Neve Campbell was, at the time, one of the most recognizable actresses in the film, despite the fact that her role was relatively small. While the production wanted to be able to give her a bigger part, it was decided that it would be unwise to do so, since the two biggest female leads both were romantically involved with Christian Campbell's character. Christian is Neve Campbell's brother.
In 1997, writing partners Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney, who had met while studying at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, were driving from Oakland to Los Angeles and listening to Frank Zappa's "Joe's Garage". "So I started picturing it in my head," Studney recalls. "Frank Zappa's concept of a musical and then it just hit me. I turned to Kevin and said 'What about doing Reefer Madness as a musical?'" By the time the creative duo reached Los Angeles, they had already written the first song.
This is one of the most complicated musicals filmed for television. The movie contains sixteen musical sequences, several complex large-scale dance numbers, and cast members that are proud to display their actual singing voices.
During the orgy dance number, one of the dancers was director Andy Fickman's girlfriend, Christine Lakin, and another was Christian Campbell (Jimmy)'s girlfriend, Nikki Snelson. Since the film was shot in Canada, the remaining dancers were actually Canadian strippers hired to do the dance sequence.
The high school is named after Harry J. Anslinger, the first Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics (1932), known as the Father of the Drug War.