The last name of script supervisor Julie Pitkanen is misspelled in end credits as "Pitkanin."
       Back to the Beach was a spoof and homage to the beach-themed movies of the 1960s. As described in a 3 Aug 1987 LAT article, the genre launched in 1963 with the release of Beach Party, (see entry) starring Frankie Avalon, a singer and teen idol, and Annette Funicello, a member of television’s popular Mickey Mouse Club (ABC, 3 Oct 1955--Sep 1959). Beach Party was followed by several sequels, including Muscle Beach Party (1964, see entry), Bikini Beach (1964, see entry), and Beach Blanket Bingo (1965, see entry). These Beach movies, which were released by American International Pictures (AIP), typically had micro-budgets and limited shooting schedules. Beach Party, for example, cost around $500,000 and took three weeks to film, as noted in the 10 Aug 1987 People magazine. Most of the beach-themed movies were filmed on a soundstage, according to the Jun 1987 Los Angeles magazine.
       AIP merged with Filmways, Inc. in 1979, and Orion Pictures Corporation purchased Filmways in 1982. Orion was not interested in doing a Beach sequel, but also refused to sell the rights when Avalon began pursuing such a project. Consequently, distributor Paramount Pictures was careful to say in a 5 Jul 1987 LAT article that Back to the Beach was not a sequel, but rather “parodies all beach movies.”
       Although Avalon’s character was named “Frankie” in the Beach movies, the failure to secure the rights to those movies meant they could not call his character “Frankie” in Back to the Beach, as reported in the Los Angeles article. Consequently, Avalon’s character is listed in the credits as “Annette’s husband” and is referred to in the film only as “The Big Kahuna.” Funicello’s character was named “Dolores” in Beach Party and “Dee Dee” in the sequels, but the writers chose to simply call her “Annette” in the movie.
       When Avalon first started pitching the idea for another beach-movie in the late 1970s, several studios were interested in doing a television movie-of-the-week reunion. However, Funicello and Avalon, who are credited as co-executive producers, held out for the big-screen. The 3 Dec 1981 DV announced that screenwriter Steve Silver was writing a beach sequel, titled The Last Beach Party, which was scheduled to begin shooting in summer 1982 with a Christmas 1982 release date. However, nothing came of that.
       By 1983, the film’s title had changed to Beach Party Reunion, according to the 7 Jun 1983 DV. By 1984, the title changed again, this time to Beach Party ‘85, with a $3 million budget and an Oct 1984 start date, as reported in the 7 Jun 1984 DV. This project was also stillborn.
       In 1986, Frank Mancuso, Jr. came aboard as producer and sold his father, Paramount Pictures chief Frank Mancuso, Sr., on the idea of making the movie. However, the studio rejected the script and only approved the film when James Komack joined the project as writer and director. However, Komack did not stay, telling the 5 Jul 1987 LAT that Paramount wanted a “campier” version of the film than he was interested in doing.
       Australian director Lyndall Hobbs, who had previously directed music videos and documentary shorts, took over. It was her first time directing a feature-length film. Using the working title of Back to the Beach, principal photography began on 9 Feb 1987 in the Los Angeles, CA area, according to the 17 Mar 1987 HR production chart. The movie had a shooting schedule of approximately two months, a $10 million budget, and filmed most of its beach scenes in Malibu, CA, rather than on a soundstage, according to the 15 Apr 1987 LAT.
       During filming, problems with the script became apparent and many writers were brought in to do quick rewrites. By the time filming was completed, a total of seventeen writers were involved and more than $2 million had been spent on writers. The 2 Aug 1987 LAT reported that all seventeen of those writers wanted onscreen credit, but after Writers Guild of America (WGA) arbitration, only Peter Krikes, Steve Meerson, and Christopher Thompson received screenplay credit, while James Komack, B.W.L. Norton, and Bruce Kirschbaum received “story by” credit. The WGA also required the film to include the credit, “based on characters created by Lou Rusoff.” Rusoff was the writer of the original 1963 Beach Party. Writers who are reported to have worked on the script but did not receive onscreen credit included Jeff Buhia, Steve Zacharias, Robert Kauffman, and David Obst.
       Back to the Beach opened 7 Aug 1987 on 1,080 screens, earning $3.3 million in its first three days of release, according to the 11 Aug 1987 DV box office.
      End credits include the following acknowledgments: “The producers wish to express their appreciation to: Trans World Airlines; Galpin Ford; ‘The Mickey Mouse Club,’ courtesy of The Walt Disney Company; ‘The Dick Clark Show,’ clip courtesy of Dick Clark Media Archives, Inc.”