Marsha Mason, the original Paula, plays the mother of Patricia Heaton, the new Paula, on the TV show The Middle.
This "updated" remake involved little rewriting of the original 1977 film (The Goodbye Girl (1977)). The screenplay is word-for-word and scene-for-scene from the original script with the exception of a few curse words removed to make it appropriate for television and a line that referred to Richard Dreyfuss's height in the original that wouldn't make sense when said by Jeff Daniels.
Marsha Mason, who played Paula McFadden in the original movie, also played Patricia Heaton's mother in TV show "The Middle".
One of three Neil Simon written films which actor-producer-director Richard Benjamin has worked on. Benjamin co-starred in The Sunshine Boys (1975) and directed The Goodbye Girl (2004) TV remake (also a producer) and the tele-movie Laughter on the 23rd Floor (2001).
Jeff Daniels co-starred with the original film's star, Marsha Mason, in "2 Days in the Valley" (1996).