Trivia / Central Park

• Acting for Two:
  • Along with his regular role as Birdie, Josh Gad also voices Ernst Von Gunten in the episode "Where There's Smoke".
  • Kristen Bell plays Molly in Season 1 and Abby Hunter in Season 3.
• Adored by the Network: Before the show premiered, Apple TV+ renewed the show for a second season. After the first season ended, it was renewed for a third season before the second season could premiere.
• The Cast Showoff: Most of the voice actors have singing experience since most of them have sung in Broadway musicals.
• Channel Hop: Originally planned for debut on the Fox Broadcasting Company, but it got shelved. Eventually, Apple bought the rights to have this series developed.
• Creator's Favorite: Songwriters Elysse Samsel and Kate Anderson have both revealed their favorite songs from the show. Elysse's favorite is "Too Close", because she enjoys the duo of Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells from The Book of Mormon, and Kate's favorite is "If There's a Will", because the song helped define Helen's character.
• Crossdressing Voice:
  • Bitsy and Helen are voiced by Stanley Tucci and Daveed Diggs, respectively. In fact, even their foreign dub voices are voiced by males.
  • Cole's friend, Enrique, is voiced by Stephanie Beatriz.
• Descended Creator:
  • Josh Gad, one of the creators and executive producers, voices Birdie.
  • In addition to co-writing the songs, Elyssa Samsel plays the violin for Birdie's solos.
• He Also Did: Francisco Angones, best known for co-creating DuckTales (2017) along with Matt Youngberg and the writer and story editor for Kid Cosmic, became the supervising producer of the show during Season Three and wrote two episodes, "A Matter of Life and Boeuf" and "The Brandenpire Strikes Back".
• In Memoriam: At the end of the credits of "A Matter of Life and Boeuf", there's a memoriam for Edward Asner, the voice actor of Ambrose Brandenham, who passed away on August 29, 2021.
• Non-Singing Voice: Fran is normally voiced by Janelle James, but Yvette Nicole Brown does her singing voice in Season Two.
• The Other Darrin: In June 2020, it was announced that Kristen Bell, who is Caucasian, would no longer voice the biracial Molly, amid the George Floyd protests. Come Season 2, Molly is now voiced by Emmy Raver-Lampman, with Bell playing new character Abby, Paige's sister, in Season 3. This change was announced the same day as the announcement that Caucasian Jenny Slate would no longer voice biracial Missy on Big Mouth. Other animated shows have seen Caucasian actors step down from voicing non-white characters, including The Simpsons, Family Guy, and even Miraculous Ladybug.
• Playing Against Type: In the Japanese dub, Mitsuru Miyamoto, a voice actor well-known for voicing manly, powerful voices, like Roger Smith, voice Helen, an old lady.
• Pop-Star Composer: Many episodes feature famous guest composers, including:
  • Season 1: Sara Bareilles, Darren Criss, Fiona Apple, Cyndi Lauper, Meghan Trainor, Aimee Mann, Anthony Hamilton.
  • Season 2: They Might Be Giants, Regina Spektor, Ingrid Michaelson, Michael Bublé.
• Posthumous Credit: The Season 3 episode "A Matter of Life and Boeuf" was released a year after Ed Asner's passing, which featured his final performance as Ambrose Brandenham.
• Production Posse:
  • Since Loren Bouchard is one of the creators, some of the voice actors from Bob's Burgers have lent their voices to the show, such as Eugene Mirman, David Herman, Brian Huskey, and most notably H. Jon Benjamin.
  • Songwriters Elysse Samsel and Kate Anderson wrote the songs for Olaf's Frozen Adventure, which starred Josh Gad and Kristen Bell. In addition, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, the composers for the original Frozen and Frozen II, were guest composers in Season 2.
• Quietly Cancelled: After the third season wrapped up in November 2022, Apple TV+ stayed silent for a whole year regarding the show's fate. It wasn't until December 2023 that fans found out what became of it when co-creator Josh Gad confirmed on social media that the show had been cancelled.
• Real-Life Relative: Emmy Raver-Lampman, the new voice of Molly, is the life partner of Daveed Diggs, the voice of Helen.
• Renewed Before Premiere: The show was renewed before the first season even premiered and was renewed for a third before the second season even aired.
• Those Two Actors:
  • Kristen Bell and Josh Gad have acted against each other before in Frozen.
  • In France, the show also reunites some voice actors from the French version of Frozen: Emmylou Homs (Anna) as Molly, Bernard Alane (the Duke of Weselton) as Bitsy and Guillaume Beaujolais (Hans) as Helen.
  • Leslie Odom Jr., Daveed Diggs, Christopher Jackson, and Emmy Raver-Lampman were in the original Broadway line-up of Hamilton. Rory O'Malley also starred in the first U.S. tour.
  • Josh Gad, Rory O'Malley and Andrew Rannells were in the original Broadway cast of The Book of Mormon.
• Time-Shifted Actor:
  • While Stanley Tucci voices Bitsy in the present day, Keala Settle voices her as a young woman.
  • In "The Shadow", Henry Winkler plays older Hank while Gavin Creel sings for young Hank in "A Moment Forever Ago".
• Troubled Production: While specific details haven't been shared, many animators allege that the working conditions on the show, as well as other Bento Box series, were horrible, to the point where they were relieved that the show was cancelled.
• Unspecified Role Credit: The credits lists the main cast first and then all the additional and guest voices without telling who voices who.
• What Could Have Been: The storyboard for "Little Good" reveals Abby was originally going to have short hair and no glasses.

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