Everyone loves mermaids – and if you were watching TV in the 2000s you wouldn’t have missed these three! H20 Just Add Water was a show about three ordinary girls – Rikki Cleo and Emma – who got turned into mermaids! The show was a big deal then, and it’s still popular today. So how much do you know about the show and the stars? Read on to find out if you’re a H20 expert!

If you’re looking for other TV show facts, we have loads! Just look at these Mr Bean facts, these Jenny Ortega facts, or for something a bit different check out these Naruto facts!

Now, let’s get back to Mako!

1. It has a huge following!

Even though the show ended in 2010 it’s still got a lot of fans! It’s been remembered lovingly as classic early teens TV by a huge audience – and it’s still watched by a lot of people! The show is still being played on TV networks around the world, so it’s no where near being forgotten about yet! We’ll come back to it’s popularity a little later in this list!

2. Rikki couldn’t swim!

Cariba Heine, the actor who plays Rikki Chadwick, wasn’t very good at swimming at the start of the show – so they had to hire an instructor to give her one-on-one lessons! Thankfully she improved really quickly! A mermaid who can’t swim would be pretty embarrassing!

3. Every season starts with a full moon!

As the girls get their powers from the moon – this only makes sense. The moon is the source of their powers and it’s what kicks off a lot of the events in the show. So it’s important that we get reminded of it with a shot of the moon at the start of each season!

4. The Mermaids have their own gems

You know Emma, Rikki and Cleo’s lockets? They each have gemstones set inside that reflect their powers. There’s blue for Cleo, Emma has white and Rikki has red. As well as being connected to their powersm they also match their personalities.

5. They match their colour schemes!

The mermaids gems fit a colour scheme that they all have – and which isn’t obvious, but you can see it in their outfits and accessories. Emma has white and blue, Rikki has red and black and Cleo has purple and pink! Did you notice?

6. It was only supposed to be two seasons!

The show was originally planned to be two seasons long – but it was so succesful they had to keep on making episodes! And again and again! In the end there were 78 episodes over 3 whole seasons – and then there were the specials and box sets! Turns out mermaids were just what the people wanted!

7. They REALLY were popular!

It was first shown on Australia’s Network Ten and by 2009 it was being broadcast in over 120 countries with a worldwide audience of more than 250 million! Australia doesn’t have a huge TV industry, so this was huge news to get such international success!

8. It was filmed in Sea World

Lots of the swimming scenes were filmed in the big tanks at Sea World – a global chain of aquariums that keep lots of dolphins and whales. Sea World is quite controversial for how they look after their animals, but it was the perfect place to film mermaids! Probably because it was built by humans!

9. The setting is all real

The show is set in the Gold Coast, a beautiful part of Queensland statre. It’s near to the trendy city of Brisbane and is home to lots of surfers and miles and miles of coastline full of caves. So it’s the perfect place to set the show! If you’re a superfan of the show, you can visit some of the locations in real life!

10. Mermaid spin-offs!

The locations in H20 were also featured in the shows spinoff series – the Mako Mermaids and Mako Island of Secrets! The spinoffs continue the adventures and magic of the original show, and like Gold Coast – Mako Island is a real place that you can visit if you want to! Fun fact – Mako means sharp tooth in Polynesian, which is where the Mako shark got its name!

11. Filming was really hard

Filming a TV show where the cast all had giant flexible tails was really hard. Off camera, the tails made it much harder for the actors to swim, so the producers had to be really careful when filming – especially the underwater scenes. They even had mini cranes on set to lower the actors in and out of the water!

12. Those tails!

The mermaids had to swim in custom made and fitted, a tail used for stationary shots, and a different tail for stunts. The tails took six months to build, and they needed casts of the actors legs and made up of hundreds of hand-crafted scales. The finished product weighs between 12 and 15 kilograms, and a huge 40 kilograms when wet! Argh!

13. The actors went on to great things!

The stars of H20 all went on to star in other big TV shows – and for them Mako was just the start! Cariba Heine, Phoebe Tonkin and Clair Holt have starred in things like the Vampire Diairies, Mean Girls 2, Westwood, the Originals and many many more! They’ve also all been nominated for awards!

14. The theme song!

The soundtrack to H20 is a classic all in itself! The theme song called No Ordinary Girl. Its actually sung by a different singer at the start of each season – with Ellie Hendersin, Kate Alexa and Indiana Evans singing it in series 1, 2 and 3. Indiana Evans is in the show too – she plays Isabella Hartley!

15. Mermaid stories forever!

Mermaid stories will always be popular, and have been for a really long time! Old stories get remade (just look at the Little Mermaid) and H20 is another great example of how magic and the deep sea will always be exciting to us land-lubbers. We’re looking forward to even more mermaid stories in future! H20 remake, anyone?