Trivia / Bob and Margaret

• Adored by the Network: Global Television Network loved the series, which is part of the reason it became such a success in Canada. Not only did they promote the hell out of it during its run, but they had continued reruns of the show for several years after it ended.
• Author Phobia: Alison Snowden drew heavily from her own unpleasant experiences at the dentist when it came to scenes involving Bob's line of work, helping greatly to explain why many dentistry scenes in the show are uncomfortable even with non-dentophobes.
• Banned Episode: YTV pulled airings of the Season 1 episode "The Holiday" as a result of the September 11th Attacks, as the plot of religious extremists hijacking a plane definitely hit too close to home for the time.
• Channel Hop: In the States, the first two seasons aired on Comedy Central, but the last two were shown on Showtime instead.
• Creator Couple: Co-creators David Fine and Alison Snowden are a married couple.
• Creator's Oddball: This show is one of Nelvana's few forays into adult animation, and while they had created adult animated films prior, this show was their first proper TV series for adults.
• Cross-Regional Voice Acting:
  • The show mainly used British actors during the first two seasons, but Canadian talents Wayne Robson and Jayne Eastwood appear as Melvin and Cookie.
  • The Toronto seasons took this to a whole new level, with Alison voicing Margaret back in London and Brian George recording his lines for Bob from Los Angeles, while the entire supporting cast was based in Toronto.
• Descended Creator: Alison Snowden voices Margaret. And while David Fine does not voice any of the central characters, he does cameo as a mumbling pizza delivery guy in the second episode.
• Executive Meddling: The move to Toronto and change in voice actors for the show's third season was necessitated by this, as Channel 4, one of the two main backers of the show's production, dropped out after Season 1, meaning that since the show was now a wholly Canadian production, Canadian Content regulations required the series to be more overtly Canadian. Around this time, Fine and Snowden also significantly reduced their involvement in the series, partly due to being exhausted by production (Snowden even considered stepping down as the voice of Margaret), taking on the role of creative consultants whereas previously they had been the show's head writers and story editors.
• He Also Did: David Fine and Alison Snowden would later go on to produce Teletoon's Ricky Sprocket: Showbiz Boy.
• International Coproduction: Between the UK-based Channel 4 (season 1) and SilverLight Productions (season 2), the American Comedy Central (seasons 1 and 2), Philippine Animation Studio Inc. (seasons 3 and 4), and the Canadian Nelvana and Global Television Network (all four seasons).
• The Other Darrin: Brian George replaced Andy Hamilton as the voice of Bob starting in season 3. Canadian content regulations strike again: the law requires at least one lead actor to be Canadian; George was raised in Canada and is a Canadian citizen. Although George is a talented voice actor, he's not a very good impersonator, and does not really sound at all like Hamilton.
• Unspecified Role Credit: The first two seasons don't credit any of the actors to the characters they voiced - just a wall of names. In the Toronto seasons, Brian George and Alison Snowden receive credits for Bob and Margaret respectively, but for everyone else, again, just a wall of names. The cast list doesn't change with each episode either, and incidental actors such as Christian Potenza and Terri Hawkes go completely uncredited.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The show came about due to the critical acclaim of Bob's Birthday, but originally, it was Universal that wanted to produce the series. However, Fine and Snowden turned them down as Executive Meddling feared the show would be "too British" for America audiences and suggested various changes to Americanize the series, such as changing the title couple to English-Americans.
  • Alison Snowden only took on as the voice of Margaret later into production; the original casting choice of the crew was Helen Fielding, future author of Bridget Jones' Diary and a friend of one of the production staff members.
  • Alison Snowden originally considered stepping down from the role of Margaret for the Toronto seasons to let a Canadian actress take her place, but ultimately changed her mind and chose to remain.

---