawkat, are of Iraqi descent.
• All-Star Cast: While the show utilizes Darkhorse Casting for its leads, many prominent guest stars appear throughout, including Ron Livingston, Rosie Perez, Parker Posey, Jay Duplass, Louie Anderson, Wallace Shawn, Christopher McDonald, Ann Dowd, and Susan Sarandon. The final season adds Jeff Goldblum, Kathy Griffin and John Waters to the mix.
• The Cast Showoff:
  • Meredith Hagner (Portia) gets to show off her impressive singing voice at two different points in season 3 and another time in the series finale.
  • Cole Escola's penchant for performing in drag is used to great effect throughout season 4, where his character is regularly made to dress like his elderly aunt.
• Development Hell: The show was greenlit for a third season soon after its second ended, but it took a full three years before it ever saw the light of day.
  • Averted with the fourth season, which managed to be completed just before the COVID-19 pandemic forced countless other shows and films to be put on stand-by.
• Directed by Cast Member: Jay Duplass, who plays the recurring role of Elijah, has directed several episodes of the series.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine:
  • Griffin Newman, who plays Chantal's ex-boyfriend Gavin, is the comedy partner of John Reynolds (Drew).
  • Similarly, Elliott's publisher Nia is played by his actor John Early's comedy partner Kate Berlant.
  • John Early and Cole Escola (Chip) previously starred in At Home With Amy Sedaris together.
• Making Use of the Twin: April and June are played by actual twins Phoebe and Claire Tyers.
• Production Posse: Michael Showalter, Sarah-Violet Bliss, Charles Rogers, and John Early all previously worked together on Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp. Michaela Watkins, who joins the cast in season 3, also had a role in First Day of Camp.
• Promoted Fangirl: Carrie Brownstein is a self-described super fan of the series and got to direct the season 3 episode "A Dangerous Union".
• Queer Character, Queer Actor:
  • Every gay character that has appeared thus far has been played by a gay actor, most prominently John Early as Elliott.
  • Alia Shawkat is bisexual and Dory is revealed to be bi in the last season.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Julian getting Put on a Bus in season 3 was due to Brandon Micheal Hall being busy filming God Friended Me. In the previous season, the character was Demoted to Extra due to Hall being busy filming The Mayor, although he still received series regular credit.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: While dressed in drag, Cole Escola (Chip) bears a surprisingly strong resemblance to Susan Sarandon, his character's aunt and biological mother.
• What Could Have Been: According to Charles Rogers, the media was originally going to give Drew the nickname of "The Cuck Killer" while covering his trial in season 3 to match Dory's nickname of "Gory Dory". This was eventually removed in favor of having Drew gain a legion of adoring Fangirls in the vein of Ted Bundy to contrast Dory becoming a social pariah and highlight the differences in how the media portrays young criminals who are men versus those that are women. Traces of this initial idea can still be seen in the final script, with both the opening statements of the defense and prosecution at the trial treating Drew getting cuckolded as an inarguable fact despite the reality of the situation being far less straightforward.