Hugh Wilson was hired as director based on his success with "WKRP in Cincinnati" even though he was not familiar with many films of this genre. He then saw a lot of those sort of movies and says "it was fairly discouraging. This immediately convinced me to cut down on the sleaze. I asked for, and got, the power to refine the Israel-Proft script. Maintaining that `funny is money,' I wanted to go for real laughter rather than going for the elements such as gratuitous sex and anti-Establishment exploits. I wanted jokes which were rooted in reality."