Brooklyn location shoot; gang harassment; real bridge reaction; ad-libbed hair line; first mainstream "blowjob"; girlfriend who died during filming; early Steadicam; Travolta family cameos; Bee Gees song origins; Farrah poster insert; Gorney's stalled career
The film was shot entirely on location in Brooklyn; the 2001 Odyssey disco has been demolished.
The production was harassed by local gangs and the mafia, with firebombings, and used fake call sheets; paying unions to stand by still happens.
The director kept the bridge stunt a secret from Donna Pescow, so her reaction was real, and Travolta ad-libbed the hair line because he was mad at the actor.
The film is claimed as the first mainstream Hollywood movie to use the word blowjob, accepted as true.
Travolta's real-life girlfriend, a TV actress, convinced him to make the film and died of cancer during filming.
It was one of the first films to use a Steadicam; Travolta's sister Ann plays the pizza lady and his mother a paint-store customer; Ellen Travolta is discussed.
Stigwood got the band on board; they declined to read the script but had song titles like Stayin' Alive, Night Fever and How Deep Is Your Love, and according to Barry Gibb the group was dead in the water before the film revived them.
Paramount suits found the mirror scene homoerotic and asked for more Farrah Fawcett footage, explaining the poster close-up.
In her own account, people could not separate Gorney from Stephanie; she turned down a Saturday Night Fever TV series, made an unsold album in England, and now appears in the Clifford the Big Red Dog movie.
The original director, who made Rocky, was fired a month before shooting, and his replacement was put on the map by this film.
Actresses reportedly considered for Stephanie include Jessica Lange, Kathleen Quinlan, Amy Irving and Carrie Fisher, with the internet list flagged as not fully verified.
Amy Irving is doubted because she was in Carrie with Travolta and was probably too famous; Carrie Fisher auditioned before Star Wars and would have been better than Gorney.
Accent matters most: Gorney's fake New York accent is unconvincing, illustrated by an impression of a Brooklyn aunt.
Donna Pescow, from Brooklyn, had to bring her accent back; Paramount executives Eisner and Katzenberg thought her too pretty, so she gained about 10 pounds and auditioned six times.
Soundtrack; Tony's bedroom posters; Donna Pescow; white-suit poster pose; Annette and Tony dynamic; friend-group chemistry; mid-70s New York locations; Brooklyn versus Manhattan; Airplane parody; Mad Magazine parody; Dance Fever; pork chop dinner
The soundtrack remains great 45 years later; any of those songs will be played in their entirety, even though the band never seemed cool.
The soundtrack is an all-time murderers row including Yvonne Elliman, Tavares, A Fifth of Beethoven, Manhattan Skyline, Boogie Shoes and Disco Inferno.
Tony's room has posters of Serpico, Bruce Lee, Wonder Woman, Rocky and Farrah Fawcett.
The sudden close-up insert on the Farrah Fawcett poster when the father enters is called seriously bad directing.
The white-suit poster pose was not planned; Travolta did it as a joke at the end of a long photo shoot.
Donna Pescow's performance and the realistic Annette and Tony dynamic, including her watching him walk down the street, hold up.
Tony's racist meathead buddies feel like they have known each other for years, which may be why they were hard to picture in other movies.
Mid-70s distressed New York as a location, alongside Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Death Wish, The Warriors, Dog Day Afternoon and others, holds up.
The film captures how far Bay Ridge and lower Brooklyn were from the city, from a participant who grew up in Mill Basin; the two places have merged over 20 years.
The Airplane parody of the dance scene and Mad Magazine's parody are lasting references; Dance Fever is added as a TV attempt to cash in.
The pork chop dinner, where the out-of-work father rants and Tony takes a second chop, is confusing but very real.
