Raising Hope/Trivia


 * Acting for Two: Cloris Leachman plays both Barbara-June "Maw Maw" Thompson and her 104 year old mother Norma June Thompson in "Mother's Day".
 * Actor Allusion: In the episode "A Germ of a Story" when watching home movie from Virginia's childhood, Burt says Maw Maw looks like the neighbor from The Mary Tyler Moore Show - Cloris Leachman's character on that show.
 * Virginia calls the whipped husband played by Ethan Suplee from the episode "Baby Monitor", "...a skinny version of the dude from Mallrats." Ethan Suplee did play that character in the movie.
 * Smokey Floyd, played by Jason Lee A.K.A Earl Hickey, calls Barney (Gregg Binkley) "Kenny" by accident. Guess the name of the character Binkley played in My Name Is Earl...
 * Smokey Floyd returns in "Making The Band" with a list of people he's wronged that he is making amends to, complete with My Name Is Earl theme music, he is joined by the actors who played Randy, Darnell, Joy and Catalina as well as TV's Tim Stack.
 * In the It's a Wonderful Plot episode, Maw Maw plays the angel. Cloris Leachman once played this role in It Happened One Christmas, a gender-flipped version of It's a Wonderful Life. There was also a version of the It's a Wonderful Plot when Leachman was on The Facts of Life.
 * Friday Night Death Slot: The fourth (and final) season moved to Friday.
 * Playing Against Type: Garret Dillahunt, who is better known for playing sociopaths and other unsavory characters, as the loving yet dumb and harmless Burt Chance.