TV SERIES · 2007– · USA
Californication
24 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
24 Interesting Facts About Californication
Interesting Facts (21)
- #001
White Famous (2017), which premiered in October 2017 and was co-created by Californication creator Tom Kapinos, brings back several supporting characters from Californication, including Stu Beggs (Stephen Tobolowsky) and Kali (Meagan Good).
- #002
In 2014, GQ ranked Eva Amurri's stripper scene the third most underrated nude moment in TV history, adding that they appreciated her carrying on the impressive tradition of natural breasts started by her mother, Susan Sarandon.
- #003
Pamela Adlon revealed in an interview that in one final-season episode, while lying in bed in her underwear, it slipped far enough to expose her labia; the accidental exposure was left in by the producers.
- #004
Conservative groups in Australia objected to the show's explicit content, and columnist Andrew Bolt attacked it in the Herald Sun over the pilot's opening dream sequence, in which a nun performs oral sex on Hank Moody in a church.
- #005
Camilla Luddington was shooting motion capture for a Tomb Raider video game at the same time as season 5 of this show. The game's action scenes left her covered in bruises, so the makeup team had to hide them for her nude scenes in Californication; she joked in an interview that they probably thought she was being abused at home.
- #006
The show contains the only nude scenes of British actress Camilla Luddington's career.
- #007
David Duchovny's character was modeled on the Los Angeles writer Charles Bukowski.
- #008
The typewriter Hank Moody holds up in the opening credits is a Swiss-made Hermes 3000 from the 1960s.
- #009
Talking about season 5 in an interview, Camilla Luddington joked that she wondered if she was the only one doing nude scenes that season: every episode seemed to have her naked in water, a pool one week, a shower the next, then a hot tub.
- #010
Camilla Luddington said the only uncomfortable part of her full nude scenes in season 5 was the patch covering her vagina: "There's this thing: the modesty patch. It's a little horrifying. It's basically like a flesh-colored panty liner and it sticks to you, and by the way, taking it off is not fun at all. But it protects the areas that need protecting; they frame it so you can't see the cameras. But you're walking around and it's the only thing you're wearing. You almost say, 'Do I have to wear this?'"
- #011
The producers wanted Heather Graham to wear roller skates in a season 7 episode, as she did in Boogie Nights (1997), but she refused because it would make her "feel weird."
- #012
Hank Moody (David Duchovny) smokes Morleys, the same fictional brand as the Cigarette Smoking Man in The X-Files (1993), where Duchovny's Mulder and the Smoking Man are bitter enemies.
- #013
After a scene in which Hank and Sonja smoke marijuana, have sex and throw up, Jim Wallace, national director of the Australian Christian Lobby, called for a boycott not just of Network Ten but of every company that advertised during the show.
- #014
Asked about her funniest moment working on the show, Madeline Zima said there wasn't one: it wasn't a "fun" set, and it wasn't one of her favorite experiences.
- #015
At the Paley Center's 2013 New York Television Festival, David Duchovny explained that he didn't want Gillian Anderson on the show because he wanted to protect the memory of their partnership on The X-Files (1993).
- #016
Creator Tom Kapinos first wanted Pamela Adlon for Karen Van Der Beek, but Adlon preferred to play Marcy Runkle.
- #017
Tom Kapinos says the show grew out of his own frustration after four years as a writer on Dawson's Creek (1998), where he didn't really feel what he was writing.
- #018
Madeline Zima's character is 16 in the first season, while Zima herself was 21 when it aired.
- #019
According to David Duchovny, since the show premiered in the spring rather than the fall, Tom Kapinos wrote every season finale as a possible series finale: the shooting schedule hardly changed, so by the time a season premiered in January, it had already been in production for months.
- #020
The title Californication (2007) blends "California" and "fornication" and goes back to late-1970s and early-1980s Oregon bumper stickers reading "Don't Californicate Oregon." The Red Hot Chili Peppers' 1999 album "Californication" sold over 15 million copies and was still their biggest seller as of 2009.
- #021
When Network Ten premiered season 2 in Australia, the Christian fundamentalist group Salt Shakers ran an email campaign urging advertisers to pull out, and 49 companies did, including the show's main sponsor, Just Car Insurance.
Characters & Cast (1)
- #022
David Duchovny didn't want to do television anymore; worn out by The X-Files (1993), he said he took this show because he liked the relationship between his character, Hank Moody, and Becca, played by Madeleine Martin.
Easter Eggs & References (2)
- #023
Whenever people asked him to bring Gillian Anderson on as a guest star playing Hank's lover, David Duchovny said he never would, because he wanted to protect the special bond between Mulder and Scully.
- #024
In season 7, Hank Moody's illegitimate son is named Levon, after the Elton John song; it's also "novel" spelled backwards.
Related pages
- Tomb Raider — Californication comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work