Actor-Inspired Element: Dr. Sam Weizak was a Polish refugee who fled during the Nazi invasion of Poland and later states, when asked by Johnny, that he would kill Hitler even if it meant his death. Herbert Lom himself had to flee his home country of Czechoslovakia during its Nazi occupation.
Dawson Casting: While holding Dr. Weizak's hand, Johnny flashes back to the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 where he sees Sam as a small boy being urgently given by his mother to a group of people fleeing the occupying forces by horse-drawn wagon. Though Weizak's age is never disclosed in the film, Herbert Lom himself was actually in his early 20s and turned 22 while the invasion was happening.
Fake American: Most of the supporting cast is Canadian.
Playing Against Type: Herbert Lom, best known for playing over-the-top characters and villains (most famously as Dreyfus in the The Pink Panther movies), playing the restrained, and kindly, Dr. Weizak.
Bill Murray was the first in mind for the leading role.
David Cronenberg wanted Hal Holbrook for Sheriff Bannerman, but Dino De Laurentiis had never heard of him, so Tom Skerritt was cast instead.
Write What You Know: Before his accident, Johnny Smith is an English teacher. Stephen King was also an English teacher before becoming a full-time writer.
The series
Died During Production: The original showrunner, Michael Piller, had been diagnosed with head and neck cancer before the show had even started. After the first 13 episodes of Season 2, he became too sick to keep running the show and acted only in a consulting role.
While still credited as Executive Producer, he was no longer leading the writers' room or rewriting scripts for theme or continuity or ongoing arcs.
Online production blogs indicate that Karl Schaefer was showrunner for the last six episodes of Season 2 and then Season 3, followed by Tommy Thompson in Seasons 4 - 5.
Piller consulted on individual episodes as health allowed during Seasons 3 - 5 (most notably "Symmetry" in Season 5). However, as Season 4 - 5 were filming, Piller was so sick that he was instant messaging the writers' room from home.
Piller died shortly after Season 5 had been filmed (but before it aired).
The team behind the show did not reveal Piller's illness and lack of involvement until after he passed away.
Season 1 was originally ordered and funded as a big budget, major network TV show to air on the UPN broadcast network in the fall season of 2002.
But a new UPN regime decided not to air it and the show was sold to a cable TV network, USA Network, which usually aired low budget procedurals and comedies in the summers, not psychological horror and dramas from the mind of Stephen King.
The show had also been budgeted as a major network show and was much more expensive than other USA Network shows, but it was a smash hit and USA Network renewed for Season 2. However, for Seasons 3 - 6, USA Network found the show's major network budget model a strain, especially with annual cast salary increases that had been budgeted for the higher UPN scale.
USA Network cut the budget for Season 3, meaning Kristen Dalton was laid off and Dana Bright vanished.
With Season 3, USA Network also mandated a standalone format, so the ongoing arcs and characterization were now isolated to the premiere episodes, finale episodes and one episode in between.
Season 3 originally had a two part finale: "Tipping Point" (Parts 1 & 2). Part 1 revealed that Johnny's psychic powers were killing him and without brain surgery (that would remove his powers), he would die. Part 2 would have Johnny shot in the head; he'd survive, but brain surgery was now impossible, meaning Season 4 would have Johnny racing the clock to stop Armageddon before he died. Part 2 was filmed and completed. Showrunner Michael Piller wrote a series bible for Season 4.
USA Network suddenly intervened and refused to broadcast Part 2, so Season 3 had 12 episodes instead of 13.
The network renewed the show for Season 4, but as part of their 2005 marketing campaign, they wanted all their 2005 shows to be what they called "blue skies programming," lighthearted, no running arcs. They would not allow the original plan for Season 4 to go forward as they found it too dark.
USA Network ordered that the original "Tipping Point: Part 2" be re-edited and partially reshot into a new Season 4 premiere called "Broken Circle" that would ignore Johnny's impending death, creating a Series Continuity Error. Season 3 ends with Johnny told that if he doesn't get brain surgery, he will die. Season 4 begins with Johnny in the hospital, leaving without getting surgery, and never mentioning his need for life-saving brain surgery again; the next episode has him in perfect health.
USA Network also ordered 23 new episodes for 2005 and 2006, to be aired across two years as two separate seasons of 12 episodes and 11 episodes. They mandated no running arcs so that there would be no set episode order.
This allowed USA Network to get two seasons out of the cast while only paying them for one year's worth of increased salaries.
For the sixth season, USA Network had the budget cut again with three more regular cast members laid off and the filming location moved from Vancouver to Montreal.
All of these cuts meant that Johnny's visions would use fewer and fewer visual effects as the show progressed, with the visions now presented through video editing. Location filming also became less evident with episodes confined to a small number of interior sets, greenscreen effects for some outdoor shots, and the sixth season (and series) finale taking place mostly on the set of Johnny's house.
USA Network cancelled the show after Season 6 citing rising production costs, but the show was down to two original cast members, a few standing sets, few extras, filming in Montreal, almost no visual effects, and nearly no location shooting. Likely, the issue was that the cast salaries were still subject to annual increases on a major network scale as originally negotiated with UPN. Probably, USA Network, being a cable TV network, couldn't afford to pay Anthony Michael Hall and Nicole de Boer the salaries they'd be entitled to for a seventh year.
Prop Recycling: Johnny Smith's cane also appeared in the 1994 TV miniseries, The Stand. It also was used in the 1999 TV miniseries, Storm of the Century. The head of the cane was changed, however.
Anthony Michael Hall noted that, when it was revealed that the show wouldn't be renewed for a seventh season, the writing team planned on resolving the loose ends with a Made-for-TV Movie. Needless to say, that fell through.
One wonders how Michael Piller would have handled the Executive Meddling in Seasons 3 - 6. He must have been dealing with it in Season 2, but then he became too sick to keep going.
The Series Continuity Error with "Tipping Point" was actually resolved in the original story treatment for the Season 4 premiere, "Broken Circle". The outline reveals: Johnny's neurological condition, headaches, blackouts and impending death are due to his visions with his future self creating a circular psychic feedback loop that is damaging his brain. Johnny ceases all physical contact with his future self, breaking the circle ("Broken Circle"). However, this explanation in the story outline was not conveyed in the shooting script or the finished episode.
