David Fincher and Bryan Singer were both considered to direct. Singer initially accepted, but had to withdraw when the entire cast of X2 (2003) became available for production to begin on that film. Mike Myers, Ben Stiller, and Johnny Depp were all considered for the role of Chuck Barris.
The clip from the "The Newlywed Game" (1966) is a real clip. It was long thought to be an urban legend and at one time even the host came to believe it was not real.
The car Chuck Barris uses in East Germany is Soviet VAZ 2102.
Most of the scenes were done in one take. The NBC lobby scene, and the Dating Game montage are done completely in one take; the actors ran around to get into position.
The movie tie-in edition of the book credited Johnny Depp as an executive producer.
The music during the target shooting practice scene is John Barry's "Wednesday's Child", the main theme from The Quiller Memorandum (1966), a Cold War-era spy thriller set in West Berlin. Chuck Barris is later sent on a mission to West Berlin around the same time that movie was released in West Germany (1967).
During a montage, we see Patricia and Chuck dancing in a bedroom next to a bed where we see a man's legs sticking up. These legs belong to director George Clooney.
The Central Intelligence Agency has denied that Chuck Barris ever worked for them.
David O. Russell was offered the film to direct but turned it down, deciding "that it was just not about anything but a guy who liked to fuck girls and say that he shot people in the head".