When producers found they could not use the original house used in Terms of Endearment (1983) for the project, they searched Houston (TX) for a house that looked similar. When they located one, they found out that it belonged to the daughter of the person who owned the one used in "Terms".

During filming, Mackenzie Astin got in a car accident where he lost the top edge of his right ear. He had to come in an hour early for the rest of the shoot so make-up could add a prosthetic to make it match the earlier footage.

The character of The General did not appear in Terms of Endearment (1983), although he did appear in both novels. Garrett Breedlove does not appear in the novels; he was created for the first film largely as a replacement for the General.

Final film of Ben Johnson. He died 4 weeks after filming was done.

Jeff Daniels was asked to reprise his role as Flap Horton from Terms of Endearment (1983) but he made a commitment to John Hughes to appear in his live action remake of 101 Dalmatians (1996) and could not return for the sequel.