History Trivia / TheBluesBrothers

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

** Creator/JamesBelushi was originally planned to co-star in ''2000'' along with Creator/DanAykroyd and Creator/JohnGoodman, but his scheduling prevented this.

* MissingTrailerScene: The trailer has a Curtis ask Jake and Elwood, "How are you gonna raise $5,000 in eleven days without ripping off somebody?" This line doesn't appear in the film.

** 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, ''Film/HeavensGate'' came out and was such a massive BoxOfficeBomb that it had fewer than five Roadshow theatrical showings and it would be the last film for over two decades to use the Roadshow style format.

* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: Elwood says "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" is a Wilson Pickett song after they finish their rendition of it. While Pickett ''did'' cover the song in 1966, it was originally performed and co-written by Solomon Burke. Pickett, however, had the hit with it. When performing the theme to ''Series/{{Rawhide}}'', Elwood claims it is "an old Rowdy Yates tune". Rowdy Yates was Creator/ClintEastwood's character on the show; the theme was written in 1958 by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington and was originally performed by Frankie Laine.

** 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, 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''.

* TheDanza: Music/RayCharles as the proprietor of Ray's Music Exchange.

** 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, 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.

* TakeThat: the Mayor Daley Mr. Fabulous says is dead on the phone at Chez Paul had banned all location filming in Chicago for the entire duration of his administration in response to an episode of the Creator/LeeMarvin TV show ''M Squad'' showing [[DirtyCop a Chicago cop taking bribes]], a ban that the movie ended.

* TheRedStapler: The popularity of the film boosted the Ray-Ban Wayfarer, which was yet experiencing some renewed popularity thanks to the rise of the "New Music" movement. From a few thousands sold through the mid-1970s, sales rose to 18,000 during 1981 partly because of the film (and Film/RiskyBusiness two years later), bringing the model out from the verge of withdrawal.

** Creator/MacaulayCulkin was offered the role of Buster in the sequel, but declined as he'd retired from acting.

* TheRedStapler: The popularity of the film boosted the Ray-Ban Wayfarer, which was yet experiencing some renewed popularity thanks to the rise of the "New Music" movement. From a few thousands sold through the mid-1970s, sales rose to 18,000 during 1981 partly because of the film, bringing the model out from the verge of withdrawal.

* 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 '90s he was pop music royalty.

** 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 role in the same year's hugely acclaimed ''Film/TheBigLebowski''.

* CutSong: The Blues Brothers recorded and filmed Johnny Horton's song "Sink the Bismarck" for the gig at Bob's Country Bunker. When it was decided not to use the song, the footage disappeared, and remains lost.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Universal kept pressuring Creator/JohnLandis to replace some of the African American musical stars in the cast like Music/CabCalloway and Music/ArethaFranklin with acts like Rose Royce who were more contemporary and successful (the notable exception was Music/RayCharles). Such changes would have contradicted much of the Aesop behind the movie, to give respect and attention to blues, jazz and R&B's rich history and traditions, which were being neglected as new trends in music were emerging and traditional black musicians were being forgotten. Landis refused the changes, but as a result some theater chains refused to book it into their theaters in white neighborhoods.

* 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. ''Blues Brothers 2000'' proved to be the final straw, and he's since been relegated to directing the occasional TV show.

* 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."

* 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, ''Film/HeavensGate'' came out and was such a massive BoxOfficeBomb that it had fewer than five Roadshow theatrical showings and it would be the last film for over two decades to use the Roadshow style format.

** Creator/JamesBelushi was originally planned to co-star in ''2000'' 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.
** Dan Aykroyd 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.
* WordOfGod: The novel, which is based on the original screenplay (which bears 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 priest).

* DisabledCharacterDisabledActor: Played with, as the film is quite vague about whether Music/RayCharles's character is blind. He can spot a shoplifting kid from across a room (and he can certainly shoot straight), but he can't hang a poster up the right way round.

* MissingEpisode: The Blues Brothers recorded and filmed Johnny Horton's song "Sink the Bismarck" for the gig at Bob's Country Bunker. When it was decided not to use the song, the footage disappeared, and remains lost.
** 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 gone for good.

* RealLifeRelative:
** Creator/JohnBelushi's wife Judy Jacklin has a cameo as a waitress in the scene where Jake and Elwood meet with Murph and The Magictones.
** The "woman on the cutting-room floor" (Shirley Levine) in the credits is actually Creator/JohnLandis's mother.

** After Belushi's late nights partying, he'd either be really late for unit calls, tanking almost a whole day's worth of shooting, or only an hour or two late... but then he'd go back to his trailer and sleep it off. One night, he wandered away from the set to a nearby house, where Aykroyd found him conked out on the couch after he'd raided the owner's fridge. On another, Landis went in to Belushi's trailer and found a gigantic pile of coke on a table inside, which he flushed down the toilet. Belushi attacked him when he came back, Landis knocked him down with a single punch and Belushi collapsed into tears.

* QuoteSource:
** MissionFromGod
** PuttingTheBandBackTogether

* DuelingWorks: 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.

* CompletelyDifferentTitle: In Greece, the film became "Οι ατσίδες με τα μπλε" (the smart guys in blue -- note that blue is *only* a color, it doesn't resemble the "blues")

** 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, 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, who would later play Uncle Phil in ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'', in his first screen appearance.

* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: Elwood says "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" is a Wilson Pickett song after they finish their rendition of it. While Pickett ''did'' cover the song in 1966, it was originally performed and co-written by Solomon Burke. Pickett, however, had the hit with it. When performing the theme to ''Series/{{Rawhide}}'', Elwood claims it is "an old Rowdy Yates tune". Rowdy Yates was Creator/ClintEastwood's character on the show; the theme was written in 1958 by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington.

** 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, 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...

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

* CompletelyDifferentTitle: In Greece, the film became "Οι ατσίδες με τα μπλε" (the smart guyes in blue -- note that blue is *only* a color, it doesn't resemble the "blues")

* DisabledCharacterDisabledActor: Played with, as the film is quite vague about whether Music/RayCharles's character is blind.

*** 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, ''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.

*** 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.

** Dan Aykroyd said that he had plans for a third film in the mid-00's, a straight-to-video feature that would involve the group visiting Albania after learning of their mass success there.
* 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 priest).

** 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, Music/FiftyCent, and Music/FrankZappa, and the rest of the band has similar-looking resumes. Watch the video of "Dead Ringer" by Music/MeatLoaf some time--see if any of Meat Loaf's drinking buddies look familiar...
* BackedByThePentagon:

** Music/CabCalloway in particular benefited a great deal from his appearance in this movie, where unlike most of the other musicians he played a significant supporting character rather than just making a cameo. He was by far the oldest musician appearing in the film as his heyday had been in the 30s and 40s, but his show-stealing performance of "Minnie the Moocher" brought him back into the public eye.

* CompletelyDifferentTitle: In Greece, the film became "Οι ατσίδες με τα μπλε" (the smart guyes in blue - note that blue is *only* a color, it doesn't resemble the "blues")

* CreatorBacklash: The Chicago Police deparment 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.
* 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. ''Blues Brothers 2000'' proved to be the final straw, and he's since been relegated to directing the occasional TV show.
* 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.

** The "'woman on the cutting-room floor" (Shirley Levine) in the credits is actually Creator/JohnLandis' mother.

** The script was finished but the studio and the creative people hadn't settled on a budget. After the first month of filming in Chicago, where Landis kept Belushi under control and things went well, they finally saw it. "I think we've spent that much already," producer Robert K. Weiss half-joked when he saw that it was $17.5 million.

** The production returned to Los Angeles for the last month of shooting, already way behind schedule and over budget. Fortunately Belushi calmed down and got it done. But right before shooting the final scene, which required him to do all sorts of onstage acrobatics while performing at the LA Palladium in front of an audience of hundreds of extras, he tried out some kid's skateboard... and fell off and seriously injured his knee. Lewis Wasserman, president and CEO of Music Corporation of America, Universal's then parent company, called the top orthopedist in LA and made him postpone his weekend until he could shoot Belushi up with enough anesthetics to get him through filming.

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