Chevy Chase was nearly electrocuted during a stunt in the sequence in which he is wearing "landing lights" and dreams that he is an airplane. The lights' wiring short-circuited through his arm, back, and neck, which caused him to lose consciousness.
In the opening scene what sounds like a children's program is playing on the television in the background. It is actually a raunchy sketch called "Koko the Klown Show" from the movie The Groove Tube (1974), Chevy Chase's first movie, which was also directed by Ken Shapiro, who played Koko, and directed this movie.
Chevy Chase once said of his character in this movie: "Max Fielder is basically a nice guy who suffers from most of the hang-ups of our society. He's jealous, possessive, uptight, and insecure. But he can't verbalize those feelings, so he's got a lot of repressed rage."
The house at the beach owned by Brian Stills is a replica of the house from Alfred Hitchcock's Psyco (1960).