Samokhvalov's surname corresponds with his image as it comes from the archaic Russian word "samokhval", which means "self-praiser", "boaster".
It was planned at first that Vera's husband would have a much larger role in the film. Mikhail Svetin was offered the role but later on, the filmmakers dropped the idea. Afterwards, Aleksandr Fatyushin was cast. His character was supposed to keep choosing between his wife and his motorcycle and the two characters would keep quarreling because of this. Some scenes with Liya Akhedzhakova and Fatyushin were even filmed but then Fatyushin went down with a serious illness that required surgery. In the end, Vera's husband appears in the film only as a voice on the phone.
Director/co-writer Eldar Ryazanov was very quick to choose Alisa Freyndlikh for the part of Kalugina. It was probably the first case in Soviet cinema when the arts council allowed Ryazanov to choose the actors he wanted.
In one scene, Olga Ryzhova reads the poem "O, moy zastenchivyy geroy..." by Bella Akhmadulina. The poem, written in 1960 or 1961, was still unpublished when the film was released, and Svetlana Nemolyaeva, who played Ryzhova, had to write copies of the poem by hand and send them to her fans for several years after 1977.
The film is based on the play "Sosluzhivtsy" ("Colleagues") that Emil Braginskiy and Eldar Ryazanov completed in only one month. In the play, Vera was a young long-legged beauty but when the authors were rewriting the play for the film, they wrote this role for Liya Akhedzhakova, 39 at the time of release.