William Hale was recommended as director by Steven Spielberg, who had been impressed by his work on an episode of Night Gallery that also starred Patty Duke.
The music turned on by Howard Faloon as he enters his apartment, is the Piano Sonata Sixteen in C Major, K545, 1st movement (Allegro), by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791), composed in 1788, but not published until 1805.
In this, their only shared movie credit to date, both Henry Winkler and John Travolta appear as unbilled extras shortly before they would reach stratospheric popularity as the two biggest stars on television in the 1970s, of course as Fonzie and Vinnie Barbarino respectively. They also are the last surviving actors known to have appeared in the movie.