Apparently nobody really read it, it was a cheap movie, it fit their schedule in terms of things so fine, let the guy make that high school comedy. I used to work with Mel Brooks so they figured oh it's going to be one of those really silly movies and that's how it got made.

(Levinson appeared in a cameo as a doctor. He has a television production company with Tom Fontana (The Levinson/Fontana Company) and served as executive producer for a number of series including Homicide: Life on the Street (which ran on NBC from 1993–1999) and the HBO prison drama Oz. Diner was the first of a series of films set in the Baltimore of Levinson's youth.

His most notable films include The Natural Good Morning Vietnam Rain Man Bugsy and Bandits.