Meatballs Movie Website

Factoids 

Here is a page of "factoids" or interesting tid bits of information about Meatballs that you may not know. If you have any additional information that would be useful for this page, please let me know.

• A stereotypical nerd character named "Spaz", becase the namesake for geeks everywhere. The character wore a broken pair of eyeglasses, fastened together at the bridge with a white piece of tape. In a number of schools there were reports of eyeglass-wearing children being taunted with the name "Spaz". Anyone remember Revenge of the Nerds?
• During the filming of the movie, Camp White Pine continued business as usual, resulting in many campers and staff members being used as extras and secondary characters in the film.
• An actual Camp North Star exists in Hayward, Wisconsin as well as Poland Spring, Maine.
• In the DVD release of the film, all of the music remains intact save for the title track, which seems to have been slightly re-dubbed by Bill Murray and the pace changed to a faster tempo.
• In one scene Bill Murray is seen wearing a Chicago Blackhawks jacket. Murray is a native of Wilmette, IL, a Chicago suburb.
• The film was first released on DVD in 1999 by HBO (Although Paramount Pictures was behind the original theatrical release and the first VHS and Selectavision release in the 1980s.) Sony Pictures has since acquired the rights and issued a special-edition DVD (with an anamorphic transfer, a director's commentary, and a "Making of" featurette) on June 5, 2007.
• Keith Knight (Finkelstein) made three film appearances with friend Jack Blum (Spaz.)
• During the filming of a hot-dog-eating contest in that movie, Finkelstein actually ate more than 100 hot dogs.
• The "Visitors Day" scene was actually filmed during the camp's Visitor's Day. White Pine also had a similar yearly event to the "Olympiad", although rather than being a inter-camp competition, it was an intra-camp relay-type competition that was part of an all day themed event. These competitions were nicknamed "Mohawk Relays", maybe this was the inspiration for the name of the rival camp in the movie?
• Several shots in the movie were added after initial filming had ended. These included the scene of Rudy and Tripper at teh bus station and of them playing blackback for peanuts.
• During time off from filming, Chris Makepeace had entered puberty and had the beginnings of a mustach. Bill Murray decided that it had to go, so he took Makepeace over to the sink and gave him his first shave.
• Kate Lynch was chosen for the role as Roxanne because she did not look like a supermodel and would be taken more seriously.
• All the scenes involving the 1st day of camp was the first day of shooting for Bill Murray. He was not signed on yet to do the film as he was committed to doing SNL. His outfit of the Hawaiian shirt and red shorts were his own clothes that he showed up on set with!

Inconsistencies

Several inconsistencies have been well documented about the filming of the movie. Here are a handful:

- When Spaz and Fink are playing tennis they miss the ball several times and it seems to the viewer that the ball is just about to stop bouncing, but a second later the ball is even bouncing higher.

- At the beginning when the children are getting off the buses after arriving at camp you see a kid wearing a scarf and holding a red jacket on the field. A few shots later you see the same child getting off the bus.

- When Candace pulls Crockett into the boat he lands on his head. In the next shot as she is pulling away from the dock he is standing up and leaning over. Then the next cut shows he is back on his head and getting up.

- When Candace pulls Crockett on to the motor boat. when he is upside down, you can see the shape of a wireless microphone pack on his back.

- When they are in the K-Mart parking lot picking up the campers, the buses are Chevrolets and GMC makes. When they get to Camp North-Star the buses have changed to Fords and a Dodge.

- When the Camp North Star group are leaving the camp, for the big basketball game. The school bus sign on the back of the bus has black paint covering the school part. When they get to Camp Mohawk, the black paint is now white.

- At the Dance at Camp North Star. As Tripper and Roxanne are dancing, Crockett and Wendy are dancing in the background. They cut to Wheels and Crockett by the door, talking to the red headed toe taping girl. They cut back to Tripper and Roxanne, Crockett is still in the background dancing.

- The counselors-in-training escape the basketball game with the Mohawks by bus. Shots from inside the bus show a car behind them just as they're leaving, but it should show the Mohawks chasing Morty on his bike.

- After Jackie is hurt in the field hockey game she can be seen jumping around with the other CITs at the end of the rally.

- Wheels' drop-kick in the Olympiad wrestling scene, is an illegal move in "real" (amateur) wrestling. Also, you don't have to pin the guy for a three-count in amateur wrestling. It only has to be for a full second.

- During the Olympiad softball game, one of the girls on the North Star team tells her teammate to hit the ball to the Mohawk outfielder with "big boobs" because she can't catch. When the ball is hit to the buxom outfielder, it appears to fall into her shirt on the fly, which would cause the ball to become dead and each runner would be awarded two bases.

- During the first event in the Olympiad with the boys swimming with the beach balls. After the ball is shot the North Star swimmer starts to cry and tread water. However when his CIT jumps in to save him you can see the boy standing up and wiping off his eyes. It cuts back to the CIT swimming up to the boy and he is now treading water and crying again.