Actor Henry Winkler is seen sporting peroxided blonde hair in this movie. The name of the blonde-haired ballet-costume wearing wrestling character with a harem of girls that Andy Schmidt (Henry Winkler) creates was called "The Lover" or "The Great Lover', and he is 'The One And Only' of the film's title. The character and film's story was based on glamor wrestler Gorgeous George (real name George Raymond Wagner) and his career. This picture was made and released about fifteen years after Gorgeous George had passed away. Winkler once commented that George had blond curls and sprayed himself in the ring with perfume, "If that doesn't shatter my Fonz image, nothing will!".
At one point the entire family is watching Your Show of Shows (1950) starring Sid Caesar, the TV program on which director Carl Reiner first made his mark.
Actor Henry Winkler first became aware of the script for this movie when he ran into actor Dustin Hoffman in a doorway of a New York building. Hoffman talked for about three minutes about some screenplays he owned the rights to and about a year later Winkler received a copy of this film's script.
Part of a cycle of ring fighter movies, mostly boxing, some wrestling, initiated by the box-office and critical success of the Academy Award Best Picture winning boxing movie Rocky (1976). The films include Rocky II (1979), Rocky III (1982), Rocky IV (1985), Tough Enough (1983), Title Shot (1979), Raging Bull (1980), The Champ (1979), Matilda (1978), The Main Event (1979), The Prize Fighter (1979), The Greatest (1977), Body and Soul (1981), Paradise Alley (1978), ...All the Marbles (1981), The One and Only, Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and Any Which Way You Can (1980).