Trivia / Fred

• Cash-Cow Franchise: At the height of Fred's popularity, Cruikshank was making over $100,000 a year from YouTube revenue. And that doesn't include all the money he made from licensing the character to Nickelodeon, various commercial appearances and merchandise such as t-shirts and digital albums.
• Creator Backlash: In an article in Variety, Cruikshank said that he retired the character out of fear that it would end up being the only thing he was known for. Considering how poorly his post-Fred projects have gone, this fear may not be unjustified. He was also the first to say that Fred's voice can only be tolerated for so long before it gets annoying.
• Dawson Casting: Self-inflicted—Lucas Cruikshank was 14 when he created 6-year-old Fred.
  • Averted in the movies with Fred, as Lucas was 16 when filming took place and Fred was depicted as a 15 year old there. However, it's played straight with the ages of Jennette McCurdy (17), Jake Weary (19) and Pixie Lott (18) during filming. Fred is the only person in the middle school he goes to that actually looks like he could reasonably be a middle schooler.
    • Possibly inverted with John Cena as Fred's imaginary dad, unless he was around 18 when Fred was conceived (and that's only if Fred's dad is the same age as Cena, any younger then...)
• Direct to Video:
  • Fred's Got Talent was released Direct-to-DVD as a bonus feature on the Fred: The Movie DVD.
  • I Wanna Be A Celebrity was originally released Direct To Digital Download through the official Fred store.
• DVD Commentary: The first film has one by Cruikshank, director Clay Weiner and writer David Goodman.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: How the first series was made. Lucas Cruikshank would come up with a situation, such as "Fred Goes Swimming" or "Fred Loses His Meds," film about half an hour and cut it down to four minutes.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Nowadays, it's much harder to find the old Fred videos from the late 2000s and early 2010s.
• Missing Episode:
  • While still accessible, Fred Fights Over the Computer and Fred Throws a Party! have since been set to unlisted, making them harder to find.
  • Also the infamous "herpes episode" "Fred Gets a Letter From His Dad". The video was taken down, the beginning was cut out, and the video was reuploaded, as demanded by Lucas's talent manager at the time.
  • The videos from Lucas' current channel that made up the majority of the videos in the final story arc of Fred leading up to the finale have been privated by Lucas for unknown reasons, but can be found elsewhere if you look around.
• The Other Darrin: Jennette McCurdy does not reprise her role as Bertha for Night of the Living Fred or Fred: The Show. She was replaced by Daniella Monet.
• Recycled Script: There are two different videos with the same premise that are both called Fred Throws a Party.
• Recycled: The Series: Fred: The Show.
• Similarly Named Works:
  • In an unfortunate coincidence, the first movie has the exact same name as the world's only pro-Fred Phelps documentary.
• Typecasting: Thanks to this show, you'd probably see every character Lucas Cruikshank plays from now on as Fred. A poignant example would be Marvin Marvin, where Marvin basically is Fred.
• Write Who You Know: Fred and his behavior were based on Lucas Cruikshanks' many younger siblings.