Improvised Scene: Sumner is leaving Bunny's apartment, shortly after Mike leaves and Peg arrives, when Bunny and Sumner are recapping the afternoon's events for Peg. Sumner puts on the ruined shoes and grimaces as he tries to walk in them, which causes Bunny to laugh. He hobbles off stage and returns with his hat pulled down over his ears, his shirt dangling out of his pants, staggering as though drunk and talking crazy. This moment, including the women's hysterical laughter and Katharine Hepburn's nearly falling out of her chair, is spontaneous and not in the script.
Although the technology of computerized research was only in its infancy when this film was made, the concern that computers might eventually replace most American workers (which is a major element in this film's plot) was on the minds of many an employee of the time.
The script called for a philodendron, but a rhododendron was placed on the set. Katharine Hepburn brought in her own philodendron, the one which almost encircled her office.
William Marchant based Bunny Watson's character on librarian Agnes E. Law, who had built up the CBS network's research library.
This is the first film that Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn did in color and the eighth of the nine films they starred in together. Their next (and last), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), came ten years later.