Trivia for
"The Stand" (1994) More at IMDbPro »

• Miguel Ferrer originally wanted to play the role of Randall Flagg, but Stephen King wanted someone that the audience wasn't overly familiar with. After Ferrer heard that his friend Jamey Sheridan had been offered the part, but wasn't sure it was something he wanted to do, Ferrer convinced him to take it.
  
  
• The role of Judge Richard Farris was originally to have been played by Moses Gunn who was forced to back out due to health reasons, and Ossie Davis was brought in instead.
  
  
• Much of the movie was filmed on the old Osmond sound stages in Orem, Utah.
  
  
• Mother Abigail's house and corn field were constructed to full scale on a sound stage.
  
  
• Corn stalks were flown in from Florida for the sound-stage corn field. By the time the corn got to the set in Utah, it was dead. Fake corn was constructed instead, costing nearly $80,000.
  
  
• For the Mother Abigail farm set, a full-size tree, tons of dirt, grass, and sod were brought in. The sky was painted on a backdrop that surrounded the entire stage.
  
  
• Randall Flagg's Las Vegas penthouse suite was built on a sound stage. The room called for marble walls & floors, which was constructed from particle board painted to look like marble tiles.
  
  
• The art directors needed to figure out how a Magic 8-Ball worked for a certain scene. They called the toy company who makes them, but the company refused to disclose the secret.
  
  
• Some statistics: -1,141 book pages -460 script pages -6 states -100 shooting days -125+ speaking roles -95 scripted shooting locations in 19 scripted states -8 hours of screen time -Over 4 1/2 hours of music
  
  
• Randall Flagg says, "Pleased to meet you, Lloyd. Hope you guess my name," to which a confused and starving Lloyd responds, "Huh?" Randall Flagg responds with, "Just a little classical reference." This refers to the song "Sympathy for the Devil" by The Rolling Stones, and maybe the novel "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail A. Bulgakov.
  
  
• The scene in the Plaza lobby where Trashcan stumbles in was actually filmed at the Stardust Resort & Casino.
  
  
• For years it was planned to make this story into a theatrical film, directed by George A. Romero. Stephen King did many drafts to make it of a suitable length for a feature film, and when he couldn't get it short enough they considered breaking it into two separate films before finally letting Rospo Pallenberg write a draft. But before they could make it, King was offered the chance to make this mini-series for television.
  
  
• The Texas State Patrolman named Joe Bob is played by John Bloom, who originated the character of Joe Bob Briggs on television.
  
  
• The poem referenced by General Stuckey that includes the lines "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" are from the poem "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats.
  
  
• Mike Lookinland, the man who sentries along with Stephen King near the end, is addressed by Stu as Bobby. Mike played Bobby Brady on the 'The Brady Bunch (1969)'.
  
  
• Actors initially considered for the part of Randall Flagg: Christopher Walken, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum and James Woods. Ultimately, it was decided to give the role to a lesser known face.
  
  
• The Las Vegas casino/hotel where Randall Flagg and his minions stay is a redress of "Biff's" casino/hotel in the alternate 1985 time line from Back to the Future Part II (1989).
  
  
• After Stu breaks his leg, the cane he is using is the same cane used by the antagonist in Stephen King's "Storm of the Century".
  
  
• The radio station in Arnette mentions a song by Kathi Kamen Goldmark. The real Kathi is a literary escort and founder of the all-author rock band ‘The Rock Bottom Remainders’, which Stephen King is a member of. Goldmark is also the founder of ‘Don't Quit Your Day Job’ Records.
  
  
• Flagg mentions putting "Russ Dorr" in charge of a scouting mission. This is the name of a friend of Stephen King's in Maine; King thanks him in the beginning of his novel "Pet Sematary".
  
  
• Rae Flowers, played by the uncredited Kathy Bates, was originally a man in the novel. Bates had previously won an Oscar for her role as Annie Wilkes in Stephen King's Misery (1990).
  
  
• Stephen King's favorite character in both the book and the mini-series is Lloyd Henreid (Miguel Ferrer).
  
  
• The ABC network originally wanted Rob Lowe to play Larry Underwood.
  
  
• The shot where the car nearly runs over Nick Andros' (Rob Lowe) head was shot in reverse.
  
  
• In the first scene of the second episode, director Mick Garris had Harold Lauder (Corin Nemec) driving a Cadillac to show that Harold wasn't above using the deaths to his own advantage.
  
  
• The shot with Randall Flagg's hand bending backwards was done by using makeup on the palm of Jamey Sheridan's left hand to make it look like the back of his right hand.
  
  
• Cameo: [Tom Holland] Carl Hough (the guy working with Trashcan Man)
  
  
• Cameo: [John Landis] Russ Dorr (the guy with the beard out in the desert)
  
  
• Cameo: [Sam Raimi] Bobby Terry (the guy who kills Judge Farris)
  
  
• The scene with Glen Bateman (Ray Walston) speaking to the cockroach is exclusive to the mini-series, and was based on a similar scene in Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1957)
  
  
• In the movie I Am Legend (2007) and in "The Stand" a lonely survivor in a depopulated disease ravaged world set up department store manikins to keep them company and to add people to the deserted landscape.
  
  
• Randall Flagg first appeared in the novel The Stand, and went on to appear in several other Stephen King books, most notably The Eyes of the Dragon and The Dark Tower. He goes by several aliases, often identified by the initials R.F.
  
  
• Gary Sinise and Ray Walston previously appeared together in Of Mice and Men (1992), and their characters in each share some parallels. Stu Redman (Sinise) travels back home with the mentally retarded Tom Cullen. George Milton (Sinise again) also travels with the mentally retarded Lenny. Crooks (Walston) has a sentimental attachment to his dog, just as Glen has an attachment to the dog Kojak.
  
  
• The book features many references to, and similarities with, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. One less obvious reference may be the name Nick Andros. Middle-Earth features an island called Cair Andros.
  
  

• SPOILER: For the crucifixion scene in Las Vegas production designer Nelson Coates was asked to tone down the Christian imagery by ABC.
  
  

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