Julia Meade (Marie) did a commercial every Sunday night live on Ed Sullivan's show, Toast of the Town, in New York City. So every Saturday she flew back to New York City.
Ross Hunter wrote that after he made this film, no theatre managers wanted to book it. Popular movie themes at the time were war films, westerns, or spectacles. Hunter was told by the big movie chains that sophisticated comedies like "Pillow Talk" went out with William Powell. They also believed Doris Day and Rock Hudson were things of the past and had been overtaken by newer stars. Hunter persuaded Sol Schwartz, who owned the Palace Theatre in New York, to book the film for a two-week run, and it was a smash hit. The public had been starved for romantic comedy, and theatre owners who had previously turned down Ross Hunter now had to deal with him on HIS terms.
Rock Hudson turned down the film three times, believing the script to be "too risqué".
Michael Gordon had hoped to make a sequel to this film in 1980. It was to star Kristy McNichol as Jan and Brad Allen's daughter and Gregory Harrison as her boyfriend. Unfortunately, Gordon was unable to lure Doris Day out of retirement to make the film.
In the diner scene near the end, the restaurant patrons were supposed to deck Tony Randall, who would fake a reaction to the blow and slide down "unconscious" in the booth seat. However, during filming the actor overestimated his hook and accidentally knocked out Randall for real. The shot wound up being so good that the accidental knockout is the one shown in the film.
Spanish TV screened "Pillow Talk" on 20th July 1969 while everybody was waiting for the Apollo landing on the Moon. Suddenly, the film stopped and Spanish people could see the landing directly. The film was not reshown on TV until 1999, when Spanish viewers could, at last, see the ending!
This movie would be the first of three to showcase the trio of Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Tony Randall all together. It was followed by Lover Come Back and Send Me No Flowers, with all three actors portraying different roles in each.
Towards the end of the movie Rock Hudson picks up Doris Day and carries her through the lobby and down the street. After many takes, Hudson's arms were hurting, so they created a sort of sling which held Day in a crate-like device and hooked over Hudson's shoulders to evenly distribute her weight.
Pillow Talk is the first of three movies in which Day, Hudson and Randall starred together, the other two being Lover Come Back and Send Me No Flowers.