Irene Dunne's first comedic role. She was so against doing this film that she took a two-month trip to Europe in the hopes someone else would be cast. Théodora devient folle (1936) earned Dunne her second Academy Award® nomination.
Marion Davies and Carole Lombard were the first choices for this film, but Davies retired and Lombard was unavailable.
The dialogue from this film is re-used in the film J'épouse ma femme (1941), in which Fredric March portrays a playwright and Loretta Young his actress wife. All the dialogue in March's new play is from the screenplay of this film. It's virtually word for word, with only the heroine's name changed. The gardener referred to in the dialogue is Melvyn Douglas. Columbia Pictures, the distributor of "Bedtime Story," made this film, too, but none of the writers overlap between the films. Interestingly, in "Bedtime Story," the actors playing the onstage scene are not meant to be in a comedy. What is borrowed is the confrontation over the gardener between Theodora, her aunt, and the local club ladies. Also, in an early scene, March has an inspiration for the last line of his play - something about nobody in the town ever calling the heroine "Baby" before - an idea that figures in this movie as well.
At one point, this was seen as a chance to reteam Marion Davies and Clark Gable after their hit Caïn et Mabel (1936).
"The Screen Guild Theater" broadcast a 30-minute radio adaptation of the movie on November 29, 1943, with Irene Dunne reprising her film role with often paired co-star Cary Grant.