Trivia / Clifford

• Alan Smithee: Writers William Porter and Steven Kampmann were ashamed of the film, claiming that it was almost nothing like the script they submitted. They used the respective pseudonyms "Jay Dee Rock' and "Bobby Van Hayes" for their credits, as well as the marketing and publicity.
• Box Office Bomb: The film only made $7.4 million on a $19 million budget.
• Creator Killer: For Orion Pictures, the film's failure only hastened the decline of the already struggling studio.
• Dawson Casting/Underage Casting: Done intentionally. Martin Short, who plays 10 year-old Clifford, was 37 years old during initial filming in 1990 and age 40 during the priest bookend sequences filmed in 1993.
• Deleted Role: Patty McCormack, star of the film that originally inspired Clifford, played a passenger on the plane who warned Clifford that his behavior would wreak havoc. The scene was cut for time.
• Focus Group Ending: The framing device with Clifford as an elderly priest was added after test screenings did not go well. The film originally ended with Clifford getting on another plane with his parents, only to parachute out of it (presumably to return to Dinosaur World).
• Magnum Opus Dissonance: While he understands why it didn't do well, Martin Short still considers this one of his favorite personal works.
• Production Posse: Martin Short and director Paul Flaherty later teamed up on Primetime Glick, which was much funnier.
• Scully Box: Martin Short's co-stars are usually standing on boxes and next to slightly oversize props.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: The movie was filmed in 1990, but wasn't released until 1994, with the delay being due to the bankruptcy of Orion Pictures.
• Star-Derailing Role: After the film's release, the careers of Charles Grodin and Martin Short slowed down considerably.
• What Could Have Been: The film was originally conceived as a comedic version of The Bad Seed (1956) only with a boy instead of a girl. The original intent was to have a child actor play Clifford. However, Problem Child was in development around the same time so the filmmakers decided to rewrite the script for Martin Short.

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