The Great Turkey Escape scenes were filmed in an under-construction housing development in the Northwest quadrant of Crenshaw Boulevard and 190th Street, Torrance, California. The turkeys required persuasion to leave their enclosure on the back of a truck. Encouragement was applied by men with poles, out of camera view. The scene required at least two takes, with the birds rounded up from their pen (also out of view) and returned to the truck.Red Skelton came out of a background house during one of the roundups, saw the 12-year-old lad who had ridden up on his bike, smiled and waved.
When Red Skelton runs and jumps onto the fire truck, it is a reenactment of a Buster Keaton gag from The Cameraman.