The classic Bill & Ted teen time-travel comedies are beloved artefacts of late-1980s/early-1990s goofiness. The titular characters romp through time and existential states, and hijinks ensue. But one of the weirdest characters in the series had their origin in a late-night work accident.
A most excellent still from Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. Photo: MGM Home Entertainment
Entertainment Weekly caught up with Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, and screenwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon to talk about the history behind the Bill & Ted movies. Matheson and Solomon say that Excellent Adventure was initially going to have the main characters cause lots of disasters:
“The original impulse,” explains Matheson, “Was that they were going to be responsible for everything bad that ever happened in human history. Like, they caused the Civil War. They caused World War I. They caused the Titanic to sink.”
That actually makes more sense considering who the main characters are, but we’re happy they went in a different direction. But the article also reveals that one of the weirdest parts of the sequel, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, came from an editing screw-up:
“It was super late, and we were super punch drunk,” says Solomon. “We deleted this whole sequence, but it began with ‘Interior — Police Station.’ But I guess I didn’t get everything out of the computer, so it just said ‘Station.’”
“It was, like, three in the morning,” says Matheson. “We’re wiped out. We’ve been working hard. We just, for an hour, all we’d say is the word ‘station.’ ‘Station!’”
If you’ve ever sat around and wondered how the hell that bizarre piece of slang/amazing alien character(s) wound up being invented in Bogus Journey, you can now be at peace. Station! STATION!