49 Fun Facts About The 'Burbs

Before The 'Burbs, its director had a huge hit with which 1984 creature comedy?

Gremlins. Its success briefly made Joe Dante an A-list name: he was even offered a Batman film, though he said he had always been a B-movie director at heart.

When Werner Klopek comes upstairs wiping red from his hands in The 'Burbs, what does he say it is?

Paint. Werner apologises that he was only touching up one of his pictures, because painting relaxes him, and the neighbours who came expecting a killer can find nothing to object to.

Which Hanks film was up for Oscars when The 'Burbs opened?

Big. It had just earned Hanks his first Oscar nomination, announced two days before The 'Burbs opened, and one Los Angeles critic suspected the studio had picked the date hoping for exactly that boost.

On the welcome visit in The 'Burbs, what do the Klopeks offer their guests along with pretzels?

Sardines, offered amid an awkward hush. The 2026 TV series restaged the moment, pretzels included, and its showrunner called the original 'such an iconic scene'.

Who plays Carol, Ray's wife, in The 'Burbs?

Carrie Fisher plays Carol Peterson, the voice of reason who finally drags the men over for a proper welcome visit to the Klopeks.

Which actor plays the teenage neighbour Ricky Butler in The 'Burbs?

Corey Feldman plays Ricky Butler, the teenager who treats the cul-de-sac like a TV show and invites his friends round to watch the neighbours' antics.

Who plays Mark Rumsfield, the neighbour with a military past, in The 'Burbs?

Bruce Dern plays Mark Rumsfield, who keeps lookout from Ray's roof with a rifle until a sudden roar from the Klopeks' cellar startles him: he falls off and shoots out a car window.

In which war did Mark Rumsfield of The 'Burbs serve?

Vietnam. He still talks like a man on patrol: collaring a fleeing Klopek at the end, he warns that he spent '18 months in the bush' and can snap a neck in a heartbeat.

Who plays Art Weingartner, Ray's nosy neighbour, in The 'Burbs?

Rick Ducommun plays Art Weingartner, who decides to 'goose' the Klopeks by slipping an unsigned note under their door: 'I know what you've done.'

In The 'Burbs, what is the name of Ray and Carol's son?

Dave Peterson, played by Cory Danziger, is sent off with Carol to her sister's so Ray can search the Klopeks' yard in peace.

In The 'Burbs, what is the name of Walter's dog?

Queenie. She opens the film by fouling Rumsfield's lawn, and he duly steps in it; later, finding her loose and Walter nowhere in sight is what starts the panic.

In The 'Burbs, what is the name of Ray's dog, which digs up a bone by the Klopeks' fence?

Vince. Ray works out where the bone came from, 'He dug it up from underneath the fence', and that is enough to convince him and Art that Walter has been murdered.

In The 'Burbs, which bone does Ray's dog dig up?

A femur. Art names it from 'Biology 101' and insists it is human, and he turns out to be right: Werner later tells Ray, 'I let you keep the femur.'

In The 'Burbs, what item of Walter's turns up while he is missing, convincing the men something is wrong?

His toupee. Ray posts it back through Walter's mail slot, then finds it again inside the Klopeks' house, which is all the proof he needs that they have been next door.

Who plays Dr. Werner Klopek in The 'Burbs?

Henry Gibson plays Werner Klopek, the perfect host while the neighbours are visiting; one critic called him 'a Bela Lugosi-like doctor', and the good manners last only until he is alone with Ray.

In The 'Burbs, how does Hans Klopek get a bag of garbage from the garage to the curb?

By car: Hans drives the bag from the garage to the curb, then pounds it into the can with a stick. Ray says he has never seen anybody drive their garbage to the street and beat the hell out of it.

Which cult performer plays Uncle Reuben Klopek in The 'Burbs?

Brother Theodore plays Uncle Reuben Klopek, who meets Rumsfield's attempt at small talk, 'Klopek. What is that, Slavic?', with a single barked 'No!'

Who plays Walter Seznick, the elderly neighbour whose disappearance alarms the street in The 'Burbs?

Gale Gordon, for decades Lucille Ball's comic foil on television, plays Walter Seznick, who comes home alive and well and takes Ray's helpful note about his dog for a ransom demand.

What is the name of the cul-de-sac in The 'Burbs?

Mayfield Place. The film opens by plunging from the studio's globe logo all the way down to the cul-de-sac, an effects shot by Industrial Light & Magic, and ends by pulling back out again.

What do Ray and Art find when they break into the Klopeks' basement in The 'Burbs?

A giant furnace. The pair decide it is a crematorium where the Klopeks burned Walter, and start digging up the dirt floor in search of his bones.

In The 'Burbs, what does Ray hit with his pickaxe in the Klopeks' basement?

A gas line. The house blows up seconds later; Ray staggers out of the wreck singed and smoking, only to be arrested for destroying his neighbours' home.

In The 'Burbs, where had the missing Walter been all along?

In hospital. Walter's family took him there after a bout of heart palpitations; he had asked the Klopeks to collect his mail, which is why they had been in and out of his house.

Whose murder does Werner finally confess to Ray in The 'Burbs?

The house's previous owners, the Knapps. 'We took the house from them', Werner says, adding that he did offer to buy it first, 'but you know how old people are'.

How does Werner try to kill Ray at the end of The 'Burbs?

With a lethal injection. In the script he succeeds and the ambulance carries Ray away for good; that ending was dropped once Tom Hanks was cast, on the grounds that 'you can't kill Tom Hanks'.

In The 'Burbs, whose house does the runaway ambulance crash into?

Art's. Fitting, since he started the whole witch-hunt: a closing gag has the neighbours calling out that his wife is home and his house is on fire.

Where does Ricky find the human remains that finally incriminate the Klopeks in The 'Burbs?

In the trunk of their car. The runaway gurney slams into the Klopeks' car and pops the lid, Ricky lifts out a skull, and the police take the family away.

Who wrote the screenplay for The 'Burbs?

Dana Olsen based it on his own 'ultranormal' childhood in a town that, he said, had its share of psychos, a legendary hatchet murder included; he also appears on screen as one of the policemen.

What was the script's title before it became The 'Burbs?

Bay Window. Under that title the script was taken for a spoof of Hitchcock's Rear Window, another tale of a man at home who suspects a neighbour of murder.

Despite its skulls and serial killers, what rating did the MPAA give The 'Burbs?

PG. One Los Angeles critic, noting the rating, complained that its message, that it is fine to torment odd neighbours because they may turn out guilty, was aimed at an 'impressionable young audience'.

Which Joe Dante regular plays Vic, one of the garbagemen in The 'Burbs?

Dick Miller, a fixture of Joe Dante's films, plays Vic. Art and Rumsfield drag the Klopeks' rubbish back out of his truck and strew it across the road, leaving Vic to grumble, 'I hate cul-de-sacs.'

Who composed the orchestral score for The 'Burbs?

Jerry Goldsmith sent himself up: whenever the war veteran Rumsfield swings into action, the score quotes the echoing trumpet calls he had written for Patton.

The back-lot street where The 'Burbs was filmed later became which TV neighbourhood?

Wisteria Lane. The Klopek house, wrecked for the film's finale, was patched up and later remodelled; by the time of Desperate Housewives it stood at number 4354, home of the Van de Kamps.

Which sitcom revival lost its family home on the back-lot street to make room for The 'Burbs?

The New Leave It to Beaver. The Cleaver house had to come off the street for the film's sets, and the sitcom shot its final season at the studio's new lot in Florida instead.

In which fictional town is The 'Burbs set?

Hinkley Hills. The 2026 TV series returns to the town and hangs its mystery on Hinkley House, an old home named for the founder.

Which producer picked Joe Dante to direct The 'Burbs?

Brian Grazer at Imagine Films liked the idea of 'a regular guy taking a vacation in his own neighborhood' and said it dawned on him that its mix of comedy, horror and reality was made for Dante.

Over which holiday weekend did The 'Burbs open at number one in 1989?

Presidents' Day. The film took about $11.1 million over the four-day weekend and went on to roughly $36.6 million in the US, even though its reviews were lukewarm at best.

Roger Ebert said The 'Burbs aimed between The Twilight Zone and which dark comedy?

Beetlejuice. Ebert said the film had neither its dementia nor the wicked intelligence of the series, and ended up 'a long shaggy dog story'; he gave it two stars out of four.

What chases Ray and Art off the Klopeks' porch the first time they knock in The 'Burbs?

A swarm of bees: their knocking brings the porch light crashing down, and out they pour. Ricky is thrilled; the same thing happened to him over there last week, he says, only it was a foaming squirrel.

Which label gave The 'Burbs a new 2K restoration for its 2014 UK Blu-ray?

Arrow Video. Its disc also carried the director's own rough workprint, with deleted and alternate scenes, and a featurette setting it against the released cut.

In The 'Burbs, what is Art doing when a jolt hurls him off a utility pole into a shed?

Cutting the power. Art wanted the Klopeks' alarms dead before the break-in; instead he blacks out the whole neighbourhood and leaves an Art-shaped hole in the shed roof, cartoon style.

Which streaming service made the 2026 TV series based on The 'Burbs?

Peacock. Its series went back to the Universal back-lot street where the film was shot, though many of the houses had been altered or removed in between.

Which actress stars in and executive-produces the 2026 TV series based on The 'Burbs?

Keke Palmer plays Samira, a lawyer who moves with her husband to the cul-de-sac where he grew up and starts digging into its old secrets when new neighbours arrive next door.

The dog who plays Walter's pet in The 'Burbs later played Precious in which thriller?

The Silence of the Lambs. Darla played the killer's pet Precious, whom his captive lures into the well as a bargaining chip; the dog made her last screen appearance in Batman Returns.

In The 'Burbs, where does Carol want to spend Ray's week off?

The lake, where the family has a cottage. Ray insists on idling at home instead; by the last scene, after everything the week has thrown at him, he tells Carol he is ready to go.

How did the writer of The 'Burbs sum up his approach to it?

Ozzie and Harriet meet Charles Manson. As a boy, the writer said, he loved the thought that the man down the street might turn out to be Jack the Ripper: 'where there's fear, there's comedy.'

How did Joe Dante shoot The 'Burbs so the cast could improvise?

In story order. With writers on strike and the whole film set on one street, he could shoot it from first scene to last and let the actors invent as they went; the shoot took about ten weeks.

Which future Star Trek: Voyager star plays Joe, the second garbageman in The 'Burbs?

Robert Picardo, later Voyager's holographic Doctor, plays Joe, who keeps urging his workmate to skip bowling night for a seminar on healing crystals and the laying on of hands.

Who plays Bonnie Rumsfield, Mark's wife, who finds Walter's dog running loose in The 'Burbs?

Wendy Schaal plays Bonnie Rumsfield. Thirty-seven years on she turned up in the 2026 TV series of The 'Burbs, this time as a shifty librarian called Judy.

Which animation veteran's company co-produced the 2026 TV series of The 'Burbs?

Seth MacFarlane's Fuzzy Door made it with the company behind the 1989 film, whose screenwriter came back as a co-executive producer.