In interviews, Paul Rudd often refers to this low-budget television movie as the worst adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel. When asked if there was any redeeming factor about working on the film, he quipped: "They paid me."
As an A&E television adaptation, budget issues plagued the production. To reduce costs, Gatsby's car was changed from yellow to white, and Gatsby's expensive pink suit was eliminated. Gatsby's lavish parties were filmed in Montreal and are sparsely populated because the production couldn't afford many dancing extras to fill out the scenes. The Valley of Ashes is not shown as the production could only afford a few small piles of gravel near the gas station.
Screenwriter John J. McLaughlin expressed disappointment with this low-budget television adaptation. According to McLaughlin, the producers instructed him to transform F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel into a hot romance that would appeal to younger television viewers and to alter the original novel as much as he wished. For this reason, Daisy Buchanan is a more likable character, and several scenes that do not exist in the book were added.
Critics described Carl Davis' musical score as more befitting a 1940s film noir than a 1920s Jazz Age drama. Davis claimed that he did not have sufficient time to compose the score.
John J. McLaughlin's screenplay altered the confrontation between Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby from the Plaza Hotel to the Biltmore Hotel at the request of A&E which had a television sweepstakes promoting the film. One of the sweepstakes prizes was a trip to the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida.
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