Robert Mitchum admitted he only accepted this series because he was no longer being offered good film roles.
Jan-Michael Vincent's alcoholism was a major problem during filming, and may be why he was not cast in Les orages de la guerre (1988). The official explanation was that he was unavailable for the second series due to prior commitments to Supercopter (1984).
Robert Mitchum was accused of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial after an interview he gave to Barry Rehfeld of "Esquire" magazine promoting this series at his home in February 1983. Mitchum wrote an apologetic letter on 9 March 1983 to Herbert Luft, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency's Hollywood columnist. Mitchum claimed he had recited views expressed by the bigoted football coach he had played in That Championship Season (1982), which Rehfeld "mistakenly believed to be my own. From that point on, he approached me as the character in the script and in playing the devil's advocate in a prankish attempt to string him along we compounded a tragedy of errors." Mitchum added he was "truly sorry that this misunderstanding has upset so many people, especially since it is so foreign to my principle. The attendant misfortune is that it has brought me a spate of mail from people and organizations who are encouraged to believe that I share their bigotry and discrimination.".
Robert Mitchum and Ali MacGraw were considered too old for their respective parts by many fans of the books and production executives, but director and producer Dan Curtis insisted on their being cast.