In his 1989 autobiography "It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here...", Charles Grodin talks about directing this special at the behest of his friends Joseph Bologna and Renée Taylor. When ABC felt it was essential for the TV special to feature a laugh track, he strongly opposed the idea. But ABC insisted and Grodin agreed to supervise the placing of the laughs. When laugh track expert Charlie Douglas showed him all the possibilities his recordings could offer, Grodin decided that if "you can't beat them, join them" and suddenly became very enthusiastic about placing a whole range of different audience reactions into the show.