!!For the movie:

* BreakthroughHit: For Creator/BarryLevinson as a director.
* CreatorDrivenSuccessor: Levinson's later films ''Film/TinMen'' (1987), ''Avalon'' (1990), and ''Film/LibertyHeights'' (1999) are all set in Baltimore during the same general period, and are regarded by some as forming a loose quadrilogy.
* EnforcedMethodActing:
** The actors hung out before shooting began so they'd become close, and the diner scenes were held till the end of the shoot so they'd have bonded by then. Also, when there were conflicts between some of the actors, Levinson made all of them stay in what was known as the camaraderie camper.
** Despite being a stand-up comic, Creator/PaulReiser was unhappy that he only got to tell jokes in the movie. He wanted to do a more serious exploration of his character. Levinson explained to him that "guy who sits around making wisecracks" ''was'' his character.
* ExecutiveMeddling: The studio didn't like the movie, and was going to dump it, until critics such as Creator/PaulineKael raved about it.
* FriendshipOnTheSet: Creator/EllenBarkin and Creator/MickeyRourke became friends on the set (much like their characters are friends). Barkin has said that Rourke made her feel safe on the set.
* HostilityOnTheSet: Creator/EllenBarkin and Creator/DanielStern did not get along during filming, though they have since become friends.
* ProductionPosse: This was the first of fifteen films Ralph Tabakin (who plays the customer Shrevie deals with, and who complains about color TV sets) made with Barry Levinson.
* ScienceMarchesOn: At one point, Fenwick is watching a quiz show on TV, and one of the answers involves knowing the fact one half of Mercury faced the sun while the other half didn't. Astronomers honestly believed it at the time the movie was set, but the following decade, this was discovered to be false.
* ThrowItIn: Creator/SteveGuttenberg couldn't react coherently to the answer of "Presley", but Levinson kept it in because it was funnier.
** Generally speaking, most of the dialogue at the diner was improvised, especially Modell's, since Paul Reiser was so good at it.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Part of the script involved Eddie and some of the others going to see the 1959 NFL championship between [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_NFL_Championship_Game the Colts and the New York Giants]], but Levinson couldn't afford to shoot anything at the football stadium, so the sequence had to be scrapped.
** As noted above, Levinson wrote, produced and directed a pilot for a TV version of series, which would have featured Paul Reiser as Modell.
** Creator/AndrewDiceClay tested for the role of Eddie Simmons.
** Creator/RobertWuhl auditioned for Modell.
* WriteWhatYouKnow: The film is based on Creator/BarryLevinson's experiences growing up in Baltimore (the football quiz, for example, was something he claimed a cousin of his did). There has been speculation about which of the characters was based on Levinson, but Levinson has always insisted that no one character was based on him; all of them were partly based on him.
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