Trivia

James Coco became the first actor to be nominated for both an Academy Award and a Razzie for the same performance. Coco won neither award. The only people to repeat this have been Amy Irving for Yentl (1983) and Glenn Close for Hillbilly Elegy (2020).

Final completed feature film of actress Joan Hackett.

At the time of production, Marsha Mason was married to Neil Simon, the film's Producer, Screenwriter, and source Playwright. Of the movies they made together, Max Dugan Returns (1983) and this film, were the only ones where Simon was a Producer.

In its premiere engagement in America, this movie was released just six months before another filmed adaptation of a Neil Simon play, I Ought to Be in Pictures (1982). That movie was directed by Herbert Ross, who had been the first choice to direct Only When I Laugh (1981). Both works predominantly dealt with the conflict between a daughter and a parent, the parent being a mother in Only When I Laugh (1981), and a father in I Ought to Be in Pictures (1982). Both parent characters also abuse alcohol. Both films are reconciliation movies; in each film, the parent and daughter have not seen each other for several years.

Some movie posters for this film ran with a long preamble which read: "Kristy McNichol's a daughter who never had a childhood...Marsha Mason is a mother who never grew up. For 16 years, they've been practically strangers...And when they get together, they're the most mismatched roommates since The Goodbye Girl (1977)."