Wissenswertes

On the May 19, 1981, broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), Alan Alda related his experience of attending the film's 1976 premiere in Westwood (which had Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft in the audience). Alda said he probably laughed harder than anyone in the crowd, and once the movie had ended, he approached Brooks and Bancroft to compliment them on a job well done. According to Alda, Bancroft didn't miss a beat and responded, "Oh, that was you laughing? You see, Mel? I told you SOME idiot would find this funny!"

The villainous company Engulf & Devour is a spoof of Gulf + Western, which between 1965 and 1970 swallowed up eighty different companies, including Paramount Pictures in 1966.

The movie features the first onscreen pairing of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, who dance a tango together. The couple were married from 1964 until Bancroft's death in 2005. Aside from an uncredited cameo as a congregation member in Der wilde wilde Westen (1974), Bancroft had not previously appeared in any of her husband's films. They later starred together in Sein oder Nichtsein (1983), and Bancroft starred in Der Elefantenmensch (1980) and Zwischen den Zeilen (1987), which were produced by Brooks.

Mel Brooks and his writers concocted a sight gag they loved, in which the customers at a seafood restaurant would be human-sized lobsters, who pick terrified humans out of an aquarium to be cooked for dinner. However, the gag bombed at sneak previews, and was deleted.

The running gag with all the Coke products is a reference to Mel Brooks' wife and guest star in the movie, Anne Bancroft. In 1963, Bancroft was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Licht im Dunkel (1962), but was appearing on Broadway in "Mother Courage and Her Children," and couldn't attend the awards ceremony. Joan Crawford convinced Bancroft to let her accept the Oscar on her behalf, so she (Crawford) could upstage Bette Davis, her hated co-star in Was geschah wirklich mit Baby Jane? (1962), who was also nominated. Crawford, a longtime member of the Board of Directors for Pepsi Co., had never thanked Bancroft for allowing her to do that and hard feelings existed between the two actresses for years afterwards.

Carol Arthur: Dom DeLuise's wife plays the pregnant woman in the beginning.