Laura Linney's first involvement with the works of friend Armistead Maupin occurred 25 years earlier in the writer's first filmed series Tales of the City (1993).
Murray Bartlett (Mouse) and Matthew Risch (Harrison) had previously appeared together in the HBO, San Francisco-based series 'Looking'.
Paul Gross reprises his role as Brian Hawkins for the first time since Tales of the City (1993). In the interim, Brian was played by Whip Hubley in More Tales of the City (1998) and Further Tales of the City (2001).
In the books and earlier TV adaptations, the character of DeDe Halcyon-Day gives birth to twins which were fathered by an Asian delivery boy. In this updated series, Ani and Raven are Asian twins who live at 28 Barbary Lane, and while they share scenes with the character of DeDe, they don't seem to be related to each other.