35 Things About Shameless Only True Fans Knew

Summary

• Shameless
  almost remade another British series, but the US version of
  Clocking Off
  was scrapped after John Wells discovered the original Shameless script.
• John Wells faced difficulty getting
  Shameless
  greenlit, with various networks turning down the series before Showtime finally gave the green light.
• Shameless
  was almost set in a trailer park, but John Wells insisted on a relatable neighborhood setting to avoid cliches.

Though the show is over now, the behind-the-scenes Shameless facts give insight into how the popular series came together. Based on a UK series of the same name, Shameless stars Oscar-nominated actor William H. Macy as the dysfunctional patriarch of the Gallagher clan, a struggling working-class family on the south side of Chicago. Throughout 11 seasons, Shameless became a beloved series with a wonderful mix of humor and heavy subject matter. With such a long-running show, a big cast, and wild storylines, there are some interesting behind-the-scenes stories about Shameless.

Shameless ended in 2021, but its 11-season run makes it an ideal series to revisit. The rewatching experience is made even more exciting with further knowledge about the making of the series and all the hidden trivia behind it. From developments with the cast to real-life situations affecting the show to the early ideas that never panned out, these Shameless facts serve as a great reminder of everything the show accomplished when it aired between January 2011 and April 2021.

35 John Wells Almost Remade Another British Series

Hearing About The UK Shameless Stopped The US Version Of Clocking Off

While it is widely known that Shameless is a remake of a British series, some viewers might be surprised to learn that the US version was actually in development before the original even aired. John Wells explained during an interview with Archive of American Television that he first learned about the original Shameless while meeting with its creator Paul Abbott on a completely different project. Abbott had great success in Britain, working on Coronation Street and creating Touching Evil, State of Play, and Shameless.

Initially, Wells was going to remake another Abbott series called Clocking Off. This is a BBC One anthology series that follows different people who work at a textile factory but based on their home life away from work. It is an interesting premise because some big-name actors took part in each episode, including Doctor Who actor Christopher Eccleston and Hotel Rwanda Oscar-nominee Sophie Okonedo. However, when Abbott showed Wells the script for Shameless, he got more excited about that idea.

34 Mark Mylod Directed Both Shameless Shows

The Acclaimed Director Kicked Off Both First Episodes

The American version of Shameless set itself apart from the original UK version, becoming its own show and finding its own voice. The show obviously recast all the main characters, but there was one key player in the original series who transitioned over to the American version. Mark Mylod directed the first episode of the UK Shameless and was brought on to direct the first episode of the American version as well.

Mylod ended up directing three episodes of the UK show and 12 episodes of the American. If Mylod’s name sounds familiar, it is because he has cemented himself as a big name in television, having directed hit shows like Game of Thrones and Succession. He has recently found success in the movies, directing the dark comedy The Menu. However, he will return to television to direct episodes of the second season of The Last of Us as well as episodes of the upcoming Harry Potter series.

33 Different Countries Have Adapted The Show

Russia And Turkey Have Their Own Shameless Series

There might be some fans of the US version of Shameless who did not even know that the show was a remake. However, there are even fewer people who know that the series has continued to be adapted in several other countries. Perhaps due to the success of the US remake, various international versions of Shameless have popped up over the years, giving their own take on the story of a dysfunctional family.

The Russian version of the show is called Besstydniki and follows a struggling family in Moscow called the Gruzdevs, which consists of the useless father, the older sister and family provider, and four other siblings. Meanwhile, the Turkish version of the show is called Bizim Hikaye, with the same setup but it is more focused on the romance between elder daughter Filiz and her mysterious love interest Barış, mirroring Shameless‘ Fiona and Jimmy romance.

32 Various Networks Turned Shameless Down

It Took Wells 3 Attempts To Get Shameless Greenlit

John Wells was a veteran of the television world by the time he started working on Shameless. However, even with his past work on ER and The West Wing, Wells admitted in his interview with the Archive of American Television that he had a lot of trouble getting a network to agree to make this new series with him. Wells reveals that HBO held the project and that they worked on it for about a year of discussion and notes back and forth before the network decided not to make it.

NBC was interested, but Wells wasn’t sure the content could be pulled off on network television, and he was concerned it couldn’t be the same show with the network constraints. It was not until his third pitch to Showtime and the casting of William H. Macy that Shameless was greenlit. Throughout the process, Wells remained confident in the story they had:

”
That was easy in a really, really hard way.
I always thought it was terrific material… We’re trying to make a point — and to make you laugh.
”

31 John Wells Warned Of A Lack Of Positive Storytelling

The Creator Of The US Version Of Shameless Was Candid About Its Bleakness

Shameless was often hilarious and there were moments in the story where the characters found happy moments and positivity. However, it was also dark, cynical, and emotionally brutal in a lot of its stories, which was something John Wells embraced. While Wells’ other hit shows plenty of heroic moments with the darker realities of the world of doctors and politicians, he made sure that all the writers working on the show knew the kind of characters they would be dealing with.

Wells reportedly cemented the fact that Shameless was not a redemption storyand those looking for positivity should look elsewhere before Shameless aired. However, Wells also said that he wanted to make it about real people in the real world:

”
There are archetypes in here about how a lot of families live and the people and things that we deal with.
It really is a world in which a lot of people live and have to survive and I was always very, very attracted to that.
”

It can be argued whether the show did ultimately allow for some of those troubled characters to find redemption, but Wells certainly kept his promise that there would be few happy endings.

30 Shameless Was Almost Set In A Trailer Park

The Setting Of Shameless Was Nearly Very Different

In trying to decide where to set the American version of Shameless, producers initially wanted to take the easy route of having it take place in the South and in a trailer park. However, according to The New York Times, John Wells, who developed the U.S. version, was staunchly opposed to that plan, saying that such a setting has already been overdone and often makes for lazy, clichéd jokes and situations. He said that too many shows and movies already make fun of people in those living conditions. He wanted to be more realistic.

While those were comedies about blue-collar people, Wells wanted
Shameless
to be about those even lower on the economic ladder, what he called ”
no-collar
” people.

Wells said that the show would be more effective if the majority of viewers felt like the Gallaghers could be their neighbors, saying “They’re the people who live four blocks down from you and two blocks over.” When describing the show, he emphasized that this was not a show like Roseanne or a show like My Name is Earl. While those were comedies about blue-collar people, Wells wanted Shameless to be about those even lower on the economic ladder, what he called “no-collar” people.

29 Emmy Rossum Wasn’t Allowed To Audition For Shameless

Being Like Fiona Landed Rossum The Role

In a very Fiona move, Rossum refused to accept that, making her own audition tapes and sending them anyway.

It takes a certain kind of actress to play a role like Fiona Gallagher. In an interview with AOL, Emmy Rossum said Shameless‘s producers didn’t think she had what it took. Looking at her work — especially her part in 2004’s The Phantom of the Opera — they thought she was too pretty, too clean-cut, and too glamorous to tackle a role like Fiona. They refused to even give her an audition, convinced she could never land the part. In a very Fiona move, Rossum refused to accept that, making her own audition tapes and sending them anyway.

The show’s producers saw what she had to offer, they quickly changed their minds. Rossum said that she was able to reinvent her career thanks to the role in Shameless, and she said that the reason she made it onto the show was because she never takes no for an answer. “I’m more comfortable proving myself and having to fight an uphill battle than I am if somebody hands me a job,” she explained.

28 Shameless Fans Can Visit The Real Gallagher Home

The Real House From Shameless Is A Tourist Spot

The house that the Gallagher family calls home is one of the main settings on the show and an iconic TV house given how run-down and chaotic it often seems. As it turns out, it is also an actual house in an actual Chicago neighborhood. It’s undeniably authentic, and, as fans tend to do, viewers set about trying to see if they could track down the “Shameless house,” in real life.

While the reputation of the house in the series is not especially welcoming, the owners of the real house have reportedly embraced its celebrity status. The TV house is located at 2119 South Homan Ave, in Chicago, IL. Not only that, but the owners offer Shameless fans the chance to “come inside the gate and take pictures on the porch.” The owners also left a donation bucket on the porch so anyone who comes to get their pictures taken with the house can donate some cash to help with its upkeep.

27 Woody Harrelson Was The First Choice For Frank

He Turned Down The Role Because Of The UK Frank Gallagher

William H. Macy is perfect in the role of neglectful and questionable parent Frank Gallagher and has earned multiple Emmy nominations and SAG award wins to back that up. However, it turns out that Macy wasn’t the first choice for the role, something he didn’t find out about until he met the actor who was first offered it.

In a Shortlist interview he did not long after Shameless began its run, Macy recalled bumping into friend and fellow actor Woody Harrelson, who asked Macy about what he was working on. When Macy responded that he was doing Shameless, Harrelson explained that he passed because he was a fan of the UK version and didn’t think he’d be able to top actor David Threlfall’s portrayal of the character — to which Macy confidently replied, “I can.”

26 Jimmy/Steve Was Never Supposed To Come Back

The Cast Wasn’t Happy With His Character Arc

A major part of Shameless for its first three seasons was the complicated relationship between Fiona and Steve — aka Jimmy, aka Jack — played by Justin Chatwin. While his featured role was reduced to a recurring guest star in the fourth and fifth seasons, as per TV Guide, he was never supposed to come back at all after the end of season three. That was the plan, at least, but the show’s writers and some of its cast were unhappy with the way his storyline was resolved, especially regarding Fiona.

It was decided to “revive” him so that he could make a few more appearances over the next couple of seasons and have his time on the show come to a more satisfying conclusion.

In season 3, a Brazilian drug lord supposedly killed him, but he showed back up at the Gallagher household alive and well in the season 4 finale. It was decided to “revive” him so that he could make a few more appearances over the next couple of seasons and have his time on the show come to a more satisfying conclusion. This gave Fiona a chance to finally proactively end her relationship with Steve/Jimmy during a three-episode arc in season 5, and he finally moved on.

25 Shameless Has A Surprising DragonBall Connection

Emma Rossum And Justin Chatwin Both Starred In The Failed Live-Action DragonBall

Most of the cast of Shameless hadn’t previously worked together, which is remarkable given how amazing their chemistry was. That said, two major cast members were co-stars before Shameless, though it’s probably not something either of them is all that interested in reminiscing about. Two years before working together on Shameless, Emmy Rossum and Justin Chatwin were co-stars in the 2009 live-action film Dragonball Evolution, as Bulma and Goku, respectively.

Chatwin’s Goku is the main character from the DragonBall universe and the protagonist of the movie. Rossum’s Bulma, on the other hand, is a friend of Goku and accompanies him on his adventures as a scientific genius. The movie, which also starred Chow Yun-fat, James Marsters, and Ernie Hudson, was both a critical and commercial flop, scoring 15% on Rotten Tomatoes and only grossing about $58 million worldwide.

24 Justin Chatwin And Noel Fisher Were Roommates

The Actors Found Themselves Sharing The Screen

Justin Chatwin and Noel Fisher might not have been part of the central Gallagher family on the show, but they were two of the most popular love interests of the main characters on the show. Both introduced in the first season, Chatwin played Jimmy, the complex love interest for Fiona who was an on-again-off-again part of her life, while Fisher played Ian’s love interest, Mickey. However, the two actors share a history before the show.

Both Chatwin and Fisher are actors from British Columbia, Canada, and they were actually roommates when they were starting out as aspiring actors (via Movieline). Given the history they share, it would have been fun to see their characters get some real screen time together. Though that never happened, it is charming to see two friends end up on the same hit show together.

23 The Shameless Cast Are All Fake Smokers

Concerns About Authenticity Cut The Number Of Cigarettes On Screen

A lot of addictive behaviors are on display in Shameless, each with varying degrees of danger and legality. In comparison, smoking tobacco is far from the worst thing the characters are seen doing. That doesn’t mean that there still hasn’t been a lot of thought given to how smoking is portrayed on the show. Attentive viewers might have noticed that both Fiona and Ian smoked a lot more in the early seasons than they would later on, and there is a reason for that.

Neither Emmy Rossum nor Cameron Monaghan (Ian) is a smoker in real life, and there was some concern over whether the non-smokers were believably portrayed smoking on screen. For fans who watch Jeremy Allen White aka Lip Gallagher in The Bear, it is likely not a surprise that he is a real-life smoker. When speaking of his costars’ believability in this area, he said (via Vulture):

”
Emmy doesn’t smoke, and Cameron doesn’t smoke either… It is surprisingly difficult to fake smoking if you’re not a smoker; audiences can kind of tell. And so they kind of took that away from Emmy and Cameron and now just have me smoking in literally every scene. I carry the smoking burden completely.
”

22 Morley’s Cigarettes Are A Pop Culture Staple

Shameless Is Part Of The “MorleyVerse”

Even though many of the cast might not share the habit, smoking is a huge part of the series and the characters can frequently be seen with a pack of cigarettes. However, since there is a lack of interest in advertising real cigarette brands on television, the type of cigarettes seen on the show carries the brand name of Morley’s, which is a fake company. However, Shameless is not the only place the Morley cigarette brand is seen, as it has become the go-to cigarette company in movies and TV shows.

The brand was based on Marlboro cigarettes, hence the similar name and the packaging also resemble early Marlboro packaging. Morley’s first appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and can be seen in everything from Platoon and Beverly Hills, 90210 to Breaking Bad, Friends, The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Walking Dead, and Lost. The fake cigarette brand also appeared in several Twilight Zone episodes, including the beloved “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.”

21 Jeremy Allen White Initially Wanted A Different Role

The Actor Wanted To Play Another Gallagher

While many members of the Shameless cast have gone on to do exciting things, it is hard to deny that the biggest star to come out of the series has been Jeremy Allen White. The actor quickly found even more acclaim on a new series with the Emmy-winning The Bear, and his role in Shameless likely had something to do with getting him the part, as his performance as Lip proved he could play talented yet troubled young men.

It is therefore amazing to think that Lip was originally not the role that White had in mind when joining the show. In an interview with Variety, White admitted that when he was auditioning for the show, he was being considered for both Lip and Ian, but the latter role was the one that he wanted. White explains:

I really wanted to play Ian. And then I was told, ‘No, you’re going to play Lip.’ So, I guess that’s the best way to get bad news is like, ‘No, you’re not going to do this one, but you can do this one.’ And then, obviously, I came to really love playing Lip and getting to do it for so long. But yeah, I really chased Ian, and I remember being disappointed when they said, ‘Actually, it’s this guy.’

20 Five Different Actors Portrayed Liam On Shameless

Liam Gallagher Was Recast Many Times

It’s no surprise that baby Liam would’ve been played by twin actors, and, for seasons one and two, those twins were Brennan Kane and Blake Alexander Johnson. Since kids don’t always age quickly enough for a TV show’s liking, his age was fast-forwarded a bit when older twins Brendan and Brandon Sims took over for the next five seasons.

Once Liam’s role grew to be deeper and more complex in season eight, more experienced young actor Christian Isaiah assumed the Liam duties and played the role until the end of the series. Ultimately, the final recasting was deemed necessary because they needed to bring Liam more into the spotlight on the show as he got older and needed a more experienced actor for that. When speaking about the recasting and making the character a more important part of the series, Shameless’ casting director, John Levey shared (via Vulture):

”
The family dynamic made John Wells think that it was important to raise the stakes for Liam and raise his visibility.
”

19 Emma Kenney Expressed Difficulties Working With Emmy Rossum

Kenney Described Anxiety Working With Her Former Costar

Emmy Rossum leaving Shameless was a huge turning point in the series and there are some who feel the show never really recovered from the loss of the main character of the series. However, there was at least one cast member on the show who expressed mixed feelings about Rossum leaving, suggesting things were not always easy when she was on the set.

Emma Kenney played Debbie for the show’s entire run and spoke about her difficult relationship with Rossum, which she likened to a real sister relationship, for good and for bad. She discussed a competitive aspect Rossum brought to their relationship as well as the bad advice she would give her. While she insisted she has a lot of love for Rossum, she also admitted there was a lot of anxiety and negativity when she was on the show (via E Online):

“I remember, pre her leaving I’d go to set some days and I’d be very anxious about having a scene with her, because if she had a bad day, she made it a bad day for everyone.”

18 Mickey Was Only Supposed To Be In A Few Episodes

One Of The Best Shameless Romances Nearly Didn’t Happen

One of Shameless‘s most heart-wrenching subplots was that of the relationship between Ian Gallagher and Mickey Milkovich. The couple’s journey has been such an integral part of both characters’ growth on the show, particularly Ian’s, that it’s hard to imagine that Mickey wasn’t always meant to be a longtime member of the show. Like Justin Chatwin as Jimmy, Mickey was not supposed to have as big of a role as he ended up with.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, John Wells said he only signed actor Noel Fisher on to play Mickey for about a handful of episodes, as that was to be the extent of the character’s appearance on Shameless. The writers quickly noticed Noel Fisher’s chemistry with actor Cameron Monaghan, and Fisher’s role in Shameless was expanded. Though Wells had planned for the relationship not to work out, he found a way to make Mickey’s return feel meaningful, saying:

”
You have a relationship that’s really difficult and passionate and messy, and then you go away from it and you discover the rest of the world, and sometimes you come back to that first person anyway.
”

17 Veronica Got Pregnant Because Her Actress Did

Shanola Hampton’s Pregnancy Rewrote Veronica’s Arc

The Gallagher’s next-door neighbors, Kevin and Veronica, cemented themselves as a pivotal part of the series and the biggest non-Gallagher characters on Shameless throughout its run. Of the many difficult things that audiences saw the couple endure, few have been sadder than their fertility struggles and Veronica being told that she was unlikely to ever have a child. However, that sad realization for Veronica was eventually reversed when actor Shanola Hampton got pregnant during the production of the series.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Hampton said she struggled to have children – like Veronica in the show. When she got pregnant in real life, it turned out John Wells was planning for Veronica to have a miracle pregnancy as well, so it all worked out with great timing. While the pregnancy could have added a difficult element to the production, Hampton revealed the rather easy way of breaking the news:

”
He was like, ‘Great! Because we already have that planned for Veronica, so that means we won’t have to put a belly on you
.
I was like, oh my goodness, this is crazy! And another fun fact: I worked almost right up until I gave birth
.”

16 No Scripts Were Allowed On The Shameless Set

Method Acting Gave Shameless Its Authentic Feel

It’s particularly common on television sets for there to be scripts on set and being studied every time the cameras stop rolling. For Shameless, however, this wasn’t the case. Showrunner John Wells instituted a strict policy of no scripts being allowed on set, meaning the actors needed to come with their role for the day fully memorized. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Emmy Rossum said that Wells wants the actors to play their parts as naturally as possible and that forcing them to have the script memorized helps to ensure that.

This was also not easy, because Rossum said that they would be shooting 11 pages a day, and they had to learn all 11 pages of dialogue if they wanted to get through that day’s shooting without a problem. William H. Macy, on the other hand, said it was rough at his age, but he learns his “lines cold, so I can do them standing on my head.” Given Wells’ acclaimed career in television on shows like ER and The West Wing, it makes sense he was trusted in this way.