The Love Bug / Trivia - TV Tropes (2024)

• Acting for Two: There is a quick scene in The Love Bug where Dean Jones, in addition to portraying Jim Douglas, also portrays a hippie who talks to Carole about being "locked in", when she cries to be let out of the VW Bug that won't let her out and it's parked next to his van (see Not Actually the Ultimate Question below).
• B-Team Sequel: The Love Bug and Herbie Rides Again were both directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Bill Walsh, respectively, while Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo and Herbie Goes Bananas were directed by Vincent McEveety and produced by Ron Miller.
• Canon Welding: The villainous businessman in Rides Again, Alonzo Hawk, was previously the villain of The Absent-Minded Professor and Son of Flubber, and is played by the same actor.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: The Japanese dub of Fully Loaded features fashion model and actress Anna Tsuchiya as Maggie Peyton.
• Defictionalization / The Red Stapler: Thanks to the films, in the early 70s VW Beetle sales skyrocketed in the United States, and now many an auto enthusiast have taken regular VW Beetles and turned them into their very own Herbies. Don't be overwhelmed though, many un-Herbie'd Beetles still exist on the market so that this isn't a problem.
• Deleted Scenes: In Rides Again, Alonzo Hawk's Herbie nightmare scene originally included a segment where he finds himself strapped onto an operating table which is surrounded by Herbies with surgeon paint jobs and mechanical limbs holding a variety of surgical implents. After brief dialogue between them, they slowly move in on the terrified pleading Hawk with a number of surgery tools, intending to dissect him with no anesthetic. This scene was deemed too scary for children and was cut. The footage has never seen the light of day since and is presumed lost.
• Enforced Method Acting: Two cases:
  • During the main race sequences in France while filming Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, Dean Jones was convinced the other cars around him and Don Knotts were Disney-hired stunt drivers. Turns out, they were weaving through France's tight streets amongst real racecar drivers.
  • In Herbie Goes Bananas, during the little car's chase in the ship's hold, one extra was reportedly struck by a falling pallet as Herbie crashed into it. The shot remains in the film.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • The 1997 TV movie was only released on VHS in the United States. Torrents exist and various video sites host it, though.
  • Same goes for the CBS miniseries Herbie the Love Bug, all five episodes are available on Youtube though.
• Role Reprise: Dean Jones reprises his role as Jim Douglas for the 1997 TV film.
• Stunt Casting: Lindsay Lohan whose popularity was at its peak by the time in Fully Loaded was released.
• Suppressed Mammaries: Lindsay Lohan's bust was digitally reduced for Fully Loaded to avoid 'offending' audiences.
• Underage Casting: In Fully Loaded, 19-year-old Lindsay Lohan plays a college graduate who has to be at least 23.
• What Could Have Been: There were plans for a TV series Continuity Reboot on Disney XD back in 2017 but those plans were later reworked into the Disney Channel series Fast Layne.

Other Trivia

• Reportedly, there were 18 Herbies used in total to film the original Love Bug. One of those cars, Herbie No. 2, was fitted with a Porsche Super 90 engine by EMPI from a Porsche 911. Buddy Hackett recalled that when racing with Max Balchowsky (who handled stuntwork on The Love Bug, Vanishing Point, and Bullitt), stopping Herbie couldn't be done with the regular drum brakes on the car. The doors had to be open in order to bring Herbie to a halt, but of course who'd be holding the wheel?