Trivia for
Adventures in Babysitting (1987) More at IMDbPro »

• Sara wears a backpack with a picture of Gizmo on it. This is a reference to Gremlins (1984) which was written by Chris Columbus.
  
  
• Served as the basis for a 1989 CBS unsold pilot starring Jennifer Guthrie, Brian Austin Green and Joey/Joseph Lawrence.
  
  
• One of the movie's producers is Debra Hill, who teamed up with John Carpenter to make Halloween (1978), a horror movie about murdered babysitters. Listen carefully when Sara and Kris watch television. The music you can hear is John Carpenter's chilling Halloween (1978) theme, an in-joke.
  
  
• Right before shooting a scene in which the group runs through a dirty, trash-filled alley, the Toronto Sanitation department came by and cleaned it up, so the crew had to dig through local dumpsters for more trash.
  
  
• Elisabeth Shue's brother, actor Andrew Shue, has a role as an extra at the frat party. He is at the bar laughing at Daryl.
  
  
• Elisabeth Shue landed the lead role after Valerie Bertinelli and Michelle Pfeiffer both declined.
  
  
• An early draft of the script has the part of Dawson, the garage owner, played by an extremely unfeminine woman and the scene emphasizes the humor of Sara and Brad's confusion over Dawson's gender. This part ultimately went to Vincent D'Onofrio and the scene as it appears in the film plays with Sara's fascination with the comic book hero Thor and has her confusing Dawson with her comic book hero (to Sara he's cleverly disguised as an everyday garage mechanic).
  
  
• In an early draft (third rewrite) of the script, there is no mention of Sara's fascination with Thor. What is included instead is a funny scene at Soldier Field with The Chicago Bears Players stars Jim McMahon, Walter Payton, William Perry (William "The Refrigerator" Perry) and Mike Singletary. The boys invite the team members to come to the Anderson House to watch The Mummy's Curse (1944) and when they finally leave, Daryl smuggles out several of the team's jockstraps as souvenirs. The jockstraps later are used to make up the shortage of cash needed to get the station wagon out of (Miss) Dawson's garage. None of the Chicago Bears appear in and no references to the team occur in the film.
  
  
• The two rival gangs on the El Train challenge each other to a fight when the train crosses "Devereux" street, an in-joke towards director Chris Columbus' wife Monica Devereux and father in law Clarke Devereux who both appear in the movie.
  
  
• In both this film and in Back to the Future Part II (1989), Elisabeth Shue plays a character who faints and says the line, "I had the worst nightmare!" upon waking up again.
  
  
• When the kids are at the chop shop, Bleak refers to them as the Brady Bunch. In the following scene, when Brenda is still at the bus station, on one of the portable TVs, the theme music from "The Brady Bunch" (1969) can be heard.
  
  
• Kathleen Turner was the first choice for the lead role.
  
  
• The project started in the 1960s, but was abandoned in the 1970s. However, in the mid-1980s, Chris Columbus finally restarted the project. In the original plot, Jane Fonda was considered to play the lead role. However, Jane was too old for the character and the part moved to Bridget Fonda. But Bridget also withdrew from the project before auditions began.
  
  
• Tatum O'Neal was offered the lead role, but turned it down.
  
  
• Melanie Griffith auditioned for the lead role, but backed out.
  
  
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus auditioned for the lead role, but withdrew in favor of Jodie Foster. But Foster, also withdrew, leaving Michelle Pfeiffer, Valerie Bertinelli, Elisabeth Shue and Justine Bateman as the only choices. Bateman withdrew from the project due to creative conflicts from the producers of "Family Ties" (1982). Pfeiffer left the project and instead starred in The Witches of Eastwick (1987). Bertinelli lost out to Shue on the final day of auditions.
  
  
• Kelly McGillis reportedly wanted the lead role but Chris Columbus turned her down.
  
  
• Christina Applegate and Nicole Eggert both auditioned for the role of Sarah.
  
  
• Brooke Shields was considered for the lead role.
  
  
• Sharon Stone auditioned for the lead role.
  
  
• Andie MacDowell was considered for the lead role.
  
  
• Chris Columbus's directorial debut.
  
  

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