Arka Evren
What About Bob?

FILM · 1991 · USA

What About Bob?

38 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

  • What About Bob? — production image

31 Interesting Facts About What About Bob?

  1. #002

    Julie Hagerty is only ten years older than Kathryn Erbe, who plays her daughter Anna Marvin.

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  2. #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."

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  3. #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.

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  4. #006

    The vacation house where this was filmed was actually in Virginia, on Smith Mountain Lake.

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  5. #007

    Director Frank Oz wanted Patrick Stewart to play Dr. Leo Marvin, the role Richard Dreyfuss ultimately took.

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  6. #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."

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  7. #010

    This was the highest-grossing live-action film released by Disney in 1991.

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  8. #011

    Steve Martin was considered for both the roles of Bob Wiley and Dr. Leo Marvin.

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  9. #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.

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  10. #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).

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  11. #014

    Fran Brill, who plays Leo's sister Lily, was one of director Frank Oz's fellow Muppeteers on "Sesame Street."

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  12. #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."

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  13. #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.

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  14. #017

    Scenes were also shot in New York. According to Frank Oz, Bill Murray was genuinely afraid of filming in the city.

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  15. #018

    It is Richard Dreyfuss's and Bill Murray's favorite film.

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  16. #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.

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  17. #020

    Kathryn Erbe was 26 years old when she played Anna Marvin, the teenage daughter of Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss).

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  18. #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.

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  19. #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.

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  20. #024

    It ranks 43rd on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" list.

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  21. #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.

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  22. #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.

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  23. #028

    Before Frank Oz was hired, Garry Marshall was considered to direct.

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  24. #029

    It was the first writing credit for producer Laura Ziskin, who is also credited on the film's story.

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  25. #030

    It was the 19th highest-grossing film of 1991 in the United States.

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  26. #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.

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  27. #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.

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  28. #033

    Leo tells Bob that he is neither angry nor upset with him, which foreshadows that Bob will do exactly both to him.

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  29. #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."

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  30. #036

    It was Roger Bowen's last film role.

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  31. #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.

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