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The Show
* If a cast member likes the clothes they wear for the show, they can buy them for half price.
* There are regulations for kids' shows that the producers for Shirley have to follow, including no alchol can be seen, even just the bottle and if anyone is riding a bike, they must wear a helmet.
* Bo's last name was originally going to be "Zawaduk". (Aren't you glad they changed it???)
* Shirley Holmes is aired in 65 countries!
* There were plans to make a Shirley Holmes movie and Showtime was interested in airing it, but two production companies were fighting over it, so the idea was canned.
* The character of "Alicia" was originally going to be either Chinese or Japanese
* Shirley Holmes is now airing in Germany, Italy, The United Kingdom, The States, Australia, Brasil, and Canada
* The character of Shirley Holmes was first introduced in a series of books published in Britain. The character was 8 years old, but when Credo Entertainment decided to make Shirley Holmes a series, they changed her age to 12 and had her solving more complex mysteries.
* The food for the cast and crew is provided by a restaurant called Ammici's
* The girl's Sussex Academy uniforms are from Balmoral Hall School For Girls and the boy's uniforms are from St. John's-Ravenscourt School in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
* Sussex Academy is actually the Manitoba School for the Deaf in Winnipeg.
Cast and Crew
* On the back of Meredith's chair, there is a sign that says "Kick here please for Doug's sake and memory".
* Sarah Ezer has a watch she wears as Molly, but it doesn't work, and since Sarah can't stand not knowing what time it is, she wears her own watch as well, but hides it under her shirt sleeve.
* Meredith and Annick (and any other cast members under the age of 16) are only allowed to work 8 hours a day, but Sarah and John (and anyone over 16) can work 10 hours. Sometimes, if things are running overtime, they will skip any scenes that have Sarah or John in them, but not Meredith or Annick, so that the two younger ones can wrap within their 8 hour limit and the other two can stay later to shoot their scenes.
* The hair lady for the third season is names Catrina and the make-up lady is Joyce. The make-up trailer has polaroids of all the cast up all over.
* Meredith's mom and dad take turns coming to Winnipeg to be with her on the set. Soemtimes her grandfather takes over guardian duties as well.
* For The Case of the Open Hand, the kids who were playing the gang members had to take a Karate class to prepare for their roles.
* The next time you watch The Case of the Exploding Puppet, pay attention to the character of Albert (he's the guy that's always with the girl who ends up putting the bomb in the bunny) - that's Richard, the assistant director for the show.
* The cast usually eat BLTs when they get to the set in the morning. Throughout the day, they can ask for whatever food they want, and they get an hour for lunch break.
* The crew didn't know that Meredith had cut her hair before shooting the third season.
* When the show first started shooting, the then 12-year-old Meredith was quite intimidated by 15-year-old John. Now, however, they are "like brother and sister"
Shooting
* When a newspaper article is needed on the show, they write one paragraph that relates to what the article is supposed to be about, then they just copy that paragraph a few times to make it seem like a longer article.
* In 'Baby Fingers', Meredith was supposed to actually drive the car that her and Bo 'bought', but it wouldn't start, so they ended up having to pull it.
* While filming a campfire scene at Bird's Hill Park in Winnipeg, they kept having to stop filming because wild turkeys were falling out of the trees! They roost there and sometimes lose their balance and fall out, which creates tons of noise.
* Also during a camp fire scene, the crew was letting a dog and a couple of cats just roam in and out of the shots. During one take, the cast burst into laughter and no one could see why. Then they noticed: one of the cats had stuck its head into a plate of beans and had a bean stuck on its whiskers!
* The wardrobe people get some of the casts' clothes - including Alcicia's - from Le Chateau
* The cast and crew of Shirley were supposed to go to Barbados to film the last episode of the third season, which takes place in the jungles of Rwanda, but because their budget went over, they had to create a jungle in Winnipeg.
* The market place in the last episode of the third season is actually a huge set built behind a matress factory.
* At lunch, any cast members who are wearing their wardrobe for the show have to wear "lunch shirts", which are old plaid shirts that they put on overtop of their clothes so nothing spills on them.
* If any money is going to be seen on the show, the actor dealing with it has to try and cover the fact that it's Canadian currency because the show is broadcast all over the world. Either that, or American money is used.
* The director carries a hand-held TV screen on which she (or he - the directors change) can watch what is being filmed without having to sit behind the camera.
* The area where the actor's trailers are is known as "WinneyLand".
* When the cast is shooting at the Shirley Holmes studio, a siren goes off when they are beginning to shoot, which signals people to be quiet.
* The cast is picked up from their hotel by a production van around noon each day to go to work. Their work day usually last as late as midnight.
* The epsiodes are filmed in "blocks", each consisting of two episodes, which means that the cast is sometimes filming scenes for 2 different episodes in one day.
* 12 "regular" extras were chosen for the show to play Shirley's classmates - if you pay attention to extras, you'll notice they always have the same ones at the school for continuity. They're referred to as "The Terrible Twelve" on the set.
Cryptic Creature
* "The Case Of The Cryptic Creature" was originally titled "The Case Of The Cryptic Hum"
* In the scenes where there's a boat full of people, there was a crew member lying on the floor of the boat while the scenes were filmed.
* In the scene where Shirley and Bo are "attacked" by the seamonster when they're in the dingy, it's a diver in a wetsuit rocking the boat.
* In the scene where Shirley is talking to me (the red-head) after we get off the boat, the shots of John that they cut to are actually shots from the previous scene with John and Captain Fergie. They weren't shot with Meredith and I.
* In the shots that have Meredith and I in them, she's standing on an apple-box to give the illusion of her being higher up on the dock than me. The reason for this is, we filmed a shot of myself, Meredith, and John on one part of the dock, but once it came time to shoot just me and Meredith, the sun had moved. We had to move farther back on the docks, but in order to keep the same effect, Meredith had to stand on a box.
* The episode was filmed on the Red River (the Redington River doesn't exist) near Brandon Street in Winnipeg.
* The cast and crew's lunch hour had to be later than usual because there was a school near by and they didn't want our lunch to be the same time as the school's, in fear of having all the kids come and try to talk to Meredith and John.
* Meredith & John have an acting coach who is on the set to help them with their lines. She also acts as the coach for any kids who are on the set.
* The picture of the sea monster wasn't drawn by me - one of the crew members went to art school, so he drew it.
* A couple of lines were cut from my scene with Shirley. It originally had Shirley ask me to draw the picture, instead of me just going ahead and sketching it.
Misc.
* Anyone who's read the "Behind-The-Scenes" report on the official Shirley site that is supposedly by Meredith should know this: She didn't write most of it.
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