25 Facts You Probably Didn't Know About True Blood

19. True Blood... For Kids!

As one of the most graphic shows on television, True Blood doesn't exactly lend itself to a child-friendly adaptation, but the popular cartoon Phineas and Ferb once paid homage to the program in a vampire themed episode entitled 'The Curse of Candace'. In the episode, the main characters visit the cinema to watch a vampire movie called Early Evening, which parodies the teen franchise Twilight. Parents who are fans of HBO may have spotted that the two main characters in this spoof are actually voiced by the two leads of True Blood, Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin. The real life couple play a vampire and his lover in the episode, mirroring their relationship on True Blood. To confuse the lines of parody further, Paquin's character is named Kristin in homage to Kristen Stewart, the actress who played the lead character Bella in Twilight.

18. Look After Your Pearly Whites!

While it's hard to imagine vampires frequenting the dentist on a regular basis, actor Stephen Moyer is so protective of his prosthetic fangs that he has an assistant who regularly cleans them using mouthwash and keeps them safe every night. That's not all though: while working, Moyer keeps one set of his prosthetic fangs on him at all times and stores another three identical pairs in another part of the set. Think that's a bit overly protective? Moyer has even insured each set of his sharp pearly whites, just in case something bad happens to them. It's hard to imagine that each set would break or go missing all at once, but then you can never be too careful in the town of Bon Temps...

17. Snake Bite

Over the years, different TV shows and movies have made their mark on vampire mythology, interpreting the classic Dracula prototype in a variety of different ways and True Blood is no different. One subtle difference the effects team have implemented on the show is in their design of the prosthetic fangs the vampires wear. Visual FX Supervisor Jon Massey has stated that the physicality of the vampire teeth is based on rattlesnake fangs and the team even worked closely with a wild animal trainer in order to replicate this effect successfully. The fangs lie flat along the roof of the mouth and are designed to click into place when the vampire is aroused or ready to feed, making a sound like a weapon being loaded. Only two forefront teeth are fixed between the fangs and this was a deliberate choice that was intended to set the True Blood vampires apart from others of their ilk.

16. Dry Humping

It's not just about the prosthetic fangs though; another important aspect of creating the authentic undead look is in the make-up. While all of the actors obviously have some cosmetics applied before shooting, the crew claim that the makeup for the vampire girls takes the longest to apply, sometimes up to five hours. Considering the extremely adult nature of True Blood, the makeup artists have also had to contend with copious amounts of nudity. During sweaty sex scenes between human characters covered in full tan body makeup and vampires covered in full white body makeup, there have been numerous smudging issues which the crew have to overcome using spray tans.