The entire cast reprised their roles from the stage production that played on Broadway at the Martn Beck Theatre in 1982. Director Robert Altman also directed this stage version.
The period of principal photography on this picture was a shoot running only nineteen days.
The film's one set was actually one double-set with two-way mirrors which were utilized for the flashback sequences. The two-way mirrored double-set was operated by computerized lighting modules which caused their own unique problems for the production.
Playwright Ed Graczyk said of his play at its premiere at the Players Theatre, Columbus: " . . . 'Jimmy Dean can' only be described as the result of my own observations and frustrations with progress that ignores a past; the lack of personalization and pride and the recurring need of people to build facades to conceal the truths of their lives. It is the facade that makes abnormal people seem normal and the sad people seem happy, a personal observation which I feel makes the people I write about colorful, theatrical, but most of all, honest . . . The inspiration for 'Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean' came many years ago during my five-year association with the Midland Community Theatre in west Texas. While I was there I had the opportunity to visit Marfa, the site used by Warner Bros. in filming Giant (1956). The only remaining evidence of the film was the facade of the mansion Reata used to film the on location scenes, now crumbling and supported by six telephone poles. It was the memory of that site, the pace of the people and the vivid recollection of the [1950s] idol James Dean on the youth of the period that resulted in the writing of this play".
Apart from a couple of 1960s outings, this was the first serious dramatic role in a prominent picture for Cher. It was this film and the next year's Silkwood (1983) that introduced her as a serious actress.