Trivia

Acting debut of future television hostess Caroline Rhea. She can be seen in an uncredited role as 'Beach Girl #4 playing beach volleyball in a red bikini.

This is the only one of the "sequels" to the original Meatballs that is, in fact, a sequel as Patrick Dempsey's character, "Rudy" is the same one previously played by Chris Makepeace.

Jim Carrey originally was suppose to star and backed out 3 weeks prior to production.

Shot for seven weeks in Hudson, Québec, Canada from July 16 to around mid-September 1984.

"Meatballs III" originated in 1982 as a screenplay entitled "My Special Angel". The producers felt there was a teen-film period coming and they decided to put this film together. After producing the original "Meatballs", Cinépix sold the title for Meatballs Part II (1984) to TriStar Pictures, and presumably only considered "My Special Angel" as the third "Meatballs" film once they acquired the title rights back prior to "Meatballs Part II"'s release. The title "My Special Angel", despite being attached to the film until 1983, was never seriously considered as the film's final name. Other titles were considered, including "Soul Mates", which was dismissed by producer John Dunning as it "sounds like a black film". The film was officially associated with "Meatballs" in 1984 when the film's script, then titled "Meatballs: The Climax", was submitted for copyright research. Several allusions to the original Meatballs film were added at this stage to make it loosely fit in the world of the original film, including having photos of Tripper (Bill Murray) decorating the set. Sometime during post-production, the title was changed to "Summer Job", completely dropping the reference to "Meatballs". Although advertising was mocked up for "Summer Job", including tag-lines, television advertisements, and posters, the film's name was eventually changed to "Meatballs III: Summer Job", which it was released as in 1987.