Maniac Cop/Trivia

• California Doubling: Only couple of scenes were actually shot in New York in the first film.
• The Cameo: Sam Raimi appears in the two first films as a reporter. His brother Ted inherits this role in the third film.
  • William Lustig appears as the motel manager in the first film.
• Executive Meddling: Lustig blamed this on the weaker points of the third film.
• Follow the Leader: The Psycho Cop films.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: First film has Richard Roundtree as the comissioner.
  • Second film has Danny Trejo in brief role as an inmate with no lines.
  • Third film has Jackie Earle Haley as the criminal Jessup who puts the movie's plot into motion.
    • It would be 13 years before Haley appeared in another film.
• Recut: Some releases of the original film include additional scenes involving the corrupt mayor, which were added to beef up the running time for television airings.
• What Could Have Been: Joe Spinell, who played the titular character in William Lustig's earlier film Maniac (1980) were set to play serial killer in the second movie, thus connecting the movies. Unfortunetaly Spinell died before filming could begin.
  • Plans for a fourth film, which would've involved Cordell's spirit possessing a rookie cop assigned his old badge number, were apparently bounced around.