The film’s opening titles are superimposed over a montage of scenes from early sound films featuring Broadway and vaudeville stars of the 1920s. These clips include footage of the Palace Theater in New York ca. 1929, and several clips from The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (see entry) with scenes featuring announcement girls with signs introducing acts and other sequences featuring the stars Bessie Love, Charles King, Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards, Gus Edwards, and the Albertina Rasch Dancers. There are also several clips from a Metro Movietone Revue short featuring master of ceremonies Harry Rose and performers Gus Van & Joe Schenck, Grace Rogers, the Reynolds Sisters dance duo, and Joseph Regan, as well as clips from several 1928--1929 Metro Movietone shorts including Fuzzy Knight and His Little Piano; The Five Locust Sisters Famed Miracle Makers of Harmony; Frances White; and The Mayor of Jim Town featuring Flournoy Miller & Aubrey Lyles. Actor Maurice Cass is also seen performing a stage illusion in a clip from the 1938 MGM short The Magician’s Daughter. The title sequence montage ends with footage from The Great Ziegfeld (1936, see entry) with actor Buddy Doyle impersonating Ziegfeld Follies star Eddie Cantor.
       Neil Simon’s stage play, The Sunshine Boys, officially opened 20 Dec 1972 at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City after two preview performances 18-19 Dec 1972. It moved to the Shubert Theatre on 30 Oct 1973 and finally to the Lunt-Fontanne Theater on 11 Feb 1974 before completing 538 Broadway performances on 21 Apr 1974.
       Records in AMPAS library files indicate that Rastar Productions acquired screen rights to the play on 12 Feb 1973, and on 21 Mar 1973 HR and Var both reported that Ray Stark would produce a film version for Columbia Pictures with Neil Simon adapting his own play and Jack Albertson set to reprise his role as Willy Clark in the film. In a 28 Mar 1973 story Var also revealed that Simon had turned down an offer of $1 million plus a percentage of the profits for a screen adaptation that would have starred Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and instead opted for a no-cash-up-front deal with Stark that would pay him a royalty from "dollar one" of film rentals.
       The 16 May 1974 HR and DV noted the film was now set to be produced by MGM with shooting scheduled to begin early in 1975; however MGM did not formally acquire distribution rights to the film from Rastar until 18 Oct 1974, according to AMPAS records. The 31 Jul 1974 DV stated that singer Steve Lawrence, actor Ted Bessell and comic David Steinberg were being tested for the role of agent “Ben Clark,” and that Jack Benny was set for the role of “Al Lewis.” With Jack Albertson now starring in the television series Chico and the Man (NBC, 13 Sep 1974—21 Jul 1978), both Milton Berle and Phil Silvers were tested for the part of “Willy Clark.” By 22 May 1974 Var reported rumors that Red Skelton would play Willy Clark. On 30 Sep 1974, HR noted that Walter Matthau would play opposite Benny.
       With the picture scheduled to begin shooting in early 1975, Benny’s death on 26 Dec 1974 started another flurry of casting rumors with Women’s Wear Daily stating that Art Carney and George Burns were being considered and that Red Skelton was again in contention for the role of Lewis. Finally on 13 Feb 1975 a brief announcement in HR noted that Burns would play the role.
       Although HR production charts reported that the first day of principal photography was 24 Feb 1975, a 26 Feb 1975 HR news item listed the starting date as two days later and added the MGM lot in Culver City as the location. It was reported that Burns had memorized all his lines by the start of production. This was necessary because, according to his longtime secretary Jack Langdon, Burns, who started working at the age of seven, never really learned to read or write with proficiency and hired people to read scripts out loud for him. According to an 18 Mar 1975 HR news item, the company shot the television special rehearsal scenes in the Hollywood Palace, the former Hollywood Playhouse located at 1735 North Vine Street, during the week of 10 Mar 1975, and resumed shooting at the studio on 18 Mar 1975, according to a 7 Apr 1975 HR news item. A scheduled twelve days of location shooting in New York City and New Jersey commenced on 7 Apr 1975. Among the Manhattan locations seen in the film are the exteriors of the Palace Theatre and Times Square, the Ansonia Hotel, the Friars’ Club, and the Gaiety Delicatessen. The Actors Fund Home in Englewood, NJ, also served as a location. According to AMPAS files, a completed answer print of the film was made by 24 Jul 1975.
       The film's fictional comedy team of Lewis and Clark was based on two real life theatrical comedy teams—Smith & Dale and Weber & Fields. The feud and estrangement is said to mirror the offstage lives of Weber & Fields; but the badinage between the characters with neither agreeing on who said what, or when or where, was very much like the conversations Joe Smith and Charlie Dale engaged in according to theater historian Miles Kreuger, who knew both men.
       The film was the 1975 Christmas season attraction at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and went on to be nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor (Walter Matthau); Actor in a Supporting Role (George Burns); Art Direction; and Writing (Screenplay Adapted from Other Material). Only George Burns won.