History Trivia / BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure

* FakeNationality: Terry Camilleri who played Napoleon, is actually Australian with Italian heritage, and was born in Malta.

** The film was originally called ''Bill and Ted's Time Van'', and ideas for time periods covered included everything from ancient Egypt to the Presidency of Richard Nixon. The idea seemingly involved more characters than just Bill and Ted going back in time, since in [[http://ew.com/movies/2018/03/30/bill-and-ted-keanu-reeves-alex-winter-alternate-endings/amp/ an Entertainment Weekly enterview]], Solomon said that at one point in the script one of the popular kids would have befriended Hitler (which Matheson says is more reflective of their attitude towards "the popular kids" than anything else).

** Creator/BrendanFraser, Creator/RiverPhoenix, and Creator/SeanPenn auditioned for the role of Bill before Creator/AlexWinter was cast.
** Creator/PaulyShore screen-tested for the part of Ted before the casting of Creator/KeanuReeves.
** Music/RingoStarr, Creator/SeanConnery, [[Music/TheWho Roger Daltrey]], and Creator/CharlieSheen were considered for the role of Rufus before Creator/GeorgeCarlin was cast.

** Creator/BrendanFraser, Creator/RiverPhoenix, and Creator/SeanPenn auditioned for the role of Bill S. Preston, Esq. before the casting of Creator/AlexWinter.
** Creator/PaulyShore screen-tested for the part of Ted "Theodore" Logan before Creator/KeanuReeves was cast.
** Music/RingoStarr, Creator/SeanConnery, [[Music/TheWho Roger Daltrey]], and Creator/CharlieSheen were considered for the role of Rufus before the casting of Creator/GeorgeCarlin.

** Creator/BrendanFraser, Creator/RiverPhoenix, and Creator/SeanPenn auditioned for the role of Bill before the casting of Creator/AlexWinter.
** Creator/PaulyShore screen-tested for the part of Ted before Creator/KeanuReeves was cast.
** Music/RingoStarr, Creator/SeanConnery, [[Music/TheWho Roger Daltrey]], and Creator/CharlieSheen were considered for Rufus before the casting of Creator/GeorgeCarlin.

** [[Music/VanHalen Eddie Van Halen]] said that he would have been glad to appear in the movie, but nobody asked him.

** They had a hard time casting Rufus; in fact they didn't cast Creator/GeorgeCarlin until well after filming began. Because of the recent success of ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' and its youth-centric plot, [[ExecutiveMeddling the studio wanted to cast Rufus as a young person.]] Producer Scott Kroopf screened a lot of candidates, and once went to a basketball game with Creator/CharlieSheen, who told him that he needed an older guy for the part. Carlin was finally cast because he was a big enough name to wave at the studio. Prior to Carlin, Creator/SeanConnery, [[Music/TheWho Roger Daltrey]], Creator/CharlieSheen and Music/RingoStarr were considered.

** Creator/BrendanFraser, Creator/SeanPenn and Creator/RiverPhoenix auditioned for Bill.
** Creator/PaulyShore auditioned for Ted.

** The Three Most Important People in the utopian society were envisioned to be portrayed by Music/ZZTop. However, Solomon had connections to the E Street Band, The Tubes and The Motels, and were able to get Clarence Clemons, Fee Waybill, and Martha Davis, respectively, for the Most Important People.

* DawsonCasting: Playing seniors in high school, Creator/AlexWinter was 22, and Creator/KeanuReeves was 21.

** Along with a lot of the more obvious stuff, the film would've been really short if Google was around in the 80s.

** They had a hard time casting Rufus (Creator/SeanConnery was an option); in fact they didn't cast Creator/GeorgeCarlin until well after filming began. Because of the recent success of ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' and its youth-centric plot, [[ExecutiveMeddling the studio wanted to cast Rufus as a young person.]] Producer Scott Kroopf screened a lot of candidates, and once went to a basketball game with Creator/CharlieSheen, who told him that he needed an older guy for the part. Carlin was finally cast because he was a big enough name to wave at the studio.

* DawsonCasting: Playing seniors in high school, Alex Winter was 22, and Creator/KeanuReeves was 21.

* AbilityOverAppearance: In a 1991 interview, Ed Solomon said that Bill and Ted were originally envisaged as "fourteen-year-old skinny guys, with low-rider bell-bottoms, and heavy metal t-shirts" who were despised by the popular kids at school. Casting Creator/KeanuReeves and Alex Winter changed the filmmakers' images of the characters because "once you cast Alex and Keanu, who look like pretty cool guys, that was hard to believe."

* DeletedRoll: An early script had a random medieval guy tag along with all the historical characters. The end credits still mention James Bowbitch as "John The Serf".

** The time machine was originally a pick up truck, then a van. It was changed into a phone booth because it might have made the movie too close to a ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' ripoff. Now it's just unintentionally close to the TARDIS in ''Series/DoctorWho''.

** The film was originally called ''Bill and Ted's Time Van'', and ideas for time periods covered included everything from ancient Egypt to the Presidency of Richard Nixon.
*** The idea seemingly involved more characters than just Bill and Ted going back in time, since in [[http://ew.com/movies/2018/03/30/bill-and-ted-keanu-reeves-alex-winter-alternate-endings/amp/ an Entertainment Weekly enterview]], Solomon said that at one point in the script one of the popular kids would have befriended Hitler (which Matheson says is more reflective of their attitude towards "the popular kids" than anything else).

** Originally the plot was to have them visit, and therefore accidentally ''cause'', all of history's greatest tragedies (the sinking of the Titanic, the crash of the Hindenburg, the Black Plague...).

* DawsonCasting: Playing seniors in high school, Alex Winter was 24, and Keanu Reeves was 25 in the first film.
* DevelopmentHell: The film took two years to get a release. It was filmed throughout Spring 1987 for De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, but then the company went bankrupt, and the film would be shelved until a year later when Nelson Entertainment and Orion Pictures picked it up. They also had to re-dub everything that was originally scripted as "1987" as "1988".

** The time machine was originally a pick up truck, then a van. It was changed into a phone booth because it might have made the movie too close to a ''Film/{{Back to the Future}}'' ripoff. Now it's just unintentionally close to the TARDIS in ''Series/DoctorWho''.
** Eddie Van Halen said that he would have been glad to appear in the movie, but nobody asked him.
** The original concept for the film was following Bill and Ted through an unrelated series of sketches, with the time travel story just one of several skits. Writer Chris Matheson's father, Richard Matheson (author of ''Literature/IAmLegend''), wisely suggested that the film focus entirely on the time travel idea.
** They had a hard time casting Rufus; in fact they didn't cast Carlin until well after filming began. Because of the recent success of Film/BackToTheFuture and its youth-centric plot, [[ExecutiveMeddling the studio wanted to cast Rufus as a young person.]] Producer Scott Kroopf screened a lot of candidates, and once went to a basketball game with Creator/CharlieSheen, who told him that he needed an older guy for the part. Carlin was finally cast because he was a big enough name to wave at the studio.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Along with a lot of the more obvious stuff, the film would've been really short if Google was around in the 80s.

** The original concept for the film was following Bill and Ted through an unrelated series of sketches, with the time travel concept just one of several skits. Writer Chris Matheson's father, Richard Matheson (author of ''Literature/IAmLegend''), wisely suggested that the film focus entirely on the time travel idea.

** One of the Princesses, played by Diane Franklin, was 27. The other, Kimberly Kates, was a more manageable 20.