Unknown to anyone but those close to him, Dick Van Dyke had been struggling with a real-life drinking problem for several years prior to making this movie. Before filming began, he decided to tell director Richard Heffron about his struggles. As a result, while filming, Heffron would lay out scenes, then tell Van Dyke, "you know more about this than I do, so just do it the way you see it, the way you feel it." Just before the movie aired, Van Dyke decided to go public with his alcoholism struggles, becoming one of the first entertainment figures to go public about a drinking problem. He received thousands of letters of support.
Because few knew about his real-life struggles with alcohol, Dick asked producer David Wolper why he wanted him to star in a film with such dark subject matter. Wolper explained to Van Dyke that he fit the image of a "average, middle-aged, middle-class family man."
In his memoirs, Dick Van Dyke called his performance "one of the best and most powerful pieces of acting in my career, as well as one of the most personal."