Trivia / Takeshi's Castle

• Adored by the Network: Challenge originally aired the series as a weekend filler beginning in November 2002 in the UK, until it became an unexpected smash hit, and by 2003, was airing for many hours a day on the network's schedule. Even five years later the show was still running in good timeslots because it was gaining very good ratings, and remained as such until Challenge's rights to air the show expired at the end of 2017.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Takeshi Kitano accepted to participate in the show because he loved how it would resemble his childhood's mud games.
• Cast the Expert: Most of Takeshi's bruisers in the show were played by real life martial artists, wrestlers and fighters.
• Defictionalization: The show was originally devised as a re-creation of Super Mario Bros.
• Descended Creator: The show's producer, Kunihiko Katsura, appeared also as one of the sumo wrestlers.
• Incestuous Casting: The Spanish version had a storyline in which General Tani's mother visited him to motivate him back. In the original, she was actually his wife, and was even played by his real life wife, Kikko Matsuoka.
• No Budget: The show started off as this, which explains why there are no life-threatening hazards in the Tazarn Swing Challenge. Just shredded paper, even though it was greatly exaggerated.
• Out of Order: The original Challenge version of the UK version.
• Promoted Fanboy: Several contestants on the revival, most notably a Spanish couple who namedrop Humor Amarillo, were huge fans of the Gag Dubs and joined specifically to compete in the OG.
• Role Reprise:
  • General Tani from the original returns as Captain for the second part of the 2023 series.
  • The Philippine version has Smokey Manaloto returning as one of the commentators for the 2023 series.
• Star-Making Role: The second Spanish version was the hop to fame for commentators Fernando Costilla and Paco Bravo. Even although the latter never really had another hit like this, he's still remembered for Humor Amarillo alone.
• Tom Hanks Syndrome: "Beat" Takeshi Kitano.