History Trivia / ETTheExtraTerrestrial

** Creator/CoreyFeldman was originally up for a role as a rival to Elliott, a dork named Lance who threatened to expose E.T. The character is in the book adaptation, but was cut from the script. Creator/StevenSpielberg promised him a role in a future film, and he would go on to be in ''Film/{{Gremlins}}''.

* BillingDisplacement: Dee Wallace as Elliott's mother, Mary.

!!The Film:

* FranchiseKiller: In addition to being one of the ultimate {{Genre Killer}}s in entertainment as far as video games go, this game also severely affected the status of Spielberg's classic film, and the ''E.T'' video game is rumored to be the reason why it took MCA/Universal another 6 years before they released ''E.T.'' on home video (it got a later reissue in theaters instead, and then [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes it got pulled entirely for a couple of years]] after that run ended). This game didn't quite kill off other ''E.T'' games in utero, but guaranteed those games would be small projects, and none have been produced since 2002.

* BillingDisplacement: Dee Wallace as Elliott's mother Mary.

** There was a subplot cut in which E.T. was in love with Elliot's mom. He goes into her room and leaves a Reese's Pieces on her pillow.

* SequelGap: Of a sort. In 2019 a commercial for Xfinity premiered during the UsefulNotes/MacysThanksgivingDayParade, where E.T. returns to Earth to reunite with a grown up Elliot (still played by Henry Jackson Thomas Jr.) and meet his family.

** When Elliott insulted Michael (the script didn't actually specify what to say, just something insulting) the script called for Dee Wallace to yell at him angrily to sit down. When she actually heard him say "It was nothing like that, penis breath!" her [[ActuallyPrettyFunny inability to keep a straight face while saying "Elliot!"]] was her [[EnforcedMethodActing entirely genuine reaction]], and they decided to leave that take in the movie.

** The first choice to play Gertie? Creator/JulietteLewis. Her father made her turn down the role and Barrymore was cast instead.

* TheWikiRule: [[http://ettheextraterrestrial.wikia.com/wiki/E.T._The_Extra_Terrestrial_Wiki The E.T. The Extra Terrestrial Wiki]].

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: Since the way the government agents menace Elliot and his family in this movie casts the federal government of the USA in a rather less-than-flattering light, this movie generally passed muster with censors in the Soviet bloc and was approved for importation. Common reactions among the audiences in these Communist countries that actually got to see it, however, tended to be "So... it's NotSoDifferent from how our government treats us ''here'', then?" and "Wow, that's a ''nice'' house and car they've got there; are all those capitalist Americans so rich that even a divorced mother of three can afford such luxuries?"

* DuelingMovies: With John Carpenter's darker take on an alien counter in ''Film/TheThing1982''. ''E.T.'' trounced it with critics at the time and at the box office. But both are held up as sci-fi classics now.

* RoleReprise: When the second Latin American Spanish dub was recorded at Creator/SDIMediaDeMexico for the film's 20th anniversary re-release, Héctor Lee reprised his role as E.T., and is the only surviving cast member to make a return.

* CrossDressingVoices: Played straight with E.T. in the original version and in the Japanese dub, but averted in the Mexican Spanish dub, where he is voiced by Héctor Lee.

** Appearently, the movie first started as an adaptation of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly–Hopkinsville_encounter Hopskinsville "goblin" incident]], and was going to be ''much'' darker than the current result.

* ChristmasRushed: Due to the timing of when the game rights were secured, Howard Warshaw was only given 5 and a half weeks to make the game to get it out for Christmas.

* ChristmasRushed: An infamous example. "Hey Scott, make something awesome! You've got six weeks."

** Creator/ShelleyLong was approached to play Elliot's mother. She turned it down as she was already signed on for the comedy ''Night Shift''.

** Corey Feldman was originally up for a role as a rival to Elliott, a dork named Lance who threatened to expose E.T. The character is in the book adaptation, but was cut from the script. Creator/StevenSpielberg promised him a role in a future film, and he would go on to be in ''Film/{{Gremlins}}''.

** Appearently, the movie first started as an adaptation of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly%E2%80%93Hopkinsville_encounter Hopskinsville "goblin" incident]], and was going to be ''much'' darker than the current result.

** Averted nicely unlike a lot of 80s movies. You can tell it was filmed in the 1980s due to the cars, the TV, and the family owning an Atari 2600, but it doesn't stick out like other examples. Many of the pop culture references they make like ''StarWars'' or ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' are still known by today's audiences.

** Creator/StevenSpielberg has also stated that this movie is a StealthSequel to ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind''. To claims of Christian allegory ([[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic E.T. dying and being resurrected, the kids' mother who unwittingly adopts him being named "Mary" and the family's being redeemed and made whole through E.T.'s influence, etc.]]), however, Spielberg issued nothing but denials, joking that his JewishMother would have been upset with him if he'd set out to make anything like that.

* CreatorKiller: This game is often credited for the Great Crash of 1983, which annihilated Atari and Warner Bros.'s value. While [[{{Misblamed}} it didn't singlehandedly cause the Crash,]] it didn't exactly help matters, either. Atari boss Ray Kassar, who had already driven away several programmers that then founded Creator/{{Activision}} and demanded the game's short development timetable, was ousted from his position and he has not been affiliated with the entertainment world at all since 1983. Shortly afterward, Warner sold off Atari, and the classic developer completely lost all of its dominance when Creator/{{Nintendo}}, who broke off their attempted relationship and became a brand-new ArchEnemy, released the NES and ended the crash in 1985, but they were able to hang around for another decade until Atari's inability to recover from the crash culminated in the Atari Jaguar, which finished off the studio.

* MagnumOpusDissonance: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. As seen from the quote on the main page, Howard Scott Warshaw considers it an honor that this is the worst-received game on the system, as in comparison to his best work, ''VideoGame/YarsRevenge'', he has "the greatest range of anyone ever on the machine."

* GenreKiller: ''E.T'' is the mascot of the Great Crash of 1983, which not only reduced Atari to a shadow of its former self for the remainder of the 80s and 90s, but destroyed almost everyone else in the industry, and likely would have sent gaming into a permanent small niche or worse had Nintendo not stepped up. It's also part of the reason some other Hollywood studios, most notably Creator/{{Disney}}, hesitated in the gaming market and fumbled several times.* KillerApp: ''Inverted''. The poor reception of this game, along with others, served to turn people away from the Atari 2600 as well as all other video game consoles for a few years.

* GenreKiller: ''E.T'' is the mascot of the Great Crash of 1983, which not only reduced Atari to a shadow of its former self for the remainder of the 80s and 90s, but destroyed almost everyone else in the industry, and likely would have sent gaming into a permanent small niche or worse had Nintendo not stepped up. It's also part of the reason some other Hollywood studios, most notably Creator/{{Disney}}, hesitated in the gaming market and fumbled several times.
* HoistByTheirOwnPetard: Having been caught short when ''VideoGame/PacMan'' sold so well it caused a shortage of consoles as people bought them specifically to play the game[[note]]and be disappointed[[/note]], Atari revved up production of consoles, expecting the same thing to happen. The huge overstock it was left with, just as [[TechnologyMarchesOn technology was beginning to advance past the 2600's capabilities]], contributed to the decline in Atari's fortunes over the next few years.
** Likewise, the company's aggressive sales tactics, practically forcing retailers to preorder vast stocks of the cartridges, led to the famous embarrassment of having to secretly bury all the many many returned cartridges in a secured landfill, a rumor that would not be confirmed until 2014 when the evidence was (literally) unearthed.
* KillerApp: ''Inverted''. The poor reception of this game, along with others, served to turn people away from the Atari 2600 as well as all other video game consoles for a few years.

* ObviousBeta: To a certain extent. It's complete and there are no major bugs, but it suffers from a lack of playtesting. A [[http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/ third party patch released decades later]] fixes many of the problems.