History Trivia / TheAdventuresOfBuckarooBanzaiAcrossThe8thDimension

* DevelopmentHell: Less the movie itself, but more attempts to revive the franchise. The main MGM executive didn't have faith in this as the start of a franchise, so only secured the rights to this film. The franchise rights either remained with or reverted back to Earl Mac Rauch. This torpedoed, among other things, Kevin Smith's attempt at a TV series, has MGM didn't actually have the rights to a Buckaroo Banzai TV show, and apparently elected not to buy them from Rauch or get him involved (where he, as the rights holder, could okay the project).

* CreatorsFavorite: Creator/John Lithgow has stated in interviews that off his films, ''Buckaroo Banzai'' is the one he enjoys rewatching the most.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers: The sequel was allegedly blocked by the rights holder for fear that the associated paperwork might uncover his creative bookkeeping. It also led to the video going out of print for nearly a decade and delayed its DVD release until 2002. The film's box office woes didn't help, either.

* ReferencedBy:
** The makers of some of the later ''Franchise/StarTrek'' series liked making references to this film. The fact that a good chunk of the art department from ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Generation]]'' on through ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' previously worked on ''Buckaroo Banzai'' may have something to do with this.
** The film's iconic "Why is there a watermelon there" scene is homaged in a 2012 [[Creator/MarvelComics Kitty Pryde/Tony Stark A+X]] story.
** The mysterious Dr. B Banzai and his Banzai Institute are rather important minor characters in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech''.
** The Canadian SynthPop artist Glass Apple Bonzai includes references to the film throughout his work, if the cover art on the first two albums wasn't a dead giveaway where much of the inspiration comes from.
** "No Matter Where You Go, There You are" is quoted in the end titles of ''Film/BeyondTheBlackRainbow''.

* ThrowItIn: John Bigbooté [[FlippingTheBird flipping off Lizardo]] was an improvisation by Christopher Lloyd.

* BigNameFan:
** Creator/CraigMcCracken wrote on his Website/DeviantArt page that this was his favorite movie.
** Showrunners, writers and props crew of both Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration and Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine are big fans of this film.
** To paraphrase a certain Remington Shaver ad, Creator/KevinSmith liked it so much, he bought the rights!

** In the mid-'90s, author [[Literature/ReadyPlayerOne Ernest Cline]] wrote a script for the sequel tagged at the end of the film, ''Buckaroo Banzai Against The World Crime League'', that was well-received in many ''Banzai'' fan circles. Many years later, the protagonist of ''Ready Player One'' would cite this as his favorite movie (a detail carried over into the film adaptation).

* ScrewedByTheLawyers: The sequel was allegedly blocked by the rights holder for fear that the associated paperwork might uncover his creative bookkeeping. It also led to the video going out of print for nearly a decade and delayed its DVD release until 2002.
** The film's box office woes didn't help, either.

** In the mid '90s, author [[Literature/ReadyPlayerOne Ernest Cline]] wrote a script for the sequel tagged at the end of the film, ''Buckaroo Banzai Against The World Crime League'', that was well-received in many ''Banzai'' fan circles.

** Showrunners and props crew of both Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration and Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine are big fans of this film.

** Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneraton and Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine showrunners and props crew are big fans of this film.

* BigNameFan

* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget $17 million. Box office, $6.3 million. Despite a stellar cast, this oddball film failed in theaters, not helped by competition from ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'', ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' and ''Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock''. It would later become a {{Cult Classic}} on home video however.

* DeletedScene: A bunch, many of them containing a running gag about Buckaroo's life long arch enemy Hanoi Xan, the evil leader of the World Crime League who was responsible for [[spoiler:the murders of Buckaroo's parents and first wife, Peggy.]] Penny even mistakes Lord John Whorfin for Hanoi Xan, which leaves him baffled and even asking out loud "Who's that?"

** In the mid-90's, author [[Literature/ReadyPlayerOne Ernest Cline]] wrote a script for the sequel tagged at the end of the film, ''Buckaroo Banzai Against The World Crime League'', that was well-received in many ''Banzai'' fan circles.
** ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' had a "Team Banzai" mercenary unit that was basically Buckaroo Banzai with the serial numbers scratched (not even fully filed) off, including the watermelon.

** The film's box office woes didn't help either.
* StillbornFranchise: A continuation of the Banzai character has been teased a few times, but has never came to pass:

** [[http://www.figmentfly.com/bb/tv4.html A pilot for a potential TV series in the 90's also looked pretty awesome.]] The script for the pilot can be found [[http://leethomson.myzen.co.uk/Pilot_Hell/Buckaroo_Banzai_1x01_-_Supersize_Those_Fries_(Dec1999).pdf here]].

** Creator/MichaelMadsen was offered the part of Perfect Tommy, but turned it down due to scheduling conflicts with ''Film/TheNatural''.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers: The sequel was allegedly blocked by the rights holder for fear that the associated paperwork might uncover his creative bookkeeping.

* FanFic: In the mid-90's, author [[Literature/ReadyPlayerOne Ernest Cline]] wrote a script for the sequel tagged at the end of the film, ''Buckaroo Banzai Against The World Crime League'', that was well-received in many ''Banzai'' fan circles.

* ExecutiveMeddling: One reason given for the unexplained presence of a watermelon in Buckaroo's lab : [[spoiler: Put in so the makers of the film could see whether or not the meddling executives had given up yelling at them as of that point in the production. Yes, seriously.]]

** ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' had a "Team Banzai" mercenary unit that was basically Buckaroo Banzai with the serial numbers scratched (not even fully filed off), including the watermelon.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/TomHanks and Creator/MichaelKeaton were considered for the lead.