Trivia / The Stand (1994)

• All-Star Cast: The cast includes Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, Ed Harris, Laura San Giacomo, Jamey Sheridan, Bill Fagerbakke, Miguel Ferrer, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Corin Nemec, Matt Frewer, Adam Storke and Ray Walston. There are also notable cameos by Kathy Bates, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, and Stephen King himself as one of the Free Zone members.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Joe Bob Briggs was very enthusiastic about his cameo because he wanted to meet Gary Sinise, as his father Robert L. Sinise had edited Blood Feast, one of the drive-in guru's favorite films.
• California Doubling:
  • Closing the Lincoln Tunnel in New York for filming would have been insane, so instead they used the Armstrong Tunnels in Pittsburgh.
  • The majority of it was shot in and around Salt Lake City.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • Miguel Ferrer originally wanted to play the role of Randall Flagg before he was cast as Lloyd Henreid, but Stephen King wanted someone that the audience wasn't overly familiar with. After Ferrer heard that his friend Jamey Sheridan had been offered the part, but wasn't sure it was something he wanted to do, Ferrer convinced him to take it. Ferrer himself would also star in The Night Flier.
  • Rob Lowe had been originally considered for the role of Larry Underwood, but Mick Garris felt that having him in the more unusual role of the deaf and mute Nick Andros would better suit the production (Lowe has been deaf in his right ear since childhood).
• Creator-Chosen Casting: When Stephen King learned that Kathy Bates wanted to a part in the series, he changed the book's character Ray Brown to Rae Brown so he could have her in it because he loved her in Misery so much.
• The Danza: Joe Bob Briggs (best known for hosting MonsterVision on TNT in the '90s) is Deputy Joe Bob Brentwood, but this is likely an inversion of the trope, as the character had that name in the original novel, and so Briggs was probably cast in the part because of his name.
• Deleted Scene: A still exists of at least one deleted scene showing Joe Bob Brentwood in his squad car after he gets sick.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Rob Lowe plays the deaf-mute character Nick Andros. In real life, he is deaf in his right ear.
• Dawson Casting: Trashcan Man's age is never specified in the novel, but Flagg refers to him as a "boy" and he is generally discussed as befitting a very young man or even a teenager. Here, he's played by Matt Frewer, who was in his mid-thirties at the time.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: For years it was planned to make the story into a theatrical film, directed by George A. Romero. Stephen King did many drafts to make it of a suitable length for a feature film, and when he couldn't get it short enough they considered breaking it into two separate films before finally letting Rospo Pallenberg write a draft. But before they could make it, King was offered the chance to make this mini-series for television.
• Self-Adaptation: Stephen King wrote the script for the miniseries based on his own book.
• Star-Making Role: Prior to his appearance in the miniseries, Gary Sinise's career mostly consisted of guest appearances in various tv shows. His casting in Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, CSI: NY, etc. all came after.
• Underage Casting: Ruby Dee was only 71 when playing the 106-year-old Mother Abagail. She wasn't even the oldest person on-set; her husband Ossie Davis, who played the much younger Judge Farris, was five years older. Granted, finding a suitable actress who was anywhere near 106 and not retired was probably a tall order.
• What Could Have Been:
  • David Bowie, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Lance Henriksen, Christopher Walken, Julian Sands, Frank Silva and James Woods were considered for Randall Flagg.
  • Matthew McConaughey was offered the role of Stu Redman (He later took the role of Flagg himself for The Dark Tower).
  • Whoopi Goldberg was approached by the casting team for Mother Abagail, but couldn't take the role as she was working on Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. She did play the role in the remake.

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