It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man who spends his weekends dancing and drinking at a local discothèque while dealing with social tensions and disillusionment in his working class ethnic neighborhood in Brooklyn.

The story is based on "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night", a mostly fictional 1976 New York article by music writer Nik Cohn.

The film showcases aspects of the music, dancing, and subculture surrounding the disco era, including symphony-orchestrated melodies, haute couture styles of clothing, pre-AIDS sexual promiscuity, and graceful choreography.

In 2010, Saturday Night Fever was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Tony is pleased to no longer be the black sheep of the family when his older brother Frank Jr, the pride of their parents and grandmother, quits the Catholic priesthood.

Frank Jr admits that he only became a priest to make their parents happy, and later advises Bobby, who is under pressure to marry his pregnant girlfriend, that the Pope is unlikely to grant him dispensation for an abortion.

Tony and his friends take revenge on the Barracudas, crashing Bobby's car into their hangout and starting a brawl, but are angry to learn that Gus may have identified the wrong gang.

The film was inspired by a 1976 New York magazine article entitled "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night" by British writer Nik Cohn.

[8] He said that as a newcomer to the United States and a stranger to the disco lifestyle, he was unable to make any sense of the subculture he had been assigned to write about; instead, the article's protagonist (who would become Tony Manero) was based on an acquaintance of Cohn who was an English mod.

His sole prior film credit, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, was released while Saturday Night Fever was already well into production.

Among the elements Wexler added to the story was Tony's younger sister, as well as older brother Frank who disappoints his parents by leaving the priesthood.

"I think what Norman did so well was to create a family situation that had real truth, an accurate look at how men related to women in that moment, in ways that you would never get away with now," said producer Kevin McCormick.

[7] Travolta, who had previously auditioned for Stigwood's film version of Jesus Christ Superstar, was remembered by the producer and signed to a three-movie contract with his company in 1976.

Travolta researched the part by visiting the real 2001 Odyssey discotheque, and claimed he adopted many of the character's swaggering mannerisms from the male patrons.

"[7] He insisted on performing his character's own dance sequences after producers suggested he be substituted by a body double, rehearsing his choreography with Lester Wilson and Deney Terrio for three hours every day, losing 20 pounds in the process.

[7] After the success of Saturday Night Fever, Gorney took a break from film acting to work as a dance instructor at a performing arts academy in Brooklyn.

[13] The interior was modified for the film, including the addition of a $15,000 lighted floor,[7] which was inspired by a Birmingham, Alabama establishment that Badham had visited.

Since the Bee Gees were not involved in the production until after principal photography had wrapped, the "Night Fever", "You Should Be Dancin'" and "More Than a Woman" sequences were shot with Stevie Wonder tracks that were later overdubbed in the sound mix.

[12] To avoid Travolta's fans who might disrupt filming, Badham and his team shot exterior scenes as early in the morning as possible, often at the break of dawn.

The soundtrack included material written by the Bee Gees: "How Deep Is Your Love", "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever", which they also performed, as well as Yvonne Elliman's version of "If I Can't Have You".

[23] However, representatives for Scaggs' label Columbia Records refused to grant legal clearance for it, as they wanted to pursue another disco movie project, which never materialized.

Composer David Shire, who scored the film, had to write a song to match the dance steps in the scene, replacing the Scaggs track.

[27] Consequently, Paramount had to remove the film from exhibition for a period of 90 days before they could showcase the alternate rated version, thereby causing a delay in their release plans.

In the Biography documentary Inside Story: Saturday Night Fever, producer Robert Stigwood criticized the PG-rated version, stating that it undermined the film's impact and lacked the power of the original R-rated edition.

It was first released to DVD by Paramount on October 8, 2002, as an R-rated special-edition, which included most of the deleted scenes present on the PG version, as well as a director's commentary and "Behind the Music" featurettes.

Starting in the late 1990s, VH1, TBS and TNT began showing the original R-rated version with a TV-14 rating, although with nudity removed/censored, and the stronger profanity either being edited or (on recent airings) silenced.

The website's consensus reads: "Boasting a smart, poignant story, a classic soundtrack, and a starmaking performance from John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever ranks among the finest dramas of the 1970s.

[70] In November 2023, Capital One began airing a holiday-themed commercial titled "Holiday Night Fever" which contained an homage to the opening scene of the movie.

In the sixty second version, as the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" plays over the scene, Santa Claus (a heavily made-up John Travolta) struts down a street that has been mostly cleared of snow after a winter storm.

(he was offered three slices in the movie); eats them stacked; then pauses at a shoe store window and compares his shoes to a pair of elven boots with a jingle bell on them; he flirts with a store clerk (Donna Pescow); buys a disco ball Christmas ornament for his sleigh; throws some of the glitter paint onto a Christmas tree that is set up on the sidewalk; then goes to a disco where he asks how his hair looks and dances on the illuminated floor.