Trivia / Shimmer and Shine

• Acting for Two:
  • Dee Bradley Baker voices Nahal, Talah, Parisa, Nazboo, and all the animal characters.
  • In the Polish dub, Magdalena Krylik voices both Shimmer and Shine.
• Adored by the Network: It didn't exactly take up excessive airtime, but being renewed for a 4th season should indicate that this is true. Nick executives also cited it as one of their flagship preschool properties (and cartoons in general) and gave it tons of promotion. It even got a float for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. However, it eventually got screwed as mentioned below.
• Channel Hop: Beginning with "A Lightning Colt for Shaya/A Special Delivery" new episodes aired on the Nick Jr. channel.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Averted with Shimmer, Shine, Leah, Zac, and Kaz being voiced by child actors, but played straight with Princess Samira and Zeta. The former five are played by actors of roughly the same age, but the latter are teenagers voiced by Niki SooHoo and Lacey Chabert.
    • Leah eventually plays this straight; her voice actress, Alina Foley, was 12 by the time the series started. It's even noticeable by Leah's Vocal Evolution, to go along with the age.
    • And now Shimmer and Shine play this straight as well, with their voice actresses now in their mid-teens.
  • Also played straight with Afina, the glitter genie, and Layla. They're both teenage genies voiced by Julie Nathanson and Danica McKellar.
  • Liliana Mumy voices Ayla, a teenager.
  • Kimberly Brooks has also lent her voice to various teenage genies.
• Descended Creator: Zeta's sister Gigi is voiced by series creator Farnaz Esnaashari-Charmatz.
• Late Export for You: Due to Nickelodeon Portugal not having a Nick Jr block, the show was left unaired there until it premiered on Canal Panda on April 1, 2017.
• Names The Same: There is actually a 1993 episode of [Series/Desmonds] with the same name.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Due to Blake Bertrand going through puberty, season 3 has Zac being voiced by Justin Felbinger.
  • Kellie Pickler voiced Captain Zora in her first appearance before Kate Higgins took over later on.
  • Shaya was voiced by Kin Santiago in Season 2 through 3. In Season 4, he's voiced by Hudson West.
  • Misha was voiced by Jewel in Season 3 and Kailey Snider in Season 4.
• No Dub for You: The series was seen on the 2018 relaunch of Nickelodeon Japan, but it aired in English with Japanese subtitles. Ironically, that's the way some anime is released in the US.
• Out of Order: The hourlong episode “The First Wish” was the first produced episode, but was aired as the Season 1 finale in the US and a prologue of Shimmer and Shine remembering the episode’s events was added to the beginning.
  • Tragically, this episode was also skipped in all other countries until then. The only exception is Israel, where it aired in November 2015.
• Referenced by...:
  • Black Mirror: In "Arkangel", Sara watches an episode of the show when she is a child.
• Schedule Slip: The show only aired one episode a month after originally having multiple episodes air over several months (mainly about 2-3 times per month).
• Screwed by the Network: Despite being adored by Nick Jr. and getting plenty of merchandise and promotion, the show's viewers decreased over the years in favor of being succeeded by Nella the Princess Knight. The show eventually moved to the Nick Jr. channel and only aired one episode a month, as part of the channel's "Girls Rule Sundays" programming block. The show ended in February 2020 with little fanfare and the lack of a proper conclusion.
• Similarly Named Works: Both SpongeBob SquarePants and Dragon Tales also have episodes called "All That Glitters".
• Time-Shifted Actor: Zeta and Samira are voiced by Lacey Chabert and Nikki Soo Hoo while their younger selves are voiced by Ryan Bartley and Brennley Brown in the episode "Samira And Zeta".
• What Could Have Been:
  • During early development, the show was to rely on Zac. He was to be much younger and wore a bear hat, had blue eyes, and was to have a genie named Mia (renamed in the final concept as Shimmer). This photo explains it all.
  • A pilot was completed in 2013 but never released to the public.

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