When auditioning actresses for the role of Elvira's niece Paige, the choice came down to Phoebe Augustine or another unknown young actress named Hillary Swank. Phoebe Augustine eventually won the role. Years later, Hillary Swank approached Cassandra Peterson at the gym to say hi and Cassandra said, "You were so talented! I hope you're still in show business. What are you doing now?" Hillary's response was, "Well, I just won an Academy Award."
The pilot was shot but never picked up. A few years later, a sitcom about a teenage witch who moves into an old manor with her two aunts and their talking black cat, called "Sabrina the Teenage Witch", became a huge hit. Cassandra Peterson has said that they blatantly ripped off her idea. Executives from that network even told her years later that the network loved the idea, but didn't want to focus on her older character. So they made the niece the main character, revamped the plot and left Patterson out of it.
CBS produced the pilot under the reign of president Jeff Sagansky, who made assurances that it would be picked up. Sagansky fell ill and was hospitalized just as the fall schedule was being finalized, so CBS flew in the head of their sports department, Howard Stringer, to finish programming the season. Stringer hated the show's blatant sexual innuendo, and when he remarked that he wasn't picking it up, several executives walked out of his meeting and one quit. The new sitcoms that Stringer opted to greenlight instead ("Family Album" and "It Had to Be You") barely lasted a month on the air.
One of the members of the audience at the taping of the pilot was Sam Irvin, who went on to direct Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001).