Trivia
Bill Murray improvised the "Cinderella story" sequence from two lines of stage direction. Director Harold Ramis simply asked Murray to emulate a kid announcing his own fantasy sports moment. Murray simply asked for four rows of 'mums and did the scene in one take.
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Cindy Morgan (Lacy Underall) has said that the oil massage scene with Chevy Chase was also completely improvised. When Lacy exclaims "You're crazy!" that was Morgan's genuine reaction to Chase dousing her with oil.
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The noises that the Gopher makes are actually vocalized by a dolphin, and the dolphin sound effects used are the same ones that were used for Flipper.
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The character of Lou, played by the film's co-writer Brian Doyle-Murray, is the only one to actually say the word "caddyshack".
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According to Scott Colomby on the DVD extras, he only took up smoking after playing the part of cigarette-puffing Tony.
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The movie was inspired by writer and co-star Brian Doyle-Murray's memories working as a caddy at a golf club. His brother Bill Murray and director Harold Ramis also worked as caddies when they were teenagers.
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The reason the scenes of Mr. Gopher's underground world look better than the rest of the film is because they were filmed on a sound-stage with better quality film stock and cameras rather than on location like the majority of the film.
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The song being played by the musical horn on Al Czervik's Rolls Royce is "We're In The Money"
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The movie's line "Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a mirac...It's in the hole! It's in the hole! It's in the hole!" was voted as the #92 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
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In the scene where the Bishop (played by veteran actor Henry Wilcoxon) is having his best round of golf ever during a thunderstorm, he misses an easy putt, looks skyward and yells "rat farts!", and is immediately struck down by a bolt of lightning. The background music in this scene was from Cecil B. DeMille's classic The Ten Commandments, in which Wilcoxon played the part of Pentaur.
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The movie's line "So I got that going for me, which is nice." was voted as the #49 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
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The rowdy, improvisational atmosphere around the filming, created by Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Rodney Dangerfield, didn't sit well with all the members of the cast. Ted Knight, widely regarded as a very nice man, got fed up with the constant shenanigans. Initially, Murray's, Chase's, and Dangerfield's roles were to be cameo appearances. But their deft improvising caused their roles to be expanded much to the chagrin of Scott Colomby and some of the other cast members whose roles were reduced as a result.
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Unsurprisingly, the movie is a huge favorite among golfers and golf fans. Tiger Woods so adores the movie, he played Carl Spackler in an American Express commercial that included references to many of the movie's most famous scenes.
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Harold Ramis based the character of Carl Spackler on a slightly deranged police officer who was a shell-shocked war veteran.
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The gopher sequences were written and filmed after most of the movie was shot. Originally, director Harold Ramis wanted to cast a live animal to play the gopher. When that did not work out, the animatronic gopher and its tunnels were built by John Dykstra.
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According to 'Harold Ramis (I)' on the DVD Commentary, he claims that he wanted to score the movie to Pink Floyd music but the studio wouldn't allow him to do that.
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Ranked #7 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Sports" in June 2008.
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The song Rodney Dangerfield plays on the radio attached to his golf bag is "Any Way You Want It" by Journey.
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The scene where Carl and Ty are talking in Carl's "house" was almost entirely improvised between Bill Murray and Chevy Chase.
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Rodney Dangerfield hired singer and golfer Don Cherry to teach him to golf for this film. Don was a regular headliner in Las Vegas and lived near Dangerfield. In addition to his singing, Don was a very well known-professional golfer.
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The song played on the radio attached to Al Czervik's golf bag (during the actual filming of the movie) was "My Sharona".
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While the movie was filmed in Ft Lauderdale, FL the country club was supposed to be located in Nebraska. In preparation for filming certain scenes they spent many days spraypainting the grass blue around the clubhouse.
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The second story of the clubhouse was fake. It was only added for the movie and was empty inside.
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Chevy Chase's character Ty, makes several references to owning or working in a "lumber yard". Co-writer Brian Doyle-Murray's father worked in a lumber yard.
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The famous scene that begins when Ty Webb's golf ball crashes into Carl Spackler's ramshackle house was not in the original script. It was added by director Harold Ramis after realizing that two of his biggest stars, Chevy Chase and Bill Murray (who did not get along due to a feud dating back to their days on Saturday Night Live), did not have a scene together. The three met for lunch and wrote the scene together. Although it has nothing to do with the plot, it is widely regarded as the funniest scene in the movie. This is the only time that Chase and Murray have appeared in a movie together.
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As Carl Spackler is working on his plastic explosive animals, bags of Milorganite are seen stacked behind him. Milorganite is an actual fertilizer produced by the Milwaukee (WI) Sewerage Commission and consists of the dried microbes left after human waste and other sewage is processed. Contrary to popular belief, it does not contain any actual fecal matter. It is extremely popular among lawn-care professionals (such as golf course greenskeepers) and is produced and sold to this day.
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Cindy Morgan did not want to appear topless in the movie. While director Harold Ramis was amenable to changing the scene, producer Jon Peters asked to talk to her while Ramis had her on the phone. When the call ended, Peters informed Ramis that Morgan would do the topless scene - because Peters had told her she would never work again in Hollywood if she didn't. Morgan recounted in July 2010 that this incident contributed to her not working again (voluntarily) for a long time afterward.
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Dan Resin (Dr. Beeper) had to learn to play golf for the movie, but didn't keep up with it afterwards.
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According to Jon Peters and unbeknownst to Harold Ramis, if the shoot hadn't gone as planned or if Ramis' dailies weren't going to live up to what the studio had wanted, they had to pick a director just in case this happened. After the studio loved the dailies, they backed off and production went on as planned.
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Bill Murray filmed all of his scenes, including the famous scene with Chevy Chase, in six days. (Many people expected them to have another confrontation as they had had during Chase's return to Saturday Night Live years before. They were professional and didn't show any signs of their alleged previous feud.
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After the film started shooting, a hurricane hit Florida and delayed production for several days. The production also experienced delays due to problems with earthworms.
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Editor William C. Carruth's original assembled length was about four and a half hours. Bill Murray's ball mashing speech scene lasted a good thirty minutes. Everyone hated the way the film was being put together so they brought in another editor to cut it down to more reasonable length and pace. Orion Pictures and the producers still were not happy with this cut as the shortened version cut out much of the story with the caddies due to both pace and the fact that Bill Murray's, Chevy Chase's and Rodney Dangerfield's parts set the pace for the film's strong comedic elements. The gopher was added at the last minute to ensure that the movie had structure rather than being a series of vignettes.
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Most of the cast and crew lived in a motel located near the actual country club used in the film which made it easy for everyone to show up to work.
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The swimming pool scene was not shot at the Rolling Hills Country Club, but rather at Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale.
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The scene where Cindy Morgan walks by Scott Colomby and Michael O'Keefe at the swimming pool made Morgan very nervous at first, but when she completed it, she felt relieved. Colomby was supposed to say a line while she walked past him but couldn't so he wet his lips and that's what ended up on screen.
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In the lovemaking scene, Cindy Morgan was so uncomfortable that Harold Ramis ordered a closed set for it. Michael O'Keefe asked all the cast and crew to take off their shirts for the scene to make her feel more comfortable.
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Cindy Morgan was furious at Chevy Chase during their scene in his cabana. Morgan was upset at the fact that Chase was improvising more than she had anticipated because he didn't tell her ahead of time. This made her uncomfortable, which can be seen clearly when she's having the tequila shots with him and the massage where all the oil accidentally spilled out on her back. Harold Ramis had to settle them down and the scenes then went very smoothly.
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The film is based on 'Brain Doyle Murray''s experiences as a caddy when he was younger along with Bill and John Murray also Harold Ramis. His brother Ed did actually win a golf scholarship like Michael O'Keefe's character is trying to win in the film.
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Writer and Producer Douglas Kenney passed away after the film was released. He had accidentally fallen off a cliff while on vacation in Hawaii. He had been in a deep depression after the film was in post-production as much of the original story had been butchered in the editing room and he was adamantly against the final addition of the gopher to the film.
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After filming wrapped each day, most of the cast and crew spent the nights partying, which eventually took its toll before the end of filming as cast and crew began to show up late for morning calls, holding up filming for hours at a time.
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A big hill was built from scratch for the climactic 18th hole scene because the country club did not want their course blown up. They used too many explosives, which completely destroyed the hill and caused planes flying by to report the explosion as if a plane had crashed there.
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While filming, there were a lot of planes flying overhead, which interfered with shooting the golf scenes and caused continuity errors in the dialog tracks that would require looping. John Murray, Bill's younger brother was the one on set everyday to alert director Harold Ramis and the shooting crew to stop filming while the planes flew by.
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Harold Ramis wanted to use Pink Floyd to write music for the film, but couldn't get them. After an audition, Kenny Loggins came up with the famous theme song for the film, "I'm Alright" and played it for the producers and got the job. Johnny Mandel, who wrote the film's musical score, was also hired immediately afterward.
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