This was the television adaptation of "Heidi" that, through no fault of its own, became embroiled in a U.S. broadcasting brouhaha known to this day as the "Heidi Bowl." On Sunday, November 17, 1968, NBC was scheduled to begin airing this movie at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, following coverage of a National Football League game between the New York Jets and Oakland Raiders. The game ran long; however, with the Jets leading the Raiders, 32-29, NBC broke away to begin this movie on schedule. During the unseen remaining minute of play, Oakland managed to score two touchdowns, and ended up beating New York, 43-32. Outraged football fans inundated NBC switchboards. The network expressed regret, saying it had intended to stay with the game until it ended, and blaming a series of miscommunications for the gaffe. A result of this fiasco is that National Football League television contracts require games to be televised in their entirety in the markets of the two teams.
In a 2012 interview on National Public Radio, Jennifer Edwards (Heidi) said that the incident was still so infamous into the 1970s that after she was an adult, she was approached to guest-star on an episode of The Love Boat (1977), in which she would have appeared as a fictional version of herself falling in love with Joe Namath, who was the Jets' quarterback during the interrupted football game. The episode never occurred.
In 2012, Jennifer Edwards (Heidi) told an interviewer on National Public Radio's program "All Things Considered" that even though she was ten-years-old and a U.K. resident, she still got hate mail from angry American football fans who resented that her movie interrupted the television airing of the 1968 game between New York Jets vs. Oakland Raiders.
Maureen McCormick was originally picked to play the role of Heidi, but through no explanation to her, the role went to Edwards instead.