Because of the minimal amount of editing needed during post-production, writer-director Albert Brooks was able to deliver his final cut to the Columbia Pictures studio about two weeks earlier than expected. This facilitated the film's U.S. release date being brought forward about a couple of months from May 1981 back to March 1981.
The director in the movie of the film that editor Robert Cole (Albert Brooks) is editing is real life director James L. Brooks who would later cast and direct Albert Brooks in Broadcast News (1987).
According to Albert Brooks, Stanley Kubrick called him after the movie came out and told him he always wanted to do a film about jealousy. Later Kubrick made Eyes Wide Shut (1999) which explores the same theme.
In an interview with EW (Entertainment Weekly), Albert Brooks said: "We had a test screening and it didn't go well. The [studio heads] were angry. It was like I had shot a child. They called me in and read me the cards. 'He's got a good-looking girlfriend, a fast car - what's his problem?' They wanted to add a scene in which my character goes to a psychiatrist and explains what's bothering him. But I honestly didn't know what was bothering him. I was depressed, but then one day I was sitting at home and the phone rings. It's Stanley Kubrick. He had seen the movie and wanted to know how I did it. That's the first thing he said - 'How did you make this movie? I've always wanted to make a movie about jealousy.' I said to him, The guy who did '2001' is asking me how I did something?".'
A test-screening for college students in California turned out to be such a success that very little of the film had to be altered and the final cut could be delivered to the studio ahead of schedule.