The first movie from the Disney company (produced/released under their "Touchstone" company) to receive an "R" rating from the MPAA.
Nick Nolte's character remarks that he became a bum in part because he was "pretty active politically in the '60s. Sold some draft cards." In real life, Nolte received five years' probation for selling fake draft cards in the 1960s.
Right before Richard Dreyfuss is rear-ended by the police car, he drives past a movie marquee advertising Jaws (1975), the movie that propelled him to stardom.
One of a mid-late 1980s mini-cycle of movie comedies which starred Bette Midler that were all produced by the then new adult Walt Disney brand of Touchstone Pictures. The films include Big Business (1988), Ruthless People (1986), Outrageous Fortune (1987) and Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986).