The film was made and first released about two years after its source novel of the same name by Robert Klane had been first published in 1975. The book was originally intended to be called 'Jewish Lightning'.
The movie references Le Trésor de la Sierra Madre (1948). The high school is named after Alfonso Bedoya, the actor famous for the line "We don't care about no stinking badges!".
Actor-director Alan Arkin "checked into" the Twentieth Century Fox studios to start post-production on the picture according
to an article published in the 15th December 1976 edition of show-business trade-paper 'Variety'.
Reportedly, producer Marvin Worth in development / pre-production moved the base of his production office from the Twentieth Century-Fox studio to the Columbia Pictures studio according to an article published in the 14th February 1975 issue of show-business trade-paper 'The Hollywood Reporter'. However, the picture still ended up being produced at Fox.
Sally Marr, who played Jackie, and was billed as as Sally K. Marr, is the mother of controversial comedian Lenny Bruce. The movie's producer Marvin Worth had recently produced a biopic about him called Lenny (1974) in which Marr had served as an advisor to the producer. The 'Allmovie' website declares that ''the supporting cast also includes Sally K. Marr, whose son was controversial comedian Lenny Bruce.