Trivia / Touched by an Angel

• Acting for Two: Roma Downey as Monica and her Evil Twin Monique.
• Actor Allusion: Rose's story in the season 8 episode "The Bells Of Saint Peter's" guest stars Doris Roberts as a older woman who is sticking her nose in the affairs of the life of a younger woman she is related to. Sound familar?
• Adored by the Network: The show had disastrous ratings in its first season, thanks to its lousy Saturday night time slot. But letters from loyal viewers convinced executives to not only not cancel it, but move it to Sunday, where it became a smash hit.
• Breakaway Pop Hit: The show's soundtrack produced "Somebody's Out There Watching" by The Kinleys.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor:
  • In the wake of his own stroke, Kirk Douglas portrayed a man recovering from a stroke.
  • Taylor, an angel with Down's syndrome, is played by Chris Burke, who has Down's syndrome in real life.
• Executive Meddling:
  • The original concept toed the line between "God Is Evil" and "Humans are just another of God's Wonderful Toys", but CBS fired the creator when he refused to write more idealistic episodes.
  • A positive example when the show was moved from the Saturday night death slot to Sunday (which aside from having long been CBS' powerhouse, made perfect sense given its religious tone) and promptly became a ratings hit.
  • And a negative example when it was moved back to Saturday in its 8th season, (in what was very likely an attempt to kill it off, much like what was done to Murder, She Wrote nearly a decade prior) where ratings plummeted again and the show was cancelled after its 9th season.
• Friday Night Death Slot: Saturday, rather. Where the show was originally scheduled before being moved to Sundays and then moved back in its 8th season.
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Roma Downey was pregnant during the second season, and as Monica couldn't conceive for obvious reasons, this trope was employed.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Roma Downey can sing. Monica, her character, cannot.
• Real-Life Relative: In "And a Nightingale Sang", William Daniels and his wife Bonnie Bartlett played a married couple named George and Loretta.
• Screwed by the Network: As mentioned above in Executive Meddling.
• Those Two Actors: Bill Smitrovich and Chris Burke, who had appeared on Life Goes On, appeared in the episode "Great Expectations". True to form, while they were a loving father and son in the first show, now Smitrovich's character is dismayed at the fact that his unborn child will have Down's Syndrome and be like Burke.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Bill Cosby was originally going to make a guest appearance as the "Angel of Fun", but this was cancelled when his son Ennis was murdered. He subsequently appeared in two episodes as the Angel of Reconciliation. (He is sent to reconcile a father with a son the father thought was dead. Cosby's theme was "Never mind old quarrels, you should be glad your son is alive"...)
  • The entire series was meant to focus exclusively on human suffering, and how it exists in our world because God is a bit of a practical joker, and amused by it. Also, the original idea for the angels was that they were humans who had died and become the servants of God, and possessed the power over life and death.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Gerald McRaney guest-starred as a surgeon in one episode and as Russell Greene (patriarch of the Greene family, the subject of the Spin-Off Promised Land (1996)) in another.
  • Wendy Phillips guest starred in the very first episode and as Claire Greene (Russell's wife) in another.