The other actors were protective of Andrew Cassese, who played Wormser, and along with director Jeff Kanew made sure that the young actor did not witness or play a main role in the many scenes that earned the film its R rating. Cassese, however, was allowed to see the film when he was still below 17 years old and was very surprised by what he'd missed in filming.
James Cromwell has said that when he came up with the nerd laugh, after the other actors imitated it, he later realized while driving home from the studio on the first day of production that it was his ex-wife's laugh.
Robert Carradine says that when he read the script, Lewis's laugh was described as a "goose honk" he was not sure how to do it. However, by chance the first scenes shot were of his father dropping Lewis and Gilbert off at college. When James Cromwell did the laugh, Carradine mimicked it.
On the documentary for the DVD, it was revealed that many of the actors (including Robert Carradine, Curtis Armstrong and Timothy Busfield) initially did not want to do the film but gave in because the movie either paid well or it was a chance for some of them, who were struggling actors, to get into a movie.
Lambda Lambda Lambda, the fraternity depicted in the film, would end up becoming the name of a fraternity in real life. It was founded at the University of Connecticut in 2006.