Ten Things You Didn't Know About Ferris Bueller's Day Off

1. Most of the school scenes were shot at Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, Illinois – the same high school John Hughes graduated from.

2. Alan Ruck, who played ‘Ferris’s’ best friend ‘Cameron,’ was 29 years old at the time.

3. Lyman Ward and Cindy Pickett, who play ‘Ferris’s’ parents, got married in real life after meeting while making the film.

4. The pencil gag with Edie McClurg’s bubble hairdo was a last-minute inspiration. When McClurg arrived on set to shoot with her hair already done, Hughes asked her, “How many pencils do you think you can fit in that hairdo? Well, let’s just see.”

4. Only 100 of the Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder were ever made – but Matthew Broderick never got to drive one. Because the real car is so valuable, the high cost of insurance forced the producers to find an alternative. They substituted three Spyder replicas, which consisted of molded fiberglass shells laid over Mustang frames.

5. Richard Edson, who plays the untrustworthy parking lot attendant, was the original drummer for Sonic Youth.

6. John Hughes isn’t a Chicago Cubs fan – he prefers the White Sox – but they weren’t playing day games at the time, so he had to compromise.

7. John Hughes used “Danke Schoen” repeatedly in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – but not because he liked it. “I remember this was the most awful song when I was growing up. Every time it came on, I just wanted to scream.”

8. When he was filming Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, John Hughes listened to The Beatles’ White Album every day of the 56-day shoot.

9. In the original script, Ferris went on the radio and talked about how he was going to be the first American teenager to go up in the Space Shuttle. A few months later, when the Challenger disaster occurred, the scene had to be cut.

10. Writer/director John Hughes wrote the script for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in less than a week.