History Trivia / TheBluesBrothers

* IronyAsSheIsCast: Music/JamesBrown as a preacher. And it ''works''.

** Featured roles for the likes of Music/RayCharles, Creator/JohnCandy, Music/ArethaFranklin, Creator/CarrieFisher, Music/JamesBrown, Music/CabCalloway, and Henry Gibson, plus cameos by Creator/StevenSpielberg, Creator/FrankOz, and Twiggy. Creator/PaulReubens also appears, pre-"[[Series/PeeWeesPLayhouse Pee-Wee Herman]]" fame, [[Music/{{Eagles}} Joe Walsh]] has a small cameo as a prisoner at the end of the film, and one of the dancers outside Ray's Music Emporium is Creator/JamesAvery in his first screen appearance. Finally, the kid who tries to steal a guitar from Ray's Music Emporium is De'voreaux White, who later played Argyle the chauffeur in ''Film/DieHard''.
** Downplayed when it comes to the members of the Blues Brothers band. All the members are very well-known in the music industry and pretty much everyone in the world has come into contact with their work in some way, but if you hadn't seen the film you'd have no idea what they looked like. For example, Tom "Bones" Malone has worked as a sound technician, a composer, a studio musician and a producer. His resume has over 200 musicians and bands on it, including Music/{{Aerosmith}}, Diana Ross, the house band on Series/TheLateShowWithDavidLetterman, Music/FiftyCent, and Music/FrankZappa, and the rest of the band has similar-looking résumés. Watch the video of "Dead Ringer" by Music/MeatLoaf some time--see if any of Meat Loaf's drinking buddies look familiar...

* IronyAsSheIsCast: Creator/JamesBrown as a preacher. And it ''works''.

* AllStarCast:

* CreatorBacklash: The Chicago Police Department was so angry about how it was portrayed on screen that it stopped giving permission for film and television projects to use any official insignia and markings for decades. It wasn't until ''Series/TheChicagoCode'' nearly three decades later that the CPD began supporting fictional portrayals of itself again.

* TropeNamer: These movies named the following tropes:
** MissionFromGod
** PuttingTheBandBackTogether

* TakeThat: On the phone at Chez Paul, Mr. Fabulous says that Mayor Daley is dead. This was because Richard J. Daley had (unofficially) banned all location filming in Chicago for the entire duration of his administration, in response to a 1959 episode of the Creator/LeeMarvin TV show ''M Squad'' showing [[DirtyCop a Chicago cop taking bribes]]. Also, Daley was actually dead, having died in 1976. The ban was lifted by his successor, Jane Byrne, which made it possible for ''The Blues Brothers'' and other films to be shot on location in the city.

* WrittenByCastmember: Creator/DanAykroyd co-wrote the film.

* CareerResurrection: Music/JamesBrown's appearance — [[OneSceneWonder all five minutes of it]] — brought him to the attention of a white audience and won him many new white fans, revitalizing his career. In the '80s, he played to larger and more racially-mixed crowds than he ever had before; by the end of the '90s he was pop music royalty.

* TheCharacterDiedWithHim: Creator/JohnBelushi as Jake Blues and Music/CabCalloway as Curtis. Possibly Creator/JohnCandy as Burton Mercer, too, although that one isn't confirmed. Fittingly, the sequel is dedicated to these three actors.

** The trailer for ''Blues Brothers 2000'' includes a deleted scene where the band lines up on a stage. Maury Sline and an unnamed gentleman are sitting in what appears to be a judging panel, and Maury says, "The Blues Brothers band? I thought you guys were all in jail!"

!!''Blues Brothers 2000''
* CreatorKiller: Creator/JohnLandis had already been on thin ice for over ten years after his recklessness on the set of ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie'' killed Vic Murrow and two child actors, and had only made a handful of films since, most of which were poorly received. The film proved to be the final straw, and he's since been relegated to directing the occasional TV show.
* FranchiseKiller: Creator/DanAykroyd said that he had plans for a third film in the mid-00s, a straight-to-video feature that would involve the group visiting Albania after learning of their mass success there.
* OldShame: Creator/JohnLandis, who was more or less forced to make the sequel, was so unhappy with it when it was released that he dove right into his next film, ''Susan's Plan'', to "cleanse his palate."
* OnSetInjury: While filming a stunt scene, a car rolled onto two crew members, one of whom needed a leg amputation. Three months later, during filming for a car-crash sequence, stuntman Bob Minor suffered severe injuries to his head.
* TroubledProduction: Like its predecessor, the film had a problematic production:
** Creator/JohnBelushi died from a drug overdose a couple of years after the original film's release, leaving the follow-up in limbo (during which time co-stars Creator/JohnCandy and Music/CabCalloway also died) for the better part of two decades. During that timespan it was widely assumed that Belushi's younger brother Creator/JamesBelushi would be the obvious candidate to co-star with Creator/DanAykroyd in a sequel. In the end however, he turned it down, ostensibly because of a schedule conflict, resulting in Creator/JohnGoodman being cast in [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute the entirely new role of Mighty Mac]].
** When Aykroyd and Landis presented their first draft script to Universal, the studio responded by saying their script was essentially just a carbon-copy of the first film, except with Belushi's character swapped out for Goodman's... which Aykroyd [[JerkassHasAPoint later admitted was actually a valid criticism]]. Unfortunately, what the studio did next would ultimately send the project down in flames, as they decided they wanted the film to appeal to a younger audience, and forced the insertion of a TagalongKid sidekick to Aykroyd and Goodman, while also forcing a GenreShift that made the film much more overt fantasy than the first one.
** The actual shoot wasn't ''quite'' as problematic as that of the first film, but Aykroyd and Goodman had to work essentially for free in order to get the film produced under the less-than-adequate budget that they were given. Aykroyd and Landis became increasingly despondent due to the continued ExecutiveMeddling throughout the shoot, which resulted in the two threatening to quit, until the studio counter-threatened them with a lawsuit for breach of contract. Still, they roughed it out, and eventually finished the shoot.
** Unlike the first film, ''2000'' was critically mauled and a BoxOfficeBomb, completely destroying Landis' career and sending Aykroyd into a career slump that would last well into the following decade, with Goodman probably only avoiding the same fate via his roles in the same year's hugely acclaimed ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' and the following year's ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc''.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Creator/JamesBelushi was originally planned to co-star along with Creator/DanAykroyd and Creator/JohnGoodman, but his scheduling prevented this.
** Creator/MacaulayCulkin was offered the role of Buster in the sequel, but declined as he'd retired from acting a few years earlier.

* CreatorBacklash: The Chicago Police Department was so angry about how it was portrayed on screen that it stopped giving permission for film and television projects to use any official insignia and markings for decades. It wasn't until ''Series/TheChicagoCode'' nearly three decades later that the CPD began supporting ficitional portrayals of itself again.

* TroubledProduction: While it's obvious from all the on-screen mayhem why the movie cost so much to make (they actually dropped the Ford Pinto from a mile up, requiring a special FAA permit), there were a lot of other issues that aren't obvious on screen, as [[http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2012/12/drugs-john-belushi-making-blues-brothers this ''Vanity Fair'' article]] showed:
** Universal won a close bidding war with Paramount for the project, and of course they were overjoyed to have Creator/JohnBelushi, coming off a year when he'd starred in both a top-grossing film and a top-rate TV show ''and'' had a number one single. But they didn't have a script. After an experienced writing partner was unable to help him, Creator/DanAykroyd, who'd never even ''read'' a movie screenplay before, much less written one, took his time writing it. He delivered a 324-page monstrosity formatted more like free verse. Landis spent two weeks just cutting it down and converting it to something filmable.

** And then things went to hell. Belushi went everywhere in Chicago when he wasn't on set—and when he did, ''everybody'' was slipping him vials and packets of coke. That was in addition to what he could procure, or have procured for, himself, often consumed in his trailer or at the private bar on set he had built for himself, his longtime friends, the cast and any visiting celebrities. Creator/CarrieFisher, whom Landis had warned to keep Belushi away from drugs if she could, said almost everyone who had a job there also dealt, and the patrons could (and did) score almost anything there. Creator/DanAykroyd, who unlike Belushi or Fisher kept his use under control, says there was money in the budget set aside for coke for night shoots.

* ImageSource:
** CousinOliver (top half)
** CriticalExistenceFailure
** HammerspacePoliceForce
** LemmingCops
** Memes.TengenToppaGurrenLagann (edited screenshot)
** SternNun
** ThoseWackyNazis

* QuoteSource:
** DingyTrainsideApartment
** MissionFromGod
** PuttingTheBandBackTogether
** SunglassesAtNight

* ImageSource:
** CousinOliver (bottom half)
** RightWingMilitiaFanatic