Trivia

Feature-film debut of Catherine Burns, in a role that would earn her an Oscar® nomination as Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

There was a screening in Los Angeles in 2012 wherein Barbara Hershey was a guest. She revealed that she, Bruce Davison and Richard Thomas didn't get along but for the sake of the film. She said: "Bruce and Richard might say something different, but I think Frank was encouraging us more to be into our characters than to bond. He was sort of isolating us from our lives.... We had interaction with each other, but it wasn't like we were a close-knit group."

A subplot involving a wounded seagull affected Barbara Hershey sufficiently for her to change her surname to Seagull for a couple of years.

Ralph Waite played father to Richard Thomas in this movie, then went on to play his father again in The Waltons (1972).

Based on a novel, the character of Dan was originally called David in the book but was changed for the movie, probably because director Frank Perry - then best known for his film David and Lisa (1962), also about troubled teens - wanted to avoid suggestion he was making a sequel/prequel about same character.