The real Steven was paid $30,000 for the movie. He died in a motorcycle accident shortly after this movie was released. He was 24, with a wife and two children.
Steven Stayner's brother, Cary Stayner, would go on to murder four women in and around Yosemite National Park in 1999. He was convicted of three counts of first degree murder with special circumstances and once count of kidnapping in 2002. As of 2022, he is on death row at San Quentin Penitentiary in California, though there have been no executions in the state since 2006.
The actual Steven Stayner has a small role as one of the officers escorting the character of Steven through the crowd and media to return to his family.
In the scene where Parnell escorts Steven into Highland Elementary School, a dubbed woman's voice says, "Mr. Teaney says you're failing his history class. I can help you!" Ken Teaney was the supervising sound editor for this film.
This film features Corin Nemec in the titular role and Ray Walston. The two would go on to work together, first in Parker Lewis Can't Lose and again when Nemec played Harold Lauder and Walston played Glen Bateman in the television adaptation of the novel The Stand (1994) by Stephen King.