The person responsible for extras casting was Jewish and was casting a lot of his friends and relatives in tiny parts. As a result, when the military consultant (from the KGB) saw the chosen actors, he said that most of the guards at Nazi headquarters looked like soldiers of Israeli army, not elite SS soldiers, and demanded that they change them to more appropriate looking actors. As a result, the roles of SS guards were played by military cadets of the frontier-guards schools from Tallinn (Estonia) and Riga (Latvia), who, being tall, blonde and blue-eyed looked more like real SS soldiers.
According to the original book, Stirlitz was single and had a girlfriend abroad. The scene of Stirlitz's short date with his wife was Tatyana Lioznova's idea. When she showed footage to the crew, Yulian Semyonov agreed it was very good and was very frustrated that he didn't write the scene.
Archil Gomiashvili was so eager to play Stirlitz that he invited the crew to a restaurant. During the night, Yulian Semyonov even told Tatyana Lioznova that Gomiashvili was the perfect Stirlitz. In the end, however, the role went to Vyacheslav Tikhonov. Another contender for the role was Oleg Strizhenov.
After the series was released, Stirlitz became the subject of numerous Russian jokes and remains one of the most popular Russian joke characters until today. Most of the jokes spoof the solemn style of the voice-overs from the series and their plot is resolved in grotesque plays on words or in dumb parodies of Stirlitz's overly smart narrow escapes and superlogical trains of thought.
Leonid Bronevoy's tailored uniform shirt was several sizes too small for him. The shirt collar cut into the actor's neck, making him jerk his head. When asked by the film director Tatyana Lioznova on the matter, Bronevoy was unwilling to make blame the tailor and said this was his own way of being nervous. Lioznova then suggested that this should be featured in the series.