21 Jump Street Trivia

©1997+ Cyndi Glass

• David DeLuise (Peter and Michael's younger brother) guest starred as Stephenson (the protected mob witness) in #91 "Number One With A Bullet." He appears only at the beginning of the show (he is the one that Penhall gets shot trying to protect.

• Johnny Depp, as Tom Hanson, ended the "Swallowed Alive" episode (the one where he was in the juvenile detention center) standing across the street from a red brick building with columns (the center) waiting for a kid to be released, while Steve Winwood’s "Can’t Find My Way Home" played. In Johnny Depp’s movie "Benny & Joon," his character, Sam, stands across the street from a red brick building with columns (a mental hospital) waiting to be able to see Joon, as Joe Cocker’s cover of this very same song plays.

• Johnny Depp spent most of the summer of 1997 filming the movie version of Hunter S. Thompson’s story "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas." In season two of 21 Jump Street, Johnny starred in an episode called "Fear and Loathing With Russell Buckins," in which Tom Hanson and Russell Buckins took off on a very similar journey to that of Thompson’s in the story.

• Speaking of Fear & Loathing, John DeCarli points out: "Tim Thomerson, who played the principal in #60 "God Is A Bullet," has a small cameo as a hoodlum in the movie. Depp did not participate in that particular 21JS episode."

• David DeLuise (Peter & Michael’s younger brother) was a recurring minor character on NBC’s "3rd Rock From The Sun" (Bug), and is currently a regular on NBC's "Jesse" (Darren).

• The episode "Equal Protection ," in which a group of African American teenagers is harassed and ultimately beaten by corrupt police officers, was not inspired by the Rodney King beating - it actually aired two months before that even happened.

• At the end of #98 "Under The Influence," McCann invites Fuller to go to a triple movie feature of "Nightmare On Elm Street parts 1 through 3." Fuller says he had heard that was good, and McCann says "1 was the best, but 3’s not bad." If they went to the movie, they saw a familiar face - Johnny Depp, who had played Tom Hanson, had a memorable and bloody role in it.

• Sal Jenco (Sal "Blowfish" Banducci) was a friend of Johnny Depp’s who now co-owns the Viper Room with him and plays drums in his band, "P." They were best friends during their childhood and teen years in Florida, and Johnny even lived in a car with him once so that he (Sal) wouldn’t have to do it alone. In Johnny’s 1996 movie "Dead Man," there is a character played by Iggy Pop named Sal "Sally" Jenco.

• Johnny Depp cast Frederic Forrest (Capt. Jenko) in "The Brave," a movie which Johnny directed, starred in and co-wrote the screenplay for, which was previewed at the 1997 Cannes film festival. The chance to work with this actor is one of the reasons Johnny signed up to be on 21 Jump Street in the first place. Capt. Jenko was killed off after only 7 episodes.

• Episodes #73 "Awomp Bomp AlooBomp Awomp Bam Boom" and #74 "La Bizca" were filmed in Florida (the show was normally filmed in Vancouver, Canada).

• Episodes #70 "Back From The Future," #91 "Number One With A Bullet," and #95 "Film At Eleven" were directed by Peter DeLuise. #70 was a clip show with the characters (Fuller, Ioki, Hoffs, Penhall & Hanson) dressed as if they were old and reminiscing about the past. #91 was the episode where Doug Penhall almost died and went to Purgatory, seeing his parents and Marta, and it was mostly Doug, Joey & Clavo. #95 was mostly about Mac, and Doug didn’t appear in it at all.

• The series finale, #103 "Second Chances," was directed by Steven Williams. It was not the last episode filmed, but it was the last ever broadcast.

• Two of the show’s writers, Morgan & Wong, went on to fame as writers for the X-Files & Space: Above and Beyond. One of their fans has created a web page for them.

• The dubious art of profanity (hehe): These characters, since they were on Fox, were given much more freedom than their contemporaries on the Big Three networks. Bart Simpson created such a sensation by saying "sucks," and these characters said it as a matter of course. Hanson was allowed to yell "Son of a bitch!" in #47 "The Dreaded Return of Russell Buckins" (Feb. 1989), a leftover from Season 3. In Mac’s first episode #84 "Buddy System," he doesn’t make a very good impression on Hoffs, who says "he’s a little prickly today." Penhall agrees, saying "that’s almost the same exact word I was going to use!" In Season 5, you can usually count on a couple of mild profanities per episode.

• Does everyone live in apartment 205? Take a look sometime. 

• The last episode to include Johnny Depp was #81, "Blackout," but only because the producers had held it back to be the season finale. The last episode that Johnny Depp filmed was actually #78 "How I Saved The Senator," in which he performed in a silent film version of, well, how Hanson saved the senator.

• In episode #72, "Hi Mom," the guest stars nearly take over the whole show, so we fans hardly even get to see anyone that we know. Near the end, Hanson shows up to make the arrest, with a nosebleed he isn’t even trying to hide.

• The two-part episode #73 and #74, "Awomp Bomp Aloo Bomb Aloop Bamboom" and "La Bizca" seem to flow together so well...but "La Bizca" was actually shot 5 episodes earlier. #59 "Come From The Shadow," our introduction to Marta, was broadcast as part of Season 4 but had actually been shot a year earlier, during production of Season 3.

This page ©1997+by Cyndi Glass, constructed with Microsoft Office/Word 97.