Tidbit on Location

First of all, the film was shot in Connecticut for two reasons. First ,Paul was shooting on a very low budget and, I believe, there was something in the union rules that Danbury was far enough from New York City to give him some breaks in the rules but not so far as to be a fully location shoot. Also, the Newmans lived in Westport and this was a commute of only about an hour. Their two kids worked on the film. Nell, listed as "Nell Potts", was Rachel as a child. Scott was a driver in the crew. Danbury was a good city because they got a lot of cooperation in location shoots and were able to get a school gym as a sound stage. The more rural scenes were shot in Bethel and Redding, which were only a few minutes away.

As to location of the story, this was based on a Canadian book so was not originally set in New England. For the movie theatre scene where Nick gets in trouble for opening a can of beer, Paul brought in a supply of Coors which, in those days, was not available in the east but gave the impression of a mid-west location. At the end of the film, note Rachel hops a bus for the coast. Nobody in their right mind would travel to the west coast by bus from New England. If nothing else, she would have used a train.