The stage production of "No Time for Sergeants" by Ira Levin opened at the Alvin Theater in New York on Thursday, October 20, 1955, and ran for seven hundred ninety-six performances. Andy Griffith received a 1956 Tony Award nomination for Distinguished Supporting or Featured Dramatic Actor.
This was Don Knotts' film debut. He met Andy Griffith when he played the same part in Broadway's "No Time For Sergeants." When Griffith was preparing to film The Andy Griffith Show (1960), Knotts contacted Griffith and suggested that he needed someone to play his deputy. Griffith agreed and Knotts was cast. The two formed a lifelong friendship. After Knotts left Andy Griffith Show, he later made guest appearances on it and another Andy Griffith television series, Matlock (1986). In 2006, Griffith even broke the news of Knotts' passing to the media.
The latrine scene is the first time toilets have been shown onscreen in a Hollywood movie. (This predates Psycho, 1960, by two years.)
Mac Hyman based his all-time best-selling novel on his experiences growing up in Cordele, Georgia, and as a navigator in the Army Air Corps during World War II.
The word 'Nigger' was used by Irvin Blanchard in the Broadway production to describe a Black officer (played by Ossie Davis later in the run.) In the film version, the character is changed to a WAC Lieutenant.