On its first showing on German TV, it wasn't shown with any announcement explaining the satire, but just like a "straight" game show. Hundreds of young men didn't realize that the movie is fiction, taking it for a real TV game show; they applied themselves for the show, either as future candidates or man-hunters.
After the second broadcast in the 1970s, public broadcaster WDR, which produced the film, was sued by producer Joseph Cates who owned the film rights. The problem was that WDR purchased the rights to make the film from German publishing company Goldmann, who released the book the film was based on. However, Goldmann did not own the film rights, so the licence WDR bought was void. This was confirmed by the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt in 1977. Since then the film was not shown publicly anywhere. Only in 2002 WDR was finally able to acquire the proper rights from Studio Canal, which in the meantime had become the rights owner.
A German music group named themselves after the fictional company "Stabil Elite".