[2] The TV Guide summary of the week's TV movies described it as a film that "provides stale characters in staler situations,"[3] but another promotional blurb in the same issue stated "what sets this 1980 TV-movie apart are its flashes of wit, delivered in a running commentary by a glib disc jockey (Howard Hesseman) and its satirically staged sequences--such as a helicopter's convoy's delivering portable toilets.

"[4] Though Ed McMahon refers to the movie as a "semiclassic" in his biography,[5] Rue McClanahan (who plays his wife) admits she did it just to fill a contractual obligation with NBC and said "it was about as funny as Mom and Me, MD", a reference to another television movie she did in 1979.

The serious Holocaust drama Playing for Time, which won a number of Emmys, was the most watched program that week.

[8][9] Writers Steve Hattman and Dave Hackel dreamed up the idea for the movie when they were stuck in an L.A. traffic jam.

[10][11] Though the cast is large, the opening credits billed cast are listed in alphabetical order as follows: Other actors appearing in the film include Lyle Waggoner, Abe Vigoda, Marcia Wallace, and Paul Willson; game show hosts Wink Martindale, Jack Clark, Art James, and Jim Perry; and Howard Hesseman (who was playing a DJ role on WKRP in Cincinnati at this time) as the voice of the radio announcer.