When it comes to our favorite TV shows, our main focus is usually on what happens on screen and we rarely put too much thought into what goes on behind-the-scenes. However, as This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman reminded us, there’s so much that goes into making a series—especially one that has had such an impact on television—beginning with an initial idea and following that idea through careful planning, editing and inception.
In fact, the showrunner recently revealed some shocking facts about the history of This Is Us. For example, did you know that the drama series was originally named something else?
“It was originally called 36, which is the age they're all turning at the beginning," Fogelman said in an interview with Glamour. “I didn't like it. I had done a series of movies where I had never titled them and no one can agree on the title. I threw 36 on it, and then I never liked it. Nobody ever liked it. I came up with This Is Us, I think when I was in editorial. I decided I liked how it looked at the beginning [of the show], and I put it in there. But, there was a lot of debate over what the title of the show was gonna be.”
While the original name may come as a bit of a surprise, it’s not the first interesting fact we’ve heard about the show. Cosmo previously reported that Fogelman originally wrote 36 This is Us as a feature film with Jack and Rebecca Pearson giving birth to octuplets (!). However, he struggled with getting the idea to fit a feature film and realized it was better suited for a television series.