It is often thought to be based on the William Saroyan novel of the same name, but Saroyan actually wrote the screenplay first, was fired from the film project, and quickly wrote the novel and published it just before the film was released.
Film tersebut seringkali dianggap berdasarkan pada novel bernama sama karya William Saroyan, namun Saroyan yang sebetulnya menulis skenarionya lebih dulu, dipecat dari proyek film tersebutm dan dengan cepat menulis novel tersebut dan menerbitkannya tepat sebelum film tersebut dirilis.