Line #7 Trivia/SaturdayNightFever


1	* AmateurCast: More than 40% of the cast made their feature debuts in this film including, Joseph Cali, Shelly Batt, Denny Dillon, Creator/FranDrescher, Donald Gantry, Adrienne King, Ellen March, Bruce Ornstein, Paul Pape, Lisa Peluso, Donna Pescow, Ann Travolta and mother Helen Travolta (her only feature cameo).
2	* CreatorBacklash: John Badham says in the DVDCommentary that he hadn't watched the movie in years and was horrified at the racist language the gang use when walking into the disco for the first time. Though he said it was pretty accurate of Brooklyn residents at the time and likely still is.
3	* CutSong: Two additional songs for the film ended up not being used. One was Music/TheBeeGees singing their self-penned version of "If I Can't Have You", and Samantha Sang's "Emotion". The latter was recorded by Music/DestinysChild in 2001-- thus, the song was played on radio playlists after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the New York City World Trade Center.
4	* DawsonCasting: Tony Manero is supposed to be 19. Creator/JohnTravolta was 23. Karen Lynn Gorney is actually nine years older than him and 12 years older than her character, Stephanie.
5	* {{Defictionalization}}: The details of the magazine article on which the film was loosely based, was totally fabricated by the author, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribal_Rites_of_the_New_Saturday_Night Nik Cohn]]. As Cohn wouldn't reveal this fact for nearly 20 years, ''Saturday Night Fever'' ironically became the blueprint for real-life nightlife in many U.S. cities.
6	** That is, until 1981-1982, when a combination of social, economic, and financial factors suddenly brought Amerca's "disco fever" to a crashing halt: An unexpected recession in 1981 tanked everyone's spending money, and combined with the new [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_HIV/AIDS AIDS epidemic]] scaring the LGBT community, the disco clubs emptied out. This significantly reduced exposure to new disco artists, and disco lost status in the music charts. The majority conservative, rock-loving U.S. population (the hetero-white, blue-collar, poor and middle classes) sensed this weakening of disco, and culturally revolted against disco's multi-ethnic, gender-empowering, hedonistic themes. Creator/{{MTV}} (launched in August of '81), filled the void left by disco, with a revitalized rock music industry (in terms of both album sales and concert tickets), allowing a second [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion British Invasion]] to evict the 70's-style, disco-era fashions. A new, materialist 80's sensibility took hold, and by mid-1982, "Disco fever" and [[TheSeventies the 70's]] were crushed, ushering in '''''[[TheEighties The 80's]]'''''. (''Cue the keyboard synths and screaming electric guitars'')
7	* DyeingForYourArt:
8	** Creator/JohnTravolta ran two miles a day and danced for three hours daily to get in shape for this film. In the end, he dropped 20 pounds.
9	** Creator/DonnaPescow (Annette) gained 30 lbs to better fit the role, as well as training herself back to her Brooklyn accent. (Immediately after the film was done, she set to work losing the extra weight and the accent.)
10	* EnforcedMethodActing:
11	** During filming, Travolta's girlfriend Diana Hyland (who played the original mother Joan Bradford on Series/EightIsEnough) was dying of cancer[[note]]in fact, he was initially going to turn down this film to stay home with her but she insisted he take it, correctly predicting it would make him a star.[[/note]]. The scene where Tony comes home to find his brother had left the priesthood was filmed immediately after Travolta had flown back from Hyland's funeral. His downbeat, meditative tone in that scene was ''not'' made up. Likewise, during the scene where Tony tells Stephanie all about the bridge, Stephanie kissing Tony on the cheek and Tony getting teary-eyed were genuine; Karen Lynn-Gorney could tell Travolta was still struggling.
12	* NoStuntDouble: Travolta did his own dancing, and took three hours of dancing lessons a day for eight months to be sure he'd be up to it. The men did have stunt doubles for the bridge scenes, however.
13	* PopCultureUrbanLegends: It had long been rumored that Annette's horrified reactions during the first bridge were genuine because John Badham did not tell Donna Pescow that there was a platform just under the bridge for the guys to "fall" onto. It was also rumored that her line, "You fuckers!", was not scripted. Pescow stated that this rumor is completely false and everything in that scene was scripted. She wasn't even reacting to the guys since her reactions were filmed before the shots where the guys horse around; Badham was telling Pescow from off-camera where the guys would be and where to look. Pescow also stated that she did not actually get to see the guys fall until she first watched the completed film; she believes this is how the rumor started.
14	* RealLifeRelative: Creator/JohnTravolta's sister Ann Travolta appears as the pizza lady, and his mother Helen Travolta appears as the woman for whom he gets the paint.
15	* TheRedStapler: As the main article says, the film created a nationwide craze for Disco music and Disco dancing (together with discotheques), while before Disco was mostly confined to the New York and Philadelphia black and gay communities. Also, Travolta's suit from the movie instantly became fashionable.
16	* StarMakingRole: For Travolta, obviously. Although he'd already made a name for himself in ''Series/WelcomeBackKotter'', this movie pushed him into true superstardom almost overnight and, together with ''Film/{{Grease}}'' and ''Film/PulpFiction'', remains his most memorable performance.
17	* ThrowItIn:
18	** When Tony's dad hit him in the back of the head the third time during dinner, his retort of "Just watch the hair!" and then his complaint about being hit on the hair after he had worked on it for so long was Creator/JohnTravolta's own reaction and not scripted, but since it was so in character for Tony Manero to say, it was left in.
19	** The scene where Creator/FranDrescher puts her hand on Travolta's butt was not in the original script. Travolta and director John Badham thought that it would be something that a woman like Connie would do, however, so it was kept in.
20	** Nina Hansen, who played the grandmother, improvised all her lines in the dinner table scene. Originally not given a speaking part, this didn't sit well with her and, according to director John Badham, she decided to utter "Basta! Mangia! Mangia!" ,which translates to English as "Enough! Eat! Eat!" He decided to leave it in the final cut.
21	* WagTheDirector:
22	** While filming the final bridge scene, Travolta insisted that Tony should be standing up on the beam while trying to coax Bobby C. off the bridge, as it would show Tony's confidence. Director John Badham told him that other shots for the scene had already been shot with Tony's stunt double crawling on the beam, and they couldn't reshoot them because the stunt doubles had gone home, so he told Travolta he had no choice but to crawl to keep the shots consistent. Travolta walked off set to his trailer and refused to return until Tony was allowed to stand up.
23	** Creator/JohnTravolta had worked hard on the "You Should Be Dancing" sequence and threatened to quit the film when the studio suggested it should be shot in close-up instead of full-body. Travolta claims he had to go to Paramount Studios and re-edit the sequence himself.
24	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
25	** Creator/DavidCaruso and Creator/RayLiotta auditioned for Joey.
26	** Creator/CarrieFisher and Creator/JessicaLange were considered for Stephanie Mangano. Creator/AmyIrving was one of the finalists for the role.
27	** Tony Manero was originally named Vincent.
28	** Tony and Annette dancing in the studio was originally filmed to the Boz Scaggs song, ''Lowdown'' but Scaggs wouldn't give permission so it had to be reshot.
29	** Frank's explanation of why he left the priesthood originally went on for three minutes but was cut to three sentences.
30	** Badham wanted to show Gus getting attacked by the gang but scriptwriter, Norman Wexler insisted they keep showing things from Tony's point of view.
31	* WorkingTitle: ''Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night'', the title of the ''New York Magazine'' article that inspired it. The film's title was ultimately shortened to ''Saturday Night'', as a direct reference to the fact that Tony and his friends inhabited 2001 Odyssey on Saturday nights. However, when Music/TheBeeGees submitted the soundtrack, one of the songs, "Night Fever", was thought to embody the film's spirit better than the original. Director John Badham added the word "Saturday" and it replaced the original title.

Context Trivia / SaturdayNightFever