Lewis wrote the screenplay with Bill Richmond, his writing collaborator on films such as The Nutty Professor and The Patsy.

The film contains a series of short comic sketches, set pieces and blackout gags.

[9] In December 1982 after filming completed, Lewis underwent triple-bypass heart surgery at Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas.

In May 1985, it was given a two-day run at New York's Thalia Theater[10] under its original title, double-billed with The King of Comedy.

[12][13][14] In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Vincent Canby called the film "a mostly cold buffet of random Lewis routines in which the director-star falls off slippery furniture, cracks up automobiles, fails at suicide and can't even walk across the floor of his psychiatrist's office without taking a header.