Tony Plana turned down Oliver Stone's Platoon (1986) to appear in this. He had also appeared in Stone's Salvador (1986) and knew that shooting Platoon (1986) in the Philippines would be an even more difficult shoot, compared to the 5 star hotel that was being provided for the Tucson location for this film. Stone did not talk to him for years.
The bats hunted by Ned are actually fried bacon, served on skewers.
The musical score is provided by Elmer Bernstein, who also did the rousing score from The Magnificent Seven (1960) which this film parodies. According to Peter Bernstein, his father was growing tired of writing music for comedies that parodied his previous work at this time. During a conducting session, Elmer handed Peter the baton, said "You do it" and ran away.