Trivia / Mannequin

• Breakaway Pop Hit: "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" is often remembered as an essential 80's Power Ballad, and less as this film's theme song, though Family Guy fans may recognize the connection between the film and the song due to a Cutaway Gag in "Mother Tucker".
• California Doubling: While the majority of the film was shot in Philadelphia (where it's set), with the old John Wanamaker's department store doubling as Prince and Company, the Illustra store is actually the Boscov's in Camp Hill, PA — two hours away from Philly (it's a suburb of Harrisburg, the state capital).
• Inspiration for the Work: Director Michael Gottlieb got the idea for this film when he was walking by a store window and was startled to "see" a mannequin move by itself. He realized it was just an optical illusion caused by a combination of lights and shadows, but began to wonder what would happen if a mannequin actually DID come to life.
• Money, Dear Boy: Meshach Taylor has stated that he played Hollywood Montrose both because he needed to pay his rent and because he was sure no one would see a movie about a man and his love for a doll. He therefore had no problem playing it completely over the top. He is now recognized for this role as much as Anthony in Designing Women.
• Reality Subtext: The "struggling department store" element of the plot was true to life — the Wanamaker's store where they filmed much of the movie was indeed struggling at the time, and things never got much better as it bounced from owner to owner and name to name, ultimately becoming a Macy's in the mid-2000s.
• Star-Making Role: As stated above, Meshach Taylor. Although Designing Women started a year earlier, he only had a recurring role in the series until 1988, after this film made him a name.
• Studio Hop: An odd example. The film was produced by Gladden Entertainment; at the time they had a deal with 20th Century Fox for theatrical distribution. On video, it came out via Media Home Entertainment....but had the logo of The Cannon Group on the tape preceding the film and on the box, despite Cannon having nothing to do with the film's production. This stemmed from Cannon's purchase of Thorn EMI's film assets, as Thorn EMI was a co-financer of Gladden; Gladden's higher ups weren't happy and sued Cannon. They ultimately settled out of court, resulting in this movie and another Gladden film, The Manhattan Project being badged as Cannon productions on video. (Ironically, both the libraries of Cannon and Gladden are now owned by the same company, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.)
• Uncredited Role: David Isaacs and Ken Levine did an uncredited rewrite of the script. They later did a rewrite for Mannequin 2: On the Move for which they were credited.
• What Could Have Been: Originally, the lead part was written to be an older, lonely storekeeper, with Dudley Moore in mind for the role, but when Andrew McCarthy came on board, the part was rewritten to be the part of a young artist.
• Working Title: Perfect Timing.

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