RW304 - Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

In this episode of the Bill & Ted Rewatch, Cory and Nathan embark on an unprecedented trip through time as they discuss "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure."

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The screenplay was written by Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson in early 1987, based on a comedy stand-up routine they had performed while in college. Director Stephen Herek called the screenplay "incredibly laugh-out-loud", but recognized that because of some of the off-center humor targeting a specific audience, the film was "either going to be a huge hit or a huge flop". Herek stated that shopping the film for distributors was difficult; Warner Bros. want to produce it within a US$10 million budget, but could not figure out how to fund it. The film ended up being picked up by Dino de Laurentiis through the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG).

Bill and Ted began as a stand-up act, in which the characters would discuss current events without knowing what they were talking about. Originally, there was a third character named Bob, but the comedian who played him lost interest after a few performances.

Principal photography was completed in 1987, but the release was delayed because the film's original financiers, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, went bankrupt. The film was in danger of being dumped onto cable television until Nelson Entertainment bought the rights to the movie in 1988, and it was released in 1989.

Originally as a spec script, the film had been called Bill & Ted's Time Van. While the core plot was similar, with Bill & Ted on the verge of failing their history class and threatening to ruin their idea of forming a band together, events in the spec script initiated when the pair had borrowed a van from their 28-year-old friend Rufus. While driving the van, they ended up in Nazi Germany, and after some hijinks, bring Adolf Hitler back to San Dimas in the present while they continue to collect other historical figures. Solomon affirmed this clearly became problematic, and Hitler was switched out with Napoleon in their final script. Other concepts in the spec script that were dropped included more involvement of Bill & Ted's classmates including having them travel in time with them, visiting Julius Caesar in the Roman Empire and ending up causing his death, and befriending a caveman in the prehistoric age to help him invent fire so that they could light up a joint. The van, originally to be a 1969 Chevrolet, was abandoned as being too close in concept to the DeLorean used in the Back to the Future trilogy. In earlier drafts of the script, other historical figures Bill and Ted plucked from history included Charlemagne (whom they referred to as "Charlie Mangay"), Babe Ruth, and a non-famous medieval person called "John the Serf". John is listed in the credits.

Then-upcoming actor Brendan Fraser and Pauly Shore auditioned for the roles of Bill and Ted respectively. They would star together three years later in Encino Man (1992).

Winter said of casting George Carlin as Rufus as a "very happy accident". The role of Rufus had not been established when filming started. Herek stated that their intention was to have Eddie Van Halen as Rufus, given the frequency of Van Halen references in the screenplay, but because of the low budget for the film, they could not get it to happen.

Initially, the film had ended with Bill & Ted giving their report within a small classroom, passing their class, and then going to the prom with the rescued princesses. The production team recognized this felt underwhelming, and created the larger auditorium presentation as to give a better sense of scale, with a sound and light show to make it more dramatic setting.

 

The initial cut of the film was 2 hours and 25 minutes long, and was pruned significantly. One such filmed scene was a lengthy choreographed song number that would have led off the film, starting with Bill & Ted dancing via air-guitaring on their way to school

There are seventy uses of "dude" throughout the movie, as well as thirty of "excellent".

The film takes place in 2688, May 1988, 1805, 1879, 410 B.C., the 15th Century, 1901, 1810, 1429, 1209, 1863 and 1,000,000 B.C.

The phone booth time machine in the film was given away as a contest prize in Nintendo Power magazine, as the magazine was promoting a then-new Bill and Ted game for the NES.

Alex Winter claimed that he gets two different letters from teachers - positive ones from history teachers for encouraging children to learn about history and the figures, and negative ones from English teachers for affecting the way students speak.

For years, Keanu Reeves lamented that his epitaph would be "Here lies Keanu Reeves. He played Ted."

In the film, Bill and Ted claim that they need Edward Van Halen in their band to make it better. After the film was released, he jokingly said he would have joined their band if they had asked.

What's Up Next?

Next week we continue this righteous quest with "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey."

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