Frank Shankwicz was a consultant on this movie about himself, and convinced local Prescott, Arizona business owners to donate location shots free of charge. Since Arizona has no film credit system, they were on a limited budget, and Frank wanted it shot in his home town.
Robert Pine greets Larry Wilcox by saying "Hello John." and they go on to discuss a terminally ill child obsessed with Chips (1977), and Pine's character makes several negative comments about the show. This portion of the film was set in 1980. At that time, both Pine and Wilcox starred in CHiPs as Sgt. Joe Getraer and Officer Jon Baker respectively.
Several of the main cast played supervisory or other law enforcement officers in other shows. Robert Pine played Sgt. Joe Getraer in Chips (1977). Tom Sizemore played Lt. Sam Cole in Robbery Homicide Division (2002) and Capt. Vincent Fryer on Hawaii 5-0 (2010). Bruce Davison played Capt./Deputy Chief Wyler on Rick Hunter (1984). Larry Wilcox played CHP Officer Jon Baker (along with Pine) in CHiPs.
Been there, done that: Robert Pine plays Arizona Highway Patrol Sergeant Eddie Newman, who assigns a rookie motor officer to the veteran Shankwitz. 42 years earlier in Chips (1977), he played California Highway Patrol Sergeant Joe Getraer. The initial plot line of that show involved a veteran motor officer, Jon Baker, played by Larry Wilcox (who appears here as John Foster) training an inexperienced motor officer.
The opening in the original script called for only four "bullies," but writer and director, Theo Davies, didn't want to turn away any child actors and added them as paid extras to keep them on set.