When first shown on the ITV network in the U.K. in October 1985, the penultimate reel (with a run time of fifteen minutes) was accidentally omitted from the broadcast in some regions. Despite an audience of millions, few complaints were received by the network.
The part of Neil Grey was originally intended to be played by Richard Burton, but after his untimely death, the role went to Sir Anthony Hopkins. Jane Seymour was offered the role of Montana Grey, Neil's wife, which was played by Stefanie Powers.
Pop superstar Laura Branigan performs the movie's main theme. To date, none of Laura Branigan's compilations contains the track.
Although the miniseries basically follows the plot of the novel, one of the more prominent characters - gossipy society hostess Bibi Sutton - was omitted.
The rights to both the book and the miniseries fell under common ownership in 1999, after Viacom, parent of the book's publisher Simon and Schuster since its 1994 purchase of Paramount Pictures and Television, acquired Spelling Entertainment Group, incorporating its library into that of Paramount (though some Spelling productions continued to be distributed by third parties until 2006, including "Hollywood Wives", distributed by Warner Bros.). Paramount's TV library and S&S both became part of CBS Corporation in 2006. CBS re merged with Viacom in 2019, forming ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global), which has announced it will sell S&S. An attempt to sell S&S to Penguin Random House in 2021 failed because of antitrust concerns. S&S was ultimately sold to KKR in 2023.