For years it was planned to make this story into a theatrical film, directed by George A. Romero. Stephen King did many drafts to make it of a suitable length for a feature film, and when he couldn't get it short enough they considered breaking it into two separate films before finally letting Rospo Pallenberg write a draft. But before they could make it, King was offered the chance to make this mini-series for television.
Ruby Dee (Mother Abagail) and Ossie Davis (Judge Farris) are husband and wife in real life.
Mother Abagail's house and cornfield were constructed to full scale on a sound stage. Corn stalks were flown in from Florida for the sound-stage cornfield. By the time the corn got to the set in Utah, it was dead. Fake corn was constructed instead, costing nearly $80,000.
The art directors needed to figure out how a Magic 8-Ball worked for a certain scene. They called the toy company who makes them, but the company refused to disclose the secret.
Miguel Ferrer originally wanted to play the role of Randall Flagg, but Stephen King wanted someone that the audience wasn't overly familiar with. After Ferrer heard that his friend Jamey Sheridan had been offered the part, but wasn't sure it was something he wanted to do, Ferrer convinced him to take it.
Kathy Bates: as Rae Flowers, who was a male character in the novel. Bates had previously won an Oscar for her role as Annie Wilkes in Stephen King's Misery (1990), and also starred in the movie based on King's novel, Dolores Claiborne (1995).
John Bloom: John, playing Deputy Joe-Bob Brentwood, was very enthusiastic about his cameo because he wanted to meet Gary Sinise. Sinise's father, Robert L. Sinise, had edited Herschell Gordon Lewis's Blood Feast (1963), one of the drive-in guru's (known as Joe Bob Briggs) favorite films.