This was an unsold television pilot. When it wasn't picked up as a series, it was as given a theatrical release.
Richard Boone had recently moved to Hawaii and wanted to establish film productions in that state. He made a deal to have CBS put up $750,000 of the picture's $900,000 budget and produced it with his own Pioneer Productions company.
First feature film to use the new Cinemobile, invented by Fouad Said, which earned him a technical Academy Award in 1969. It is a truck, small enough to be loaded on cargo planes, but large enough to carry enough essential film production equipment - cameras, lights, generators, etc. - to be used on location shooting.