Trivia / The Big Comfy Couch

---

• Acting for Two: All of the main actors acted for two, or in some cases three or four, at various times. For example, Alyson Court played Loonette (at least for the first six seasons) and one of the Clowns of Clowntown, and Bob Stutt performed Molly, Fuzzy and Snicklefritz.
• Cast the Runner-Up: The role of Loonette was initially created with Grindl Kuchirka in mind. Kuchirka, however, felt she was too old for the childlike role, and so Alyson Court was cast instead, while Kuchirka was cast as Granny Garbanzo.
• Channel Hop: In Canada, the first five seasons ran on YTV. By 2002, Treehouse picked the series up for two more seasons and they subsequently retained the broadcasting rights until 2011.
• Completely Different Title:
  • In Canada, France and the Wallonia region of Belgium, the show was released as Le Monde de Loonette ("The World of Loonette").
  • For the Latin American and European Spanish releases, the show was renamed El sofa de la imaginación ("The Couch of Imagination").
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: A common mistake made about this show is that many people tend to believe that it was a PBS Kids original. While it was aired on many PBS stations, the show was actually syndicated by American Public Television.
• Dawson Casting: Alyson Court was in her late teens when she auditioned for Loonette and was nearly 30 during her last season. Likewise, Ramona Gilmour-Darling was also nearly 30 when she took over the role.
• Directed by Cast Member: The Canadian French dub was directed by Daniel Lesourd, who also dubbed Wuzzy.
• Executive Meddling: The seventh season would only be greenlit by executives if it tackled ways to combat childhood obesity. This resulted in a cooking segment and a tai-chi segment being added.
• Fake Russian: Canadian Grindl Kuchirka affects a Russian accent as Granny Garbanzo.
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Loonette's clown suit was baggy enough to hide the fact that her actress Alyson Court was pregnant in her last season.
• In Memoriam: The sixth season's second half was dedicated to head puppet builder Karen Ohland, who died of cancer on April 12, 2002.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The Canadian French, European French, Latin American Spanish and European Spanish localizations haven't seen an official home media release on DVD or Blu-ray.
• Late Export for You: The series didn't reach Israel until at least the Turn of the Millennium.
• Live on Stage!: It had one by Koba Entertainment called Molly's Fool Moon Festival.
• Network to the Rescue: FilmRise, the series distributor since The New '10s, began streaming the series on YouTube in 2019, but after the episode titles were mixed up on Amazon Prime, it was the least they could do.
• Newbie Boom: FilmRise made the show easily accessible for the first time towards the end of The New '10s, creating a wealth of interest and new fans.
• No Budget: The show had a relatively small budget for each episode.
• Only So Many Canadian Actors: Given that the show was produced in Canada, some of the actors and crew have also appeared on other Canadian works. For example, Cheryl Wagner, Bob Stutt and Rob Mills previously worked together on Fraggle Rock.
• The Original Darrin: Alyson Court came back after nearly a decade and a half to portray Loonette for a segment on This Hour Has 22 Minutes addressing the "creepy clown" phenomenon in the United States.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Alyson Court, the original actress who played Loonette, left the show after the sixth season due to growing up and wanting control of her personal life. She was replaced by Ramona Gilmour-Darling for the final season.
  • Jackie Harris played Eileen Foley for the first two seasons. Beginning with the third season, she was portrayed by Suzanne Merriam.
  • For the Latin Spanish dub, María Fernanda Morales dubbed Loonette for the first six seasons. In the final season, the character was voiced by Cristina Hernández.
• Out of Order: The show's episode titles were thrown askew when FilmRise released it on Amazon Prime.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: One rumor is that Steve Burns married Alyson Court, which is false as Court is married to Z.M. Thomas since 2019 and Burns is currently not married. Court cleared this up by stating that fans misread her saying in a tweet that Steve is her "buddy" as "hubby" which led to the rumor being spread.
• Posthumous Credit: Head puppet builder Karen Ohland succumbed to cancer on April 12, 2002, less than one month before the sixth season's fifth episode premiered. Despite this, she's still credited for her work on that season.
• What Could Have Been:
  • If Unseen64 is to be believed, there was going to be an Xbox game based on the show at one point.
  • According to Defunctland, there was also going to be an animated series called Molly Goes to Clowndergarten and a feature film based on the show titled Get Comfy, but these never came to be.
  • Cheryl Wagner had Grindl Kuchirka in mind for Loonette during the early stages of development. Kuchirka, however, had other ideas.
• Working Title: An early title for the show would have been Get Off the Couch!, but it was renamed The Big Comfy Couch since the creators felt it was too authoritarian.

---