Local sailors in Maryland trained Kevin Kline and Sissy Spacek the basics of sailing so they could do their boat scenes without the use of any doubles.
Producer Marykay Powell, a native of Baltimore, had fond memories of vacationing as a child in Ocean City where she also later had worked as waitress at a boardwalk hotel when a teenager. Powell was convinced that the region's charm, particularly its Victorian-era downtown section, would be the perfect setting for a motion picture. The film's director, Jack Fisk, was also familiar with the seaside resort area, and a location recce with Powell persuaded him that the popular vacation spot would supply the right amount of ambiance for the making of this movie.
Second and final of two cinema movies where husband Jack Fisk directed wife Sissy Spacek. The first had been Raggedy Man (1981) around five years earlier.
The film's title on many movie posters was spelled in lower case i.e "violets are blue".