Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films: Daryl Hannah – Best Actress
National Society of Film Critics Awards: Babaloo Mandel, Lowell Ganz, Bruce Jay Friedman – Best Screenplay

Freddie: People fall in love every day, huh? Is that what you said?
Allen: Yeah.
Freddie: Yeah? Well, that’s a crock. It doesn’t work that way. Look, do you realize how happy you were with her? That is, of course, when you weren’t driving yourself crazy. Every day? Come on. Some people will never be that happy. I’ll never be that happy. What am I talking to you for? You don’t know anything.

Walter: I’m really a nice guy. If I had friends you could ask them.

Claude: There’s a guy down the beach that runs people out to the island.
Allen: What’s the name?
Claude: The guy, or the island?
Allen: I’ll find him.

Allen: Are there any messages?
Mrs. Stimler: Oh, yes.
Allen: And they are?
Mrs. Stimler: Huh? Oh, your father called. He wants you to call him back.
Allen: Mrs. Stimler, our father passed away about five years ago. Do you remember?
Mrs. Stimler: [confused look] Right. Shall I get him for you?
Allen: No, thanks.

Walter: I was right! Behold the mermaid!

Allen: I don’t understand. All my life I’ve been waiting for someone and when I find her, she’s… she’s a fish.

Allen: Freddie, the woman learned how to speak English in a single afternoon.
Freddie: She could probably speak English already. I think she was in shock from bein’ arrested y’know?
Allen: Well, now, what about that, huh? What about a woman showing up naked in a public place, Freddie?
Freddie: Well, I’m for it, of course.

• The fountain from the movie is now on display at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World.
• Daryl Hannah swam with the mermaid tail so fast that her safety team could not keep pace with her.
• According to Ron Howard on the YouTube series “Reunited Apart”, John Candy had arrived late to the set one day and held up the shoot, which was unlike the actor, as he was a professional. When he arrived, he apologized to Howard profusely, and Howard said it was fine and that they would start shooting. Candy said to Howard that he actually hadn’t slept and was actually drunk, given that the actor had gone to a bar where he met Jack Nicholson, who recognized Candy and supplied him with drinks all night. Candy had said, “But I’ve got to go shoot,” and Nicholson had simply said, “You’re going to be all right, kid. Don’t worry about it.” Candy subsequently shot his scene being hit with the ball on the racquetball court, which took three tries to get right.
• The shot of Madison leaping into the water as a mermaid, after she encounters Allen Bauer on the beach, was performed with a springboard within the water. The springboard was charged, propelling a stunt woman wearing a mermaid tail upwards through the water and into the air.
  John Candy originally wanted to play Dr. Walter Kornbluth. Ron Howard convinced him to play Freddie Bauer instead. Candy then recommended Eugene Levy for the role.
• The beach where Allen Bauer first encounters the naked Madison is on former Gorda Cay in the Bahamas, now known as Castaway Cay, the private island of Disney Cruise Line.
• Ron Howard turned down directing duties for Mr. Mom (1983) and Footloose (1984) to make this movie.
  Daryl Hannah’s fin weighed 35 pounds. It took technicians three hours each day to put it on her, and she had to remain still while it was being attached. “At lunch, they would yank me out on a crane and plop me on the deck,” she told People magazine. “I couldn’t eat because I couldn’t go to the bathroom. I just lay there shivering with barnacles in my hair, soaking wet.”
• In the scene where a television series makes Madison upset, Allen Bauer explains that the television series is fictional and didn’t really happen, was originally going to set up a later joke where Madison watches a real-life plane crash on the news and laughs.
• When it came to the ending of “Splash”, Ron Howard said in a June 1984 issue of the British sci-fi magazine “Starburst”, “At one point we didn’t really go for a happy ending, more for a bittersweet one. Actually, all of our wives protested about that so much that we listened to them – and I’m so glad we did!”.