Altman made considerable changes to Christopher Durang's screenplay adaptation of his own play. Durang later described the film as "a very unhappy experience and outcome".
Robert Altman was living in Paris at the time and decided to make the film there, even though it was set in New York.
Bob asks Prudence if she's ever seen "Sunday Bloody Sunday", starring Peter Finch and "that English actress." The English actress is Glenda Jackson, who appears in this film as Charlotte. In the play, Bob says Glenda Jackson's name instead of calling her "that English actress."
The film's source "Beyond Therapy" play premiered off-Broadway on 1st January 1981 at the Phoenix Theatre in New York and ran for about a month totaling thirty performances, closing on 25th January 1981.