History Trivia / TheBluesBrothers

** Bit parts 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, [[RetroactiveRecognition pre-"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, who would later play Uncle Phil in ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'', in his first screen appearance.

* ProductPlacement: An extremely subtle one: Creator/JohnCandy's line asking for an Orange Whip. While also a cocktail,[[note]]One ounce rum, one ounce vodka, four ounces orange juice and two ounces cream, shaken and served over ice[[/note]] Orange Whip provided refreshments for the crew, and the costumer, Sue Dugan, was daughter of the director of sales for Orange Whip, Kenny Dugan, who asked the brand be mentioned in the film.

* WordOfGod: The novel, which is based on the original screenplay (which bares only a slight resemblance to the final version), expands on some points, such as what Elwood was doing between Jake getting locked up and the beginning of the film (he worked in an aerosol can factory as a maintenance guy, which is how he got that glue can. In a deleted scene, in fact, he is shown working at the factory on the assembly line (or more accurately swiping cans from the line and setting a big chunk of it off-balance), before going to his boss's office to tell him that he's quitting to become a preacher).

* LifeImitatesArt: The shopping mall scene has a Toys "R" Us as part of a traditional enclosed shopping mall. While none existed at the time (the storefront used for the Toys "R" Us scene was believed to be the former Walgreens drugstore), the first Toys "R" Us store to be part of an enclosed shopping mall opened in California in 1985.

** Bit parts 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, [[RetroactiveRecognition pre-"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 James Avery, who would later play Uncle Phil in ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'', in his first screen appearance.

* BackedByThePentagon: While not so during the production of the movie, in recent years the Vatican have admitted to finding it a good, religious movie.

* CastingGag: Paul Shaffer was the band's original keyboardist, but wasn't in the original film because--in addition to his ''SNL'' commitments--he was also working on ''Gilda Radner: Live from New York'', a one-woman stage show which starred fellow former ''SNL'' regular Gilda Radner. He finally appeared in ''2000'' as Queen Mouset's assistant, and asks Murph if he wouldn't mind letting him have a crack at the keyboard.

* DuelingShows: Came out the same day as ''Film/CantStopTheMusic'', the movie starring Music/TheVillagePeople. If you don't know which one won that fight, you probably shouldn't be surfing the Internet unsupervised.

** Bit parts for the likes of Music/RayCharles, Creator/JohnCandy, Music/ArethaFranklin, Creator/CarrieFisher, Music/JamesBrown, Music/CabCalloway, and Creator/HenryGibson, plus cameos by Creator/StevenSpielberg, Creator/FrankOz, and Twiggy. Creator/PaulReubens also appears, [[RetroactiveRecognition pre-"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 James Avery, who would later play Uncle Phil in ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'', in his first screen appearance.

* TheCharacterDiedWithHim: Creator/JohnBelushi as Jake Blues and Creator/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.

** An AnimatedAdaptation created by Creator/FilmRoman was initially greenlit in 1997 by Creator/UPN. However, after eight of the thirteen ordered episodes were made, the series was cancelled before any of them made it to air (beyond [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/lostmedia/images/b/b7/P090.jpg a few cels]], none of the show has been found by the internet). Supposedly, the main actors' brothers (Peter Aykroyd and Creator/JimBelushi) [[TheOtherDarrin would've filled their original roles]].

* DeletedScene: Lots of scenes were deleted from the film(the original cut was a whopping 160 minutes), later restored in an extended version. More interactions between Jake and Elwood were cut from the film, along with extended scenes from Bob's Country Bunker, the cops investigating Elwood's apartment, and the epic chase scene at the end, most noticeably when the Nazis start chasing Jake and Elwood.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/DanAykroyd's original script was said to have been over 300 pages long, roughly the size of a phone book, since in his zeal over writing his first official screenplay, he ended up writing not just a single film but two films--the first film and a sequel that he called ''The Return of the Blues Brothers'' which in at least one documentary he described as "the Bible of the Blues Brothers" containing various bits of back story on all the characters and where they came from, but it was deemed too long and thus was scaled back. A similar thing would happen with Aykroyd's other famous property, ''Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}}''.
** The original script reportedly included special recruitment scenes for each band member. These scenes and many others cut from the original script are in the {{novelization}} of the film.
** Legend has it that, as a gag, Aykroyd actually dressed up his first draft to look like a phone book when he turned it in.
** Music/LittleRichard was asked to appear and perform in this film. He declined because he was only performing gospel, as opposed to secular music, at the time this film was made.
** Jake's jilted fiancée was originally supposed to be blonde.
** In the original script The Magictones were originally Mexican immigrants. Also, The Blues Brothers Band was scattered across three states. Among their new lives: Willie Hall (aka "Too Big") is a drug dealer, Steve Cropper (aka "The Colonel") is a pool shark-turned-Hutterite and Donald Dunn (aka "Duck") and Lou Marini (aka "Blue") work in different parts of security. The band took over a house in a developing neighborhood for rehearsal. To avoid the owners, Elwood detonates the home with cans of hairspray. Also, the Illinois Nazis were trying to buy the orphanage and set it up as their new headquarters.
** The original cut of the film was 160 minutes long and Landis originally wanted to present it is a old-fashioned Roadshow style theatrical release, but Universal head Lew Wasserman demanded the film be cut down after an early screening so it could have more showings per day. That turned out to be a wise decision since Roadshow style theatrical presentations would be killed off pretty much for good as a mere five months after this film, HeavensGate came out and was such a massive BoxOfficeBomb that it had less then five Roadshow theatrical showings and it would be the last film for over two decades to use the Roadshow style format.

* CreatorKiller: Creator/JohnLandis had already been on thin ice for over ten years after his recklessness on the set of ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie'' indirectly killed Vic Murrow and two child actors, and had only made a handful of films since, most of which were poorly-received. ''Blues Brothers 2000'' proved to be the final straw, and he's since been relegated to directing the occasional TV show.

* AccidentallyCorrectWriting: One of the stores crashed through in the mall scene is a Toys "R" Us. Although the actual mall used for the scene never had a Toys "R" Us in it (the space used for the fake Toys "R" Us was actually a Walgreens), and in fact ''no'' mall did at the time, the chain would later open traditional shopping mall locations just a few years later.

** This trope could be applied to most of the cast; the only musician in the cast who was actually working at the time of the production was Creator/RayCharles.

** Quite a bit of footage is missing from even the Collectors edition as the original cut ran 160 minutes and that version was only ever screened once. Landis wanted to restore all the cut footage, but to his dismay found out that Universal had thrown out quite a bit of it, meaning the full 160 minute version is pretty much LostForever.

** Quite a bit of footage is missing from even the Collectors edition as the original cut 160 minutes and that version was only ever screened once. Landis wanted to restore all the cut footage, but to his dismay found out that Universal had thrown out quite a bit of it, meaning the full 160 minute version is pretty much LostForever.

* DeletedScene: Lots of scenes were deleted from the film, later restored in an extended version. More interactions between Jake and Elwood were cut from the film, along with extended scenes from Bob's Country Bunker, the cops investigating Elwood's apartment, and the epic chase scene at the end, most noticeably when the Nazis start chasing Jake and Elwood.

* WordOfGod: The novel, which is based on the original screenplay (which bares only a slight resemblance to the final version), expands on some points, such as what Elwood was doing between Jake getting locked up and the beginning of the film (he worked in an aerosol can factory as a maintenance guy, which is how he got that glue can. In a deleted scene, in fact, he is shown working at the factory on the assembly line (or more accurately swiping cans from the line and setting a big chunk of it off-balance), before going to his boss's office to tell him that he's quitting to become a preacher).

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: Someone living at 1060 West Addison is really possible; Wrigley Field has an apartment under the stands. It's been used as storage for decades but once was home to the head groundskeeper.

* FakeAmerican: Canadian-born Creator/DanAykroyd does a spot-on Chicago accent.
* GeniusBonus: The Triple Rock Baptist Church has Hungarian roots. You can tell by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Hungary crooked cross on top of the steeple]].

* CreatorKiller: Creator/JohnLandis had already been on thin ice for over ten years after his recklessness on the set of ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie'' indirectly killed Vic Murrow and two child actors, and had only made a handful of film since, most of which were poorly-receive. ''Blues Brothers 2000'', however, effectively stopped his filmmaking career dead in it's tracks.

* [[BackedByThePentagon Backed By the Vatican]]: While not so during the production of the movie, in recent years they have admitted to finding it a good, religious movie.

* CreatorKiller: Creator/JohnLandis's career had already been on thin ice for over ten years after his recklessness on the set of ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie'' indirectly killed Vic Murrow and two child actors, and had only done a handful of poorly received movies since. ''Blues Brothers 2000'' effectively stopped it dead in it's tracks.

* CreatorKiller: Creator/JohnLandis's career had already been on thin ice for over ten years after indirectly killing Vic Murrow and two child actors while filming his segment of ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie'', along with a string of mediocre films, but ''Blues Brothers 2000'' effectively stopped it dead in it's tracks.

* CreatorKiller: Creator/JohnLandis's career had already been on thin ice for over ten years after indirectly killing Vic Murrow and two child actors while filming his segment of ''Film/TwilightZoneThe Movie'', along with a string of mediocre films, but ''Blues Brothers 2000'' effectively stopped it dead in it's tracks.

* CreatorKiller: The failure of ''Blues Brothers 2000'' effectively ended the directorial career of Creator/JohnLandis, assuming it hadn't already been killed by Vic Morrow's death during filming of ''Series/TheTwilightZone: The Movie''.
* TheDanza: Music/RayCharles as the proprietor of Ray's Music Exchange.

* DuelingShows: Came out the same day as ''Can't Stop the Music'', the movie starring Music/TheVillagePeople. If you don't know which one won that fight, you probably shouldn't be surfing the Internet unsupervised.