In a very busy year, the movie was one of seven film and television productions that actor Martin Sheen appeared in that were first released during 1983.
The picture got made because of two reasons: (1) The box-office success of Love Story (1970) this film being also based on a novel by Erich Segal. The words "Love Story" were mentioned twice on some movie posters. (2) A cycle of movies about divorce and family dramas spurred on by the fact that two then recent Best Picture Oscars had been won by them [Ordinary People (1980) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)].
The film was made and released about three years after its source novel of the same name by Erich Segal had been first published in 1980.
The American CBS television network cut 3 minutes from this movie for its TV screenings debut in 1987.
The film got remade twice in Asia within about a year. The remakes were Bollywood's Masoom (1983) and Indonesia's Saat-Saat yang indah (1984).