Cinematographer Mark Knobil agreed to film this on the condition that he be allowed to film Carl Kurlander asking his dermatologist for money for the movie. This "subversive" style became a part of every scene as a "B" camera was running which Kurlander was not allowed to say "cut" to.
The film is dedicated to Pittsburgh's Late and much beloved Mayor Bob O'Connor who went into the hospital a week after singing "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" with his neighbors at The Point. Bob is seen earlier in the film while he is running for Mayor with a young city councilman who is cleaning up a neighborhood fishing hole. That City Councilman succeeded Bob to become Pittsburgh youngest mayor, Luke Ravenstahl.
Among the many luminaries from Pittsburgh in the L.A. "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" sing-a-long, is Lionsgate producer John Dellaverson (Madea, grand-mère justicière (2005)) who a year later came back to Pittsburgh and helped advocate tax legislation which has brought over $100 million of films to Pittsburgh in the next year.
"My Tale of Two Cities" used the segment of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" where Fred Rogers and "Mr. McFeely" would talk about how things are made as a metaphor for how the real-life "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" is being challenged reinvent itself for a new age, as many of those things are not made in Western Pennsylvania anymore. When filming began in Jan. 2005, the city of Pittsburgh, which a hundred years ago was one of the richest cities in the world, had declared itself "financially distressed." When the film had its sold out red-carpet screening at The Byham Theater on November 28th, Time Magazine had featured an article on Pittsburgh in October titled "Finding One Economic Bright Spot on Main Street", making this truly a comeback story.