Trivia / Thunder in Paradise

• Acting for Two: Chris Lemmon, who plays Bru, also played the villain Manuel Santiago in the episode "Deadly Lessons". This becomes a vital plot point in the climax.
• California Doubling: Despite episodes being set in various exotic countries, the entire series was filmed in Florida (mostly Disney World). Some scenes are convincing, making good use of EPCOT Center's World Showcase. Trying to pass off Cinderella Castle as London, on the other hand...
• Completely Different Title: The Hungarian version of this show loosely translates to Lightning Spencer: The Caribbean's Guardian Angel.
• Creator Killer: While he had been cast in prominent roles in films like Just Before Dawn and Firehead beforehand, Chris Lemmon credits his decision to work on this show as the reason casting directors stopped hiring him, effectively having his acting career grind to a halt. As of 2022, he's been doing some Direct to Video movies, with his most notable theatrical role being getting cast in a small role as his dad Jack in Blonde.
• Edited for Syndication: Thunder in Paradise started life as a straight-to-video movie. The movie was cut into two parts and served as the first two episodes. (Some footage cut along the way was added to the episode "Eye For An Eye".) Inverted with the two-part episodes "Sealed With A Kismet" and "Deadly Lessons", which were edited together and sold in stores as Thunder in Paradise 2 and 3, respectively.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The only way to see this show in English is on YouTube. The only official release the entire series got (outside of the TV movies which had a DVD release) was on a DVD set containing the German dub.
• The Other Darrin: Spencer's daughter Jessica was played by Robin Weisman in the pilot movie, and by Ashley Gorrell for the rest of the show's run.
• Production Posse: Was made by the same production company that made Baywatch and as a result, used many of the same crew members.
• Recycled Script: The plot of the episode "Endangered Species" (a wolf child turns out to be the heir of a murdered co-owner of an aviation company, and the other co-owner wants to finish the job) was also featured in an episode of The Wizard with the same title. Before that, it was an episode of Manimal, "Female of the Species". The same writers - Michael Berk and Douglas Schwartz - are credited for all three.
• What Could Have Been:
  • George Foreman was originally offered the role of Bru, but had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts.
  • Prior to cancellation, there were plans for a second season and more TV movies, which would've involved Hammerhead joining Spencer and Bru in their fight against evil. Hogan decided not to sign on for it, as he wanted to go back to wrestling once he signed with WCW.
  • Hogan thought about rebooting the show with himself, Sting, Mr. T, and a female martial artist as the main cast.
• Working Title: Trouble in Paradise and Hurricane in Paradise.