Series creator Erik Andrus accredits the movie "Soapdish", and a MAD Magazine satire of a soap opera update, with caricatures of daytime personalities drawn by famed artist Rick Tulka, as his inspirations for "Lust for Life".
In early drafts the Uncle Chip character (voiced by Russell Wolff) was intended to be more villainous. However, when local, veteran actress Sarah Whelan approached series creator Erik Andrus with an interest in doing soap opera, he reconsidered making the head of the core family a ruthless patriarch. Remembering one of Ms. Whelan's previous stage credits included "Eleanor of Aquitaine", Erik created "Delia Wallace Fowler", a matriarch in the same vein yet more puritanical in how she oversaw the antics of her dysfunctional family. Most of Delia's manipulations were originally plotted for Uncle Chip, but the last minute rewrites helped in making Uncle Chip more "sympathetic". In addition, due to Ms. Whelan's acting versatility, another role was created for her in contrast to Delia's malevolence, a much kinder character in that of German psychiatrist, Dr. Frieda Doppelgänger.
Incidentally, Joshua Paffel, who filled in as Dr. Frank Cassata has yet to appear as a different character, mainly because the radio show/pod cast is wrapping up. If there is a Season 2, Erik Andrus has expressed interest in bringing Joshua on board as a new character.
When Elizabeth Barthen had to miss a repeat performance of the premiere episode, Beth Shippert-Myers stepped in for her as Nurse Tawny Fleiss. Beth's performance was so well received by the audience that series creator Erik Andrus created the role of brogue-speaking Nurse Marigold to utilize her vocal talents. Same thing happened with both Francisco C. Torres and Emily Morrison-Weeks, who both substituted for original actors not available in the parts of Ian Victor, Esquire and Olivia Fowler-Cassata respectively. Francisco went on to originate the role of Detective Bana and Emily played a lounge act that captivates the character of Dr. Frank Cassata (Matthew Korda).