Trivia / The Last Picture Show

• Banned in China: In 1973, largely because of the skinny-dipping party scene, the film was banned in Phoenix, Arizona, when the city attorney notified a drive-in theater manager that the film violated a state obscenity statute. Eventually, a federal court decided that the film was not obscene. Ed Ware, the district attorney of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, managed to block the showing of the film but only temporarily because the theater filed suit successfully to overturn Ware's directive.
• Breakthrough Hit: For Peter Bogdanovich.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • Ellen Burstyn was asked to read for the part of Genevieve, but she liked the part of Lois Farrow and asked if she could read for that. She ended up reading for those parts and also for that of Ruth Popper. Bogdanovich thought that she would be good as any of them and allowed her to choose. She chose to be Jacy's mother because she thought the part interesting.
  • Randy Quaid was asked to read for the part of Bobby Sheen, the handsome rich kid from Wichita Falls, but Bogdanovich thought that he would be better as the other Wichita Falls kid, dorky Upper-Class Twit Lester.
• Darkhorse Casting: This was Cybill Shepherd's film debut. She was a model whom Peter Bogdanovich spotted on the cover of Glamour magazine (probably the June 1970 issue).
• Dawson Casting: The sexual situations (and nudity) obviously dictated that the actors playing the high school kids had to be over 18, with the exception of 15-year-old Sam Bottoms as Billy.
• Fake Nationality: All the main cast are Americans, but Randy Quaid is the only main cast member from Texas. Ben Johnson and Clu Gulager were both from rural Oklahoma, which isn't too far away.
• Flip-Flop of God: Cloris Leachman claims that she never auditioned for Ruth and was offered it after Ellen Burstyn opted to play Lois, but Peter Bogdanovich recalls her reading for the part.
• Hostility on the Set: Peter Bogdanovich claims the crew disliked him because he always ate with the actors on location. He wanted to mold their performances without outside influences, and he reportedly fired a crew-member one day who told Cybill Shepherd that she should smile more in the movie.
• Method Acting: To keep their Texas accents sharp, Cloris Leachman and Eileen Brennan adopted the accents full-time when they were on the set.
• One-Take Wonder: Cloris Leachman's last scene in the movie was printed on the first take without any previous rehearsals. She wanted to rehearse the scene but director Peter Bogdanovich thought it would ruin the scene if it was rehearsed. After she completed the take she said to him, "I can do better." He replied, "No, you can't - you just won the Oscar." Ultimately his sense of direction paid off, as Leachman won the Academy Award for her performance.
• The Other Marty: Sam Bottoms was a last minute replacement for another actor, whom Peter Bogdanovich was never happy with. Sam was on set visiting his brother, Timothy Bottoms, and it was decided that he should play Sonny's brother, on the condition that he have his braces removed.
• Production Posse: Peter Bogdanovich directed Cybill Shepherd in Daisy Miller, Texasville and At Long Last Love. He also guest starred in several episodes of Cybill. The first two would also star Cloris Leachman.
• Real-Life Relative: Sonny is played by Timothy Bottoms, while Billy is played by his younger brother Sam.
• Reality Subtext/Romance on the Set: Just as practically every boy at school seems to be in love with Jacy Farrow, Cybill Shepherd was an object of affection for the men on the set. Jeff Bridges had a brief fling with her (which she later claimed was the only time she ever slept with a co-star), Timothy Bottoms had a crush on her but sensed that she wasn't interested in him and didn't pursue it (though Shepherd later said she found him attractive), and Peter Bogdanovich, who was married to the film's production designer Polly Platt, fell in love with Shepherd, leading to a tumultuous Creator Couple relationship that lasted several years.
• Star-Making Role:
  • Jeff Bridges and Cybill Shepherd were put on the map with this.
  • While Cloris Leachman was also getting lots of attention for her Emmy-nominated work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (which she filmed after this), her Oscar win helped make her one of the most critically respected actresses of her generation.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Peter Bogdanovich was first given the idea by Sal Mineo, who had read the book and expressed an interest in starring, but felt he was too old to play any of the main roles.
  • The role of Sam the Lion was originally offered to James Stewart, who liked the part but had already committed to a TV series and couldn't get out of it. Ben Johnson was Bogdanovich's second choice, but he initially said no because he felt the script had "too many words." Bogdanovich then asked his friend John Ford to talk Johnson into taking the part. Had that not worked, Tex Ritter would've been offered the role. His son John Ritter was in the mix for Sonny.
  • Sissy Spacek was considered for Jacy Farrow.
  • In the novel, it's heavily implied that Coach Popper is a closeted gay man and secretly infatuated with his team's quarterback, leading to his dysfunctional marriage. Cloris Leachman claims a scene between Popper and the quarterback would have revealed that implicitly, but because of budgetary reasons was never shot; all that's left in the final cut is a brief moment at the start of the film where Popper discreetly swats the boy's behind after gym class, with the latter looking back flirtatiously in response.
  • It's been reported that Dennis Quaid was originally supposed to play Billy. Not farfetched at all, since he was 16 at the time and his brother Randy Quaid is in the film (as Lester Marlow).
  • Cybill Shepherd was given the option of backing out of the nude scenes if she decided not to, and agreed to the film for this reason. It was only after asking the three older actresses - Ellen Burstyn, Cloris Leachman and Eileen Brennan - and them saying she should that she opted to appear nude.

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