FILM · 1991 · USA
What About Bob?
38 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (38)
- #001
Robin Williams was the first choice for the role of Bob Wiley because he had been nominated for an Oscar for his performance in writer Tom Schulman's Dead Poets Society (1989), also distributed by Touchstone Pictures. By the time shooting was to begin, however, Williams had just finished filming The Fisher King (1991) and had to turn the role down. Williams, who plays Richard Dreyfuss's son in this film, and Charlie Korsmo would both appear the same year in Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991).
- #002
Julie Hagerty is only ten years older than Kathryn Erbe, who plays her daughter Anna Marvin.
- #003
According to the March 19, 1993 issue of "Entertainment Weekly," Bill Murray said of this film: "Fun - everybody knows somebody like a guy named Bob. [Richard Dreyfuss and I] didn't get along very well on the film, but it worked for the film. I mean, I drove him crazy, and he encouraged me to drive him crazy."
- #004
When Fay Marvin lifts Bob and her son Sigmund in her arms on the night Bob stays over, she raises the sheets to let Bob into his bed. Bill Murray improvised in the scene and crawled under the sheets first, which made Julie Hagerty laugh.
- #005
Dr. Leo Marvin is a psychiatrist whose children are named "Sigmund" and "Anna." They are named after the famous psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and his daughter, the child psychologist Anna Freud, respectively.
- #006
The vacation house where this was filmed was actually in Virginia, on Smith Mountain Lake.
- #007
Director Frank Oz wanted Patrick Stewart to play Dr. Leo Marvin, the role Richard Dreyfuss ultimately took.
- #008
Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss did not get along well during filming and had some disagreements, as confirmed by both the actors and director Frank Oz. According to Dreyfuss's son Ben, Murray had a meltdown on set that got so bad that everyone flew to Los Angeles, and production only resumed after Disney hired security guards to keep the two actors apart. In a 2020 interview, Dreyfuss said he was ready to forgive Murray.
- #009
Producer Laura Ziskin recalled throwing Bill Murray into the lake because of a disagreement with him. In 2003 she confirmed: "Bill also threatened to throw me in the parking lot and then broke my sunglasses and threw them into the parking lot. I was angry and furious at the time, but as someone who has made a dozen films, I can safely say that this is not common behavior."
- #010
This was the highest-grossing live-action film released by Disney in 1991.
- #011
Steve Martin was considered for both the roles of Bob Wiley and Dr. Leo Marvin.
- #012
For the scene in which Bob accidentally blows up the house, the producers used a three-quarter-scale replica of a real house that they blew up on a nearby plot of land.
- #013
Director Frank Oz was quite worried the film would fail, since he, Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss had different ideas about what would really make it funny. But the film became a surprising critical and commercial success and was Touchstone Pictures' second highest-grossing comedy of the year after Father of the Bride (1991).
- #014
Fran Brill, who plays Leo's sister Lily, was one of director Frank Oz's fellow Muppeteers on "Sesame Street."
- #015
In a 2000 interview with IGN, director Frank Oz recalled: "...[the filming] was a tense time because [Bill Murray]... and the writer and producer... and Richard Dreyfuss... and me... and Disney (although I should say they were more supportive, according to Disney)... My point of view on how the script could be made better wasn't malicious, it was just that everyone had a strong opinion about how the film could be made better. That caused friction and a lot of tension, and that's what I remember, but I think it also made the film better."
- #016
The film was originally scheduled to be shot in central New Hampshire in the summer of 1990. But casting delays meant it was mid-September before production could finally begin, by which time the forests in that area showed ample signs of autumn, which would not work for a film meant to be shot in August. So production was hastily moved to Virginia, where the weather still felt like summer but looked nothing like New Hampshire.
- #017
Scenes were also shot in New York. According to Frank Oz, Bill Murray was genuinely afraid of filming in the city.
- #018
It is Richard Dreyfuss's and Bill Murray's favorite film.
- #019
When Bob disguises himself as a detective to get Leo's phone number, he seems oddly calm and "normal," which is strange for someone in his condition. However, some research has shown that role-playing exercises can be useful in treating people with phobias.
- #020
Kathryn Erbe was 26 years old when she played Anna Marvin, the teenage daughter of Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss).
- #021
The mental hospital where Dr. Marvin tries to commit Bob is actually the National Elks Home in Bedford, Virginia. Every Christmas, thousands of Christmas lights illuminate the front lawn, and about 100,000 spectators come from the surrounding areas.
- #022
The two buildings shown when Bob arrives at the lake from New York are in Moneta, Virginia, near Smith Mountain Lake. The blue building was actually an antique shop and coffeehouse that was rented and converted into a general store for filming. The red building used as the bus terminal in the film is in real life a product warehouse called Moneta Products.
- #023
Richard Dreyfuss's son Ben said that production on the film was temporarily halted at one point when Bill Murray threatened producer Laura Ziskin, and that the entire cast and crew returned to Los Angeles because of Murray's fight with Dreyfuss and Ziskin. Disney later hired bodyguards to keep Murray and Dreyfuss apart, because Dreyfuss claims Murray also tried to be violent toward him, after which production resumed.
- #024
It ranks 43rd on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" list.
- #025
Jack Nicholson, James Caan, Chevy Chase, Kevin Kline, Michael Caine, Bob Newhart and Alan Arkin were considered for the role of Dr. Leo Marvin.
- #026
A young Aida Turturro can be seen as an extra playing a prostitute whom Bob calls his therapist and pretends is his sister on a payphone before coming to New Hampshire.
- #027
Frank Oz decided to direct the film after Woody Allen and Garry Marshall passed, because his close friend and colleague Jim Henson had died only a few months before shooting. He felt that doing a comedy would help him cope with the pain of losing his friend. Even so, Oz admits the production was difficult because of the problems with Murray and Dreyfuss, as well as Murray's friction with producer Laura Ziskin. Even so, Oz says he still likes the film and, looking back, does not regret making it.
- #028
Before Frank Oz was hired, Garry Marshall was considered to direct.
- #029
It was the first writing credit for producer Laura Ziskin, who is also credited on the film's story.
- #030
It was the 19th highest-grossing film of 1991 in the United States.
- #031
When Sigmund says, "My father drowned, you saved him!" there is probably an unintentional double meaning. The night before, Leo had literally choked on a piece of chicken, and Bob saved him by performing the Heimlich maneuver and then putting his legs on Leo's back. During the Good Morning America broadcast, Leo freezes and Bob ends the interview with the word "saved." It is not known whether the writers wrote it this way intentionally.
- #032
The film's closing epilogue says: "Bob went back to school and became a psychologist. He then wrote a best-selling book: 'DEATH THERAPY'. Leo is suing him for the rights." Years later, Richard Dreyfuss would sue Walt Disney Pictures over an audit of the film's profit participation.
- #033
Leo tells Bob that he is neither angry nor upset with him, which foreshadows that Bob will do exactly both to him.
- #034
Tom Hanks was considered for the role of Bob Wiley.
- #035
The diagnosis psychiatrist Dr. Leo Marvin gave Bob Wiley was "multiple phobic personality characterized by acute separation anxiety and excessive need for family ties."
- #036
It was Roger Bowen's last film role.
- #037
You may wonder why Leo never calls the police on Bob or takes out a restraining order against him, until you realize that Leo is more worried about not looking like the bad guy to his family, who already have significant problems with him and who, on the contrary, enjoy Bob's friendship. By the time his family understands that Bob is making Leo's condition worse and that he has to leave, Leo has already gone too far in losing his sanity.
- #038
At one point in the development process, according to Leonard Klady in the June 25, 1989 issue of The Los Angeles Times, Woody Allen was considered to take on the triple duty of star, director and possibly co-writer if he could gain some freedom from his special deal with Orion Pictures. In the end he could not secure such a deal and turned the offer down accordingly.
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