Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon served as the location for the film. The new campus was in the final stages of construction at the time of production. This allowed the film crew to easily simulate the occupation of offices and buildings by protesters without interfering with actual campus life. Some pyrotechnic effects were used, including one that used black powder and petroleum that blackened an exterior wall and startled the cast and crew. A technician apologized for overdoing the effect (an understatement). Many local people were involved, including a few hand-picked for stunt work.
The film was made and released about three years after its source novel of the same name by Ken Kolb had been first published in 1967. The novel has very little to do with campus unrest or "student revolution", which had become a major feature of American news stories in the last days of the 1960s, but merely concerns the efforts of its vaguely radical hero to gain a teaching qualification.
Shot in the summer of 1969 on location in Eugene, Oregon.
One of the first films to use computer-generated animations in its titles.
Star Elliott Gould front-lined this movie straight after coming off two box-office hit pictures which were M*A*S*H (1970) and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969).