Trivia / Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

• Breakthrough Hit: Became a success for Paul Mazursky's directing career.
• Cast the Expert: Donald F. Muhich, who played Alice Henderson's therapist, was director Paul Mazursky's real-life therapist. He later appeared in three other Mazursky films.
• Creator Cameo: Paul Mazursky and co-writer Larry Tucker appear at the end of the film as one of the couples coming out of the hotel behind Bob & Carol and Ted & Alice.
• Creator's Favorite: Mazursky called it the film he was proudest of.
• Deleted Scene: A scene showing Alice's fantasy of dancing with every man in the world was filmed, with Paul Mazursky hiring a lot of male extras and sticking them in the same sound stage with Dyan Cannon and Elliot Gould. The scene apparently involved all the men piling on top of Alice, blocking her sight of the outside world.
• One-Take Wonder: Dyan Cannon was so intimidated by the idea of acting with the director's real-life psychiatrist, she did the entire scene they are together (Alice's therapy session) in one take so she wouldn't have to go through it all over again.
• Playing Against Type: A composer example: Quincy Jones was trying to escape being branded as a Mystery composer, as he was well-known for his work in In Cold Blood and In the Heat of the Night when he got the offer to compose for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.
• Recycled: The Series: A TV show based on the film aired on ABC in the 1973-74 season. Because it severely toned down the movie's sexual content, it was cancelled and only aired 7 episodes out of 12. Curiously, the show featured a 10-year-old Jodie Foster as Ted and Alice's daughter (although they had a son in the movie).
• Referenced by...::The fifth episode of New Girl's season 6 is called "Bob & Carol & Nick & Schmidt".
  • A one-act opera by classical parodist P.D.Q. Bach is titled Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice.
• Star-Making Role: For Elliott Gould.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Actors who turned down roles in the film included Warren Beatty, James Caan, Faye Dunaway, Jane Fonda, Steve McQueen, Robert Redford, and Barbra Streisand.
  • The movie's first draft had a much more melancholic ending, with the four characters breaking down in tears in bed when they realize they can't bring themselves to have sex. Then they would pull themselves together while walking to Tony Bennett's show.

---