It’s crazy to think how popular the TV series Teen Mom has become since it debuted. We have Teen Mom 2 and Teen Mom OG now, too. There is just something about reality shows that just get us hooked, even though we know deep down it’s not all “reality.” We like seeing people in real-life scenarios that we can relate to, real situations that can make us care about the characters on the show.

Four women were the ones that started off the Teen Mom franchise by giving us a bird’s eye view into what it was like to have a baby at a young age. The first four were Amber Portwood, Maci Bookout, Farrah Abraham and Catelynn Lowell. The franchise has grown since then and there are more girls who are telling their stories. The show was a lot more popular than expected and these girls became stars because of it. Everyone wanted to know what these girls would be doing next because it was pretty obvious they did what they wanted regardless of being on national TV.

Many of these girls have grown up by now and have grown into responsible adults. We love hearing their stories and what’s even better is finding out what goes on behind the scenes. Check out these 20 facts only producers know really happened behind the scenes of Teen Mom.

20 Amber Portwood Shouldn’t Have Been On The Show

Amber Portwood definitely has had a rough journey in her life and she experienced a lot of it in front of the world. We’re not sure why she chose to go through a turbulent time while on the show because it seems to have made things worse because it’s not just her - the world is talking about everything that she goes through.

One reality TV expert feels that she should have left the show for a period of time. Ashley Majeski, who runs The Ashley's Reality Roundup and wrote a book about the show, was interviewed in Cosmopolitan and said,

"There was a time for Amber specifically when she should've stopped filming, in my opinion. She wasn't mentally prepared, or mature enough, to deal with the money and fame in addition to her own issues. I don't necessarily fault the network and producers, but I think that they did exploit her."

19 Kailyn Lowry Doesn’t Like Kylie Jenner

Kailyn Lowry and Kylie Jenner certainly have things in common, like being on reality TV. They have both had their lives out there for all the world to see and judge. Like the rest of us, Kailyn has checked out the shows that have depicted the lives of the Kardashian-Jenner clan.

Hollywood Life reported that Kailyn criticized Kylie for trying to “glamorize” the notion of being a young mom. Which is really ironic considering Kailyn is on a reality show about young moms!

18 The Crew And Cast Are All Friends

There is a huge crew behind the making of Teen Mom. There are producers roaming around as well as the camera crew. One thing that we don’t see onscreen is the friendships between cast and crew.

According to MTV News, there are huge bonds between the children, moms and crew. Each mom has their own producer and a crew member that is specifically assigned to them. The crew and cast have become a family that works together. We would love to see a show where it’s just behind-the-scenes stuff so that we can see what’s real and what’s fake. Is that too much to ask?

17 Briana And Kailyn Had A Fight

Who doesn’t love a good girl fight? With so many women on the show who have very different personalities, there was bound to be a fight at some point. Kailyn didn’t like having Briana near her kids. To her credit, the teen mom has tried to calmly talk to Briana about the issues that they have between them.

She knew that Briana was going to be part of Javi’s life and just wanted things to be straightened out. The conversation didn’t go very well, however. This was not filmed and the producers were able to pull them apart.

16 Farrah Isn’t A Fan Of The Cast Or Crew

Farrah Abraham is definitely one cast member that wasn’t always seen in the best light on the show and now that she is off the show, she has plenty to say about it. She was trouble on the show because she would be yelling at the producers and acting like a diva on set.

She has made it known that she’s not a fan of the cast or crew. She told Cosmopolitan, "So I’m going to just keep it real with you: I don’t think of [the producers] as friends, or family. I’ve seen how real the world is. To me, this is just work. This is my job."

What’s more surprising is that she said that when she was still a member of the cast!

15 Sometimes The Cops Have To Be Called

There are many things that have been seen on the show which have troubled viewers. We often wonder how these things are allowed but we don’t see the behind-the-scenes action. In Touch Weekly reported that a source claimed that sometimes the cops do have to be called because of behavior on the show.

"We’ve called the police on cast members over the years, and let the cops handle the situation," the source explained. "We have also called CPS on cast members plenty of times when we see things in regard to the children that don’t seem right. Viewers don’t see everything. They would probably never know what's happening behind the scenes. The cast member may not even know it was us, to be honest."

14 Producers Have To Report Illegal Activity

There is a lot we don’t see on the show and that’s because they don’t air the fact that producers have to report certain things to authorities. There have certainly been a lot of questionable things on the show and sources assure fans that things are taken care of.

A source told In Touch Weekly, "We are required to report anything we see to the higher-ups [producers] who will tell us what to do and handle it from there. This would include anything we see that is illegal happening..."

13 The Cast Didn’t Get A Lot Of Money At First

When the show first aired, producers weren’t even planning on keeping it around, so the cast of the show was not paid anywhere near what they get paid now. At the beginning of the franchise, the cast members were only paid $5,000 each.

These days, the cast members are living large, or at least a lot larger than they used to. Some now have the opportunity to get into business ventures and even buy new houses because of the show. They definitely weren’t rolling in the dough before.

12 Producers Are Warned Not To Confront Cast Members

Some of the cast members on the show have been in some pretty volatile situations. There are always security guards on set in case anything crazy starts happening but producers are actually advised to not get involved with things that they might see.

Viewers assume that producers have the power to handle the situations that they see and they don’t. Not only are producers advised against confronting cast members because of their safety but also because they have no legal authority to take kids away from parents. They can’t just step in and get the parents in trouble. They aren’t the police, so they could just be involving themselves in a situation that could be dangerous for no reason.

11 Amber’s Sad Childhood

It wasn’t long before viewers got a sneak peek into the sad childhood that Amber had because it was evident in everything that she did throughout her teen years. The specifics of what happened in her childhood were never discussed on the show. But Amber wrote a memoir called Never Too Late, which was published in 2014.

It provided us with more information about the dark side of her childhood.

10 Their Job Is To Capture The Reality Of A Situation

What a lot of fans don’t realize is that it’s the producer’s job to capture reality as it happens. If they went in and stopped every situation from happening, then it wouldn’t be depicting reality at all.

Many fans freaked when they saw video footage of Ryan Edwards falling asleep in the car. "That footage (and almost all car footage) is captured on Go-Pro cameras installed on the dashboard," a source told In Touch Weekly. "We do not have a live feed to watch the cast in their car, despite what some viewers think. We do not have live eyes on them the whole time we’re filming them.”

9 Jenelle Hasn’t Always Been Happy About The Show

It can be tough on the girls of the show because they aren’t always depicted in the very best light during filming. Sure, they usually do these things to themselves but still, they are basically kids raising kids, so you expect them to mess up from time to time.

Jenelle Evans is one cast member who hasn’t always been happy with the show. She’s gone through some serious trials that were watched by millions of people. According to New York Daily News, Jenelle posted to social media in 2016, "I'm pretty convinced MTV constantly wants to make me look like the most horrible mother ever..."

8 Maci’s Ex Used A Dating App While Married

It’s pretty common knowledge that if you are in a relationship, you probably shouldn’t be doing any swiping on any dating app, even if it’s just for fun. Maci’s ex Ryan, who is the father of her first child, was one of those guys who liked to see what else was out there.

Ryan is now married to Mackenzie so it’s even worse for him to be doing that. According to OK! Magazine, he’s a really big fan of Tinder.

7 Producers Love Editing

One thing that producers love to do behind the scenes is edit the footage that they have. It wouldn’t be the first time that a cast member has said that her words were taken out of context and that’s because it was edited in a certain way.

Teen Mom 2’s Jenelle Evans has stated that the show is not always reality and that’s thanks to editing. She will often post on social media about her unhappiness with certain scenes that only show the dark side of her life.

6 The Show Has Actually Decreased Teen Pregnancies

When Teen Mom first came on the scene, a lot of mothers freaked at the idea that their kids would be watching the show. They thought that the show would encourage more kids to go out and get pregnant, but that isn’t the case at all.

The franchise has actually had a positive effect on the teens that watch it. Statistically, there has been a decrease in teen pregnancies. According to PopSugar, via an article in The New York Times, "This kind of programming can be credited for decreasing the teenage birth rate by up to 6 percent." There ya go, Moms!

5 The Show Was Just Supposed To Be One Season

Who would have thought that a show about teen moms would last as long as it did? The producers certainly didn’t think it would. The show was originally just meant to be a “filler” show and wasn’t meant to last more than one season. Instead, it became such a massive hit that they had to keep it on air.

Producers told Cosmopolitan in 2017 that the show had been meant to fill the time while they were waiting for the next season of 16 & Pregnant to be done with filming.

4 Tyler and Catelynn Baltierra Had A Curfew

Sounds hard to believe, right? Well, it’s true. When it came to this couple, they were restricted because they had a curfew. They were only allowed to film after school and had to be home early to do homework.

"I can remember, during the first two seasons, only being able to film with Catelynn and Tyler from 4 p.m. to about 8 p.m. because [Tyler's mom] Kim had a rule that they were not allowed to film past 8," producer Kirsten Malone said, according to Insider. "They had school and had to do their homework, which I thought was fantastic. It did not make our jobs easy, but we did it, and we're still super respectful of the kids and their schedules.”

3 The Show Is Scripted At Times

Sometimes you've got to watch out for those cameramen spilling the beans! A former cameraman went on Reddit AMA in 2012 and leaked that the show is scripted. The AMA was later deleted but not before fans found out that the storylines aren’t always real.

"The storyline is heavily produced by the director," the cameraman said on Reddit. "It gets to the point where the director is feeding [the cast] lines."

2 Jenelle Got In Trouble Backstage

It is no surprise to anyone that Jenelle and her mother did not always get along. Every year the Teen Mom crew gets together and talks about what went on in the season once it’s over. Earlier in the year, the crew witnessed things getting heated between Jenelle and her mother backstage. Her mother had custody of her son, Jace, and Jenelle wanted to take him with her. Jenelle walked out with her son and put him in the car and drove off.

According to Us Weekly, the producers were forced to call the police because she was not allowed to have her son.

1 The Crew Stays Away From Unorthodox Parenting

The crew may not like some stuff that they see the parents do behind the scenes but unless it’s illegal, they will generally stay out of it. The cameras will continue to roll even if the parents are doing questionable things.

"It's not illegal to yell or scream at your kids, so even if we don't agree with how [a cast member] is parenting, we cannot call the cops for something like that," a source told Us Weekly. "We can't step in if that's how someone parents."

That can be frustrating to watch but it’s true, sometimes you have to let people parent the way that they want.

Sources: Cosmopolitan, In Touch Weekly, New York Daily News, OK!, The New York Times, Insider