Trivia / Andi Mack

• Actor-Inspired Element: Several of the actors described creator Terri Minsky's process as lifting their personality traits and experiences to enrich the characters they play. For a specific example, Joshua Rush ran into a glass door at the launch party for filming season 1 - which was then written into the fourth episode as his character Cyrus doing the same thing.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Andi, just like her actress Peyton Elizabeth Lee is also part Chinese, though on her mother's side and is one-quarter Chinese, whereas in real life her actress is half-Chinese on her father's side.
  • Cyrus is Jewish just like his actor Joshua Rush who himself had a Bar Mitzvah when he came of age.
• Adored by the Network:
  • Where do we start? Well, the first two episodes were put on the Disney Channel website and app, and Disney actually cared enough to upload episode 1 onto their YouTube channel and also have it for free in various digital stores for a limited time. Then, when the show actually premiered on television, they gave it tons of promotion. It has daily reruns, a primetime premiere slot, a segment where fans of the show have discussions about the newest episode that aired, got renewed for a second season a month after it premiered, and on the day of the season finale, it got a marathon of all the episodes (which was then interrupted by a new episode of Stuck in the Middle, but after that the season finale aired). It should be noted in regards to YouTube, though, that Disney had been (and is still) doing this with the first episode of most, if not all, of their newer shows.
  • A sneak peek of season 2 aired before the premiere of Descendants 2. Also, the show has frequent reruns despite only having twelve episodes that time.
• Approval of God:
  • Emily Skinner and Luke Mullen are quite fond the Kippen Siblings theory.
  • Similarly, Emily and Peyton Lee are quite vocal Ambi shippers.
• Banned in China: The show was banned in Kenya following the season 2 premiere which started Cyrus's coming out story.
• Based on a True Story: As crazy as it sounds, Terri Minsky got the idea for the show from a real life story of a girl who found out her sister was her mother.
• Dawson Casting: This show isn't too egregious about it, but there are a few minor examples:
  • The three members of the Good Hair Crew are supposed to be 12-13. Joshua Rush (Cyrus) turned 15 at the end of filming for the first season, making him older than the high school girl, as Emily Skinner (Amber) turned 14 during filming. She is the same age as Asher Angel (who also turned 14 during filming) instead of (at least) one year older. However, Jonah Beck is one year older than the Good Hair Crew, so Angel being 13-14 during filming is actually right on. Avoided with the girls - both Peyton Elizabeth Lee (Andi) and Sofia Wylie (Buffy) were 12 during filming.
    • Despite a six-month gap in filming between the first and second seasons, the show itself didn't have any kind of Time Skip to account for this. So the episode where Cyrus is having his bar mitzvah (which usually takes place shortly after a boy turns 13) was filmed when Joshua Rush was just weeks away from his 16th birthday - a gap of almost three years in age between character and actor. Asher Angel also turned 15 during filming, making him older than his character, even though he hadn't been during the first season. Even Sofia Wylie will be turning 14 before filming for the second season has concluded, at which point Peyton Elizabeth Lee will be the only actor as young as their character.
  • Lilan Bowden (Bex) would have been 18 if she had given birth thirteen years before the pilot - still technically a teen pregnancy, but it's clear that Bex was meant to be at least a bit younger than that. Trent Garrett (Bowie) is a year older than her - so at least they're consistent with each other if not quite with their onscreen daughter.
  • Averted by Lauren Tom (Celia), who was 55 during filming of the first season - young enough to plausibly have a 13-year-old daughter but still just old enough to play Lilan Bowden's mother without having been teen pregnant herself (she is 23 years her senior).
  • A very straight example in 22-year-old C.J. Strong, who plays Kip, a high school student.
• Deleted Role: A scene featuring Bex's toxic ex Gabe that was intended to give that storyline closure was filmed and the actor's credit was logged on IMDb. For whatever reason, it was cut and the storyline never really got to play out as a result.
• Deleted Scene: According to Joshua Rush, the episode "Cyrus' Bash-Mitzvah!" had a scene cut from it in which Cyrus struggled to open a bottle of apple cider, and TJ helped him loosen it enough that Cyrus could open it himself and get the attention for it.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: In the episode "The New Girls" deaf character Libby is played by deaf actress Millicent Simmonds (of A Quiet Place fame).
• Dueling Shows: With I Am Frankie. Both episodic, both Kid Com and Teen Drama hybrids, both always ending in cliffhangers and both lacking a Laugh Track.
• Executive Meddling:
  • According to several crew and cast members, when TJ looks back in the season 2 finale, it was originally meant to be explicitly directed at Cyrus. In the episode, it’s ambiguous if he’s looking at Cyrus or Buffy. It’s generally assumed that this was to create drama and discussion among fans, as well as to allow Disney to put off dealing with the potential push back from the intended implications of the scene.
  • But despite numerous suspicions from fans, the showrunners have denied this was why TJ and Cyrus didn’t kiss in the series finale. They claimed it wasn't the right time or place – TJ and Cyrus, still supposedly closeted to most people, probably wouldn't be ready just yet, especially not at a party.
  • Although the lack of textuality until the finale is almost certainly due to this, as the Disney waited until the last minute to decide if they would allow the relationship to be confirmed at all.
• Fake Mixed Race: To a degree. While both Andi and her actress Peyton Elizabeth Lee are both mixed White/Chinese, Andi is one-fourth Chinese and three-fourths white, while Peyton is half-white/half-Chinese.
• Fan Community Nickname:
  • 'Friendom', referring to the the idea of the fandom being a positive community of friends celebrating a show about the same. This has occasionally proven ironic.
  • 'Andi Mackers' on a lower scale, although this term is often used in a derogatory way, specifically on Twitter.
• Fandom VIP: Sadie Anne Rue (disneymack on Tumblr and lesbianmcguire on Twitter), who organized a popular project that involved sending 1,000 paper cranes to Disney Channel Headquarters to save the show. While the show wasn't renewed, the cranes were loved by the cast and crew.
• Inspiration for the Work: Series creator Terri Minsky cites an unlikely source for a Kid Com: an article about Jack Nicholson’s family history. Nicholson reportedly learned in his mid-30s that his "older sister" was actually his mother, and his "parents" were actually his grandparents. Though unlike the show, he never got to to confront them about it as his mother and grandparents were all dead by the time he found out.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: A version of Best Surprise Ever with a cut scene implying Cyrus comes out to Andi off screen has circulated around websites like DailyMotion.
• Market-Based Title: The show's title is shortened to just Andi in Israel, while in Germany, the show is called “Story of Andi”.
• Missing Episode:
  • Episode 3x18, which was cut due to the appearance of Ham Mack, played by Stoney Westmoreland who was arrested for soliciting sex from a minor.
  • For the same reason, to the annoyance of fans, a significant number of the series' episodes weren't made available on Disney+. And it's not consistent at all — some episodes that don't include him are missing, while episodes that do include him in flashbacks are still up.
• The Other Marty: Storm Reid was cast as Buffy for the original pilot, shot in Los Angeles in early 2016. She was subsequently offered the role of Meg for the 2018 film adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time and was released from her contract. Sofia Wylie was then cast as Buffy for the second pilot, shot in Utah. (As far as we know, Marty himself has only ever been Garren Stitt.)
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: Cyrus, who is gay, was played by Joshua Rush, who is bi. However, Rush came out after the show ended, making this a retroactive example.
• Real-Life Relative: Jonah's mother Judy Beck is played by Asher Angel's actual mother, Coco.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Actor Stoney Westmoreland, who played Andi's grandfather, Ham, was arrested on December 14, 2018 for allegedly arranging a sexual encounter with a minor. Within hours, Disney released a statement stating that Westmoreland had been dropped from the series, complete with any scenes of him in later episodes being excised.
• Screwed by the Network: Season 3 episodes with Ham in them had all his scenes cut due to the controversy surrounding Stoney Westmoreland. This resulted in some episodes have a shorter run time and the cast having to do reshoots. Season 3 was also the last season of the series; though Disney stated that Westmoreland's arrest wasn't the reason for the show's cancellation. The fans didn't buy it.
  • "Mack Chat", dropped partway through Season 2, was brought back for the last batch of new Season 3 episodes presumably to act as Filler when one ran short due to sliced Ham.
• Sending Stuff to Save the Show: One fan sent 1,000 paper cranes to Disney in order to get them to renew the show, each with a message from fans. It didn't work, but the cast and crew loved them due to the thank you messages.
• Throw It In!: Lilan Bowden has been reported as a prolific ad-libber - not surprising given her background in improvisational and sketch comedy.
• Troubled Production:
  • Creator and nominal showrunner Terri Minsky never left Los Angeles throughout production even though the show shot in Salt Lake City, Utah. Therefore her producing partner Michelle Manning acted as the de facto showrunner on-set in SLC. This created lots of speedbumps in the process of translating Minsky's vision to the finished product that might not have existed if she'd been more hands-on.
  • As noted, many third-season episodes which were "in the can" had to be butchered to take out Ham, completely wrecking any semblance of how they would affect continuity, or even the flow of the episode.
• What Could Have Been:
  • As noted above, Sofia Wylie almost wasn't Buffy. She only got the part when Storm Reid dropped out to play Meg in A Wrinkle in Time.
  • A number of the other actors auditioned for parts other than the ones they eventually landed:
    • Asher Angel auditioned for Cyrus before he landed Jonah.
    • Emily Skinner auditioned for Andi and Buffy before landing Amber. She advanced far enough along in the casting process for Buffy that she was being tested alongside other actors - including Joshua Rush as Cyrus.
  • According to a source, Bob Iger was impressed with the fan campaign to save the show and even got as far as tabling an idea for some sort of sequel project. It was shelved because Iger stepped down from his position as CEO/chairman, Terri Minsky's deal with Disney (which included the Lizzie McGuire reboot) fell through, and, of course, COVID.
• Working Title: "Andiland". Which was changed, according to one insider, "literally[…]to protect the innocent". Needless to say it didn't survive the first Google search.

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