Johnny Dangerously was released on 21 December 1984.
After the surprise success of Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Amy Heckerling was flooded with derivative scripts about high school, until she found a gangster parody written by Harry Colomby (who had managed Thelonious Monk for 14 years, and was also Michael Keaton's manager), Jeff Harris, Bernie Kukoff (who had created the TV series Diff'rent Strokes in 1978 with Harris), and Norman Steinberg (who was a writer on Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles).
Michael Keaton was coming off the success of Night Shift (1982) and Mr. Mom (1983), Joe Piscopo had left Saturday Night Live after 4 years, and Marilu Henner had been on Taxi for 5 years (it was cancelled in June 1983), so the studio had high hopes for the film.
Despite earning a modest profit, the studio, and Heckerling, were disappointed. Heckerling attributed the film's "failure" to find a wide audience for people being unfamiliar with the films being satirized. ""It was pure satire of something nobody remembers. I think that was the main problem, because all the actors and writers did great jobs," Heckerling said.
