Originally slated to star Bud Abbott and Lou Costello (who shot some scenes and who can be distinguished in a few long shots), Costello's ill health forced the withdrawal of the duo from the picture. Universal-International replaced them with Buddy Hackett and Hugh O'Brian.
The rubber-faced banjo player, Freddy Morgan, claimed in his later years that additional comic sequences featuring him were deleted from the movie at the insistence of Buddy Hackett.
Buddy Hackett replaces Lou Costello in this film and 25 years later played him in the TV biography Bud and Lou (1978).
One of the main reason Spike Jones and His City Slickers were chosen for this film was that they had a popular network television shown on NBC. Universal-International also benefited when free plugs for the film would appear on the show.