Bruce Willis made Stirb langsam (1988) while starring in this show. By the time the series ended, the movie was available on VHS. In one of the last episodes, Willis and a love interest walk past a video rental store while an employee tears a "Die Hard" poster down from the window.
Because of the trademark scenes in which two or more characters are talking at length simultaneously, the scripts were typically two to three times as long as a script for a similar hour-long drama.
Cybill Shepherd was often shot with diffusion disks so she would look as leading ladies often did in films of the 1940s.
Many episodes included a shot of Maddie's feet stepping off of the elevator and walking to her office. Glenn Gordon Caron admitted that the shots existed to give him time to complete the script. Scripts were constantly re-written, and shooting often began without a completed script. Caron would continue writing while shots of Maddie's feet were set up and filmed.
The role of Maddie was written specifically for Cybill Shepherd. Shepherd suggested that the cast and producers watch Sein Mädchen für besondere Fälle (1940) and Leoparden küßt man nicht (1938) to prepare for the pilot.