An abbreviated version premiered on August 7, 1985 on the Showtime network before the full film was released on video on September 25, 1985.

For example, Yankovic was raised in Lynwood, California, and has a degree in architecture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Because of the mixture of Yankovic's real life and fiction, much of the film's fabricated information was accepted by fans as real, for example, the false information that Yankovic was born in a Saint Vitus hospital (the Catholic patron saint of comedy), or the film's pun which claimed his birth in an elevator signified his "rise to the top."

The mockumentary also contains clips from the first three AL-TV specials, and all of Yankovic's music videos up to 1985: "Ricky", "I Love Rocky Road", "Eat It", "I Lost on Jeopardy", "This Is the Life", "Like a Surgeon", "One More Minute", and "Dare to Be Stupid".

[7] A book entitled The Authorized Al (ISBN 0-8092-5133-7), written by Yankovic and comedian Tino Insana, was released shortly after the film as a companion piece.