During an appearance at the 2006 Sacramento Film Festival, Parness remarked that he was dissatisfied with the title of Max & Grace and announced plans to change it to My Suicidal Sweetheart.

Originally the proprietor of a thriving sports memorabilia business that supported his efforts as a playwright, theater director and screenwriter, he lost most of his savings in the October '98 stock market crash.

Down to $33,000, he opened an online brokerage account and in 15 months turned it into $7 million; Parness launched financial guru site trendfund.com along the way and recounts his experiences in the 2002 bestseller, Rule the Freakin' Markets.

In an interview with efilmcritic.com, Parness explained how the movie came to be: "I was busy teaching people how to Rule the Freakin' Markets trading stocks and I got an email from someone who had seen one of my plays years earlier and wanted to produce something in L.A.

Finally, he brings Grace to her mother and in a bizarre turn of events, the terminally ill oddball orders them to dig her grave.

After reading the script, Tim Blake Nelson convinced the producers to let him assume several different roles—as a psychiatric doctor, Chief Nakahoma, a wrestling minister, and as a motivational speaker named Roger Bob.

Director Michael Parness popped into a small role as a character named Peter Brown, a participant at Roger Bob's outdoor support group.

Lyonne and Krumholtz first worked together in the 1998 20th-Century Fox film The Slums of Beverly Hills, in which they played Vivian and Ben Abromowitz (brother and sister).

According to a press release dated March 12, 2005, REX Media was responsible for the website (www.maxandgrace.com), poster and promotional pieces for Max & Grace.