NAMES & PLACES
When the character of Brent and Danielle’s younger brother first appeared in 1998, he was named Max. The character later returned with the name of Josh, and earlier episodes were edited to reflect the change. Years later, Danielle called Josh by his full name: Joshua Maxwell Taylor—an inside reference to the switcheroo.
The character of Dr. Smith was never given a first name onscreen.
When Sarah and Brent were assigned to investigate a crime in upstate New York, they were told that the theft victim was an heiress named Mimi Yung. When they arrived in New York, however, they met their client… who was named Andrea Yang. No reference was ever made to the switch.
Susan Johnson, who occasionally appeared as Lauren and Josh’s boss at Willis Advertising, was originally slated to become a major character. One episode even contains a winking reference to her story, mentioning that Byron Willis left Susan for his secretary, Shelley.
Shannon Parish was revealed to be Shannon Powell, who had killed her parents in a horrific arson. However, Jason and Courtney had previously made reference to having known Shannon Parish, a skater from a nearby city, for years — meaning that Shannon had to have been a young teen when she killed her parents and assumed a new identity.
The Fisherman’s Pier, Bill’s restaurant, was located on Pier 22.
Alex’s debut novel, which was the subject of a long-running story and was the catalyst for bringing Seth back into his life (and was later adapted into a screenplay with Liam Cassel’s help), has never been referred to by a title.
In early episodes, King’s Bay had an international airport. That was later eliminated in favor of using Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Travis’s childhood best friend (never seen onscreen) was always named Cory, but a few months before the kids became teenagers, his constant friend became Landon — because the character was slated to stick around as a teen, and Cory rhymed with Tori, Travis’s cousin and another member of the teen set.
In 2004, Days of Our Lives exploited magician Roy Horn’s tragic mauling by a tiger—and misnamed him as “Ray Horn” on its website. Variations on the name Ray Horn then appeared several times in Footprints: Kelsey’s coach in Canada was named Ray Horn, and the clerk at the Rusty Bucket motel was identified as Rae Hurn.
Patrick and Rosalyn Brooks, parents of Lauren and Trevor, were never seen in the series until Christmas 2006. They were always said to be on cruises, leaving Lauren and Trevor to live in their house.
As of 2022, the most-married character in the series is Sarah Fisher Gray, a.k.a. Sarah Fisher Taylor Gray Colville Gray, with four marriages (two to the same man, Matt Gray). The runner-up, with three, is Ryan Moriani (two onscreen and one before his introduction to the series).
Sarah also wins for the character with the most on-screen weddings: technically five, because her original elopement with Brent was shown via flashback and then they had a larger vow renewal a few months later. Ryan again takes runner-up, with four: his failed weddings to Claire and Danielle, plus his elopement with Diane and deathbed marriage to Danielle.
BEHIND THE CURTAIN
Footprints’ first episode in narrative form was Episode #144. All prior episodes were written in a modified screenplay format.
Only two episodes have ever broken from the standard third-person narration normally used in FP. Episode #195, set at Tim Fisher’s memorial service, is comprised entirely of short, first-person reflections by each of Tim’s family members. The Christmas episode from 2011, Episode #655, was told in the first person as well, from the perspective of the late Courtney Fisher Chase, watching her loved ones on the holiday.
For one week in July of 2000, FP published shorter daily episodes. It was during this week that Sarah gave birth to Victoria.
The only episode considered non-canon (that is, its events don’t “count” as having really happened) is Episode #319, which was posted on April Fool’s Day of 2004 and features such twists as a mysterious garden gnome and a scandalous affair between Alex Marshall and Bill Fisher.
Footprints announced a switch to “prime-time” style episodes in late 2006. The intent was to produce longer, less frequent episodes that spanned days or weeks and allowed for greater movement in each story per episode. This style was abandoned after two episodes, as it did not “feel like Footprints.”
FP‘s tenth year featured a pair of longer-than-usual ‘special-event’ episodes: Blackout (Episode #468) was posted in November 2007 and was set on the night of a power outage in King’s Bay; Whiteout (Episode #484) was posted in February 2008 and followed Sarah and Diane to the mountains of Central Washington as they searched for a missing Ryan.
During the week of May 19, 2008, daily episodes were posted to celebrate the series’s 500th episode. This week, featuring Episodes #496–500, centered on the grand opening of Jason Fisher’s new Edge of Winter Arena and culminated in the reveal that Sabrina Gage was really Shannon Parish.
In 2008, Footprints participated in the Webseries’ Writer Swap project. As part of the project, Episode #488 was penned by Ira Madison, writer of the series Guasti Cose. FP again took part in the swap in 2009, when Andy Eckles, producer of The Blackthornes, guest-authored Episode #539.
In August 2009, FP once again employed daily episodes for a week. Episodes #554–558 centered on teenagers Travis and Elly running away to Los Angeles after the revelation about Elly’s parentage. The week concluded, however, with a cliffhanger regarding the mysterious character of Loretta, whose connection to the canvas was finally revealed.
Footprints also posted daily episodes during the week of July 16, 2012. Episodes #672–676 centered on Sarah Fisher giving birth to her and Graham Colville’s son, as Graham’s paranoia about Sarah’s relationship with her ex-husband, Matt, built to a dramatic crescendo.
Footprints has had additional staff members over the years: Christina Potter was Story Consultant from 1999-2000; Chris Longo served as Associate Writer from 2002-2005; Matt Kelley served as Associate Writer from 2004-2005.
In December 2002, a maroon-and-white revamp of the site appeared online. It was removed less than 24 hours later and replaced with the then-current purple layout, which it had been meant to replace.
In 1999, Michael launched another series, called In This Life, which attempted a more intimate, character-driven type of drama than FP was doing at the time. The positive reception to ITL nearly caused FP to be cancelled in favor of the new series. As it turned out, ITL wrapped up its six-month run at the end of 1999, and FP matured by taking on some of the characteristics that had made ITL so well received.
Dialogue and action are often jokingly lifted from song lyrics. Gwen Stefani lyrics have been used on various occasions, such as a discussion between Nick and Katherine over her spending habits in Episode #358, and in Samantha’s excited exclamations about a banana dessert at Christmas in Episode #353. And the backstory of Jennie Burkle’s mother’s death (a woman named Caroline who drove her car off a road and crashed into a ditch) was based on the Outkast song “Roses.”
In later years, there have been numerous in-jokes and references to reality TV — such as in Episode #1151, when Loretta and Natalie have an exchange about the charity Homeless Not Toothless that was memorably featured on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
Episode #337, which introduced Katherine’s trio of brash friends, was written as part of a special experiment among the then-three-person writing staff. Each writer wrote only dialogue, without any tags or actions, for a scene, then handed it off to another writer to fill in the rest.
The character of Andy Fitch was spun off to the series Every Time It Rains, created and produced by Donny Avery, in 2001. The series, set in Seattle, featured Andy beginning a new career and life at an architecture firm owned by the prominent Collins family. Maggie Collins Hudson, who was introduced in Footprints as a love interest for Andy, was a major character in ETIR. The new series produced several episodes before going on hiatus; it returned later and “rebooted” for a fresh start, but again was discontinued. In 2007, Andy returned to Footprints to usher his mother, Katherine, out of town, and he reported that he and Maggie had broken up.
The character of Jennie Burkle began as a waitress at the Fisherman’s Pier who posted her observations and gossip about the main characters on a blog. When Jennie was transitioned to a full-fledged character in the story, she was cast with actress Mischa Barton. After only one episode, Barton was recast with Charity Rahmer — who had just been let go after her first airdate as Belle on Days of Our Lives.
STATISTICS
In terms of episode count, the shortest year on record is Footprints‘s debut year, 1997, in which only nine episodes were published (though the series didn’t launch until October of that year). The next shortest is a tie between 2003 and 2013, both of which had 30 episodes posted. The most prolific year was 1999, with a whopping 90 episodes.
As of 2022, the most-married character in Footprints history is Sarah Fisher Taylor Gray Colville Gray, who has been married four times: to Brent Taylor, Matt Gray (twice), and Graham Colville.
Sarah has also had the most onscreen weddings, with five: her elopement with Brent (seen only in flashback); her and Brent’s vow renewal several months later; her aborted wedding on the beach to Matt, later completed in the hospital chapel; her and Graham’s nuptials at their home; and her remarriage to Matt, which took place at Bill’s restaurant, Harbor Boulevard.
ACCOLADES