The original director hired for this film was 'Michael Cimino'. 'Michael Cimino' was originally hired as director. He was fired when he asked for a $250,000 advance for re-writing the entire screenplay prior to shooting. (The movie's total budget was only $7.5 million.)

The scenes where Chris Penn's character had to learn how to dance were added to the script because Penn really could not dance.

Christopher Atkins was originally signed to play Ren MacCormack.

The movie was loosely based on events that took place in the tiny, rural Oklahoma farming community of Elmore City.

In the liner notes for the re-released "Footloose" soundtrack (1999), there's a brief introduction by Kenny Loggins which mentions that the script for the film was loosely based on actual events which transpired in the young life of his long time friend, and "Footloose" screen writer, Dean Pitchford.

With the Principal's knowledge, 24-year-old Kevin Bacon attended the Payson Utah High School as "Ren McCormack", a transfer student from Phili to get into his role. With his narrow tie and new-wave haircut, he was treated pretty much like in the film. Bacon gratefully left with the location scouts on the afternoon of the first day.

Dianne Wiest, who plays Ariel's mom, Vi, is only 9 years older than Lori Singer (Ariel).

Kevin Bacon broke out in hives around his midsection when he had to film the City Council scene where he makes the case for holding a prom dance. The actor says he is uncomfortable when speaking in public, but has never had a reoccurrence of hives.

Chris Penn couldn't dance, so they had to teach him in terms of what he already knew: wrestling.

Based on the 1978 events in a small Oklahoma town where dancing had been banned for nearly 90 years until a group of high school teens challenged it.

Tom Cruise and 'Rob Lowe (I)' were both slated to play the lead. The casting directors were impressed with Cruise because of the famous underwear dance sequence in Risky Business (1983), but he was unavailable for the part because he was filming All the Right Moves (1983). Lowe auditioned three times and had dancing ability and the "neutral teen" look that the director wanted, but he pulled his knee, and the injury prevented him from taking the part. After watching Diner (1982), the director had to convince the producers to go with Kevin Bacon.

'John Lithgow' filmed scenes for Terms of Endearment (1983) while on a break from shooting this film.

The character of "Willard" (not even called by that name in the original script) was specifically rewritten by Dean Pitchford with 'Chris Penn' in mind.

In the scene where Rev. Shaw shows Ren a picture of his deceased son Bobby, John Lithgow actually showed a picture of his real son.