Per
William Daniels' memoir, several months after production on the film concluded, he attended a private screening of an initial cut of the movie. This version contained no location filming, no marching band music score (as was featured in the play), and the role of Leo Herman was performed by
Paul Richards and not
Gene Saks (who had successfully played it on stage but was originally unavailable for filming). This early cut proved to be such a disappointment to the film's makers,
Herb Gardner decided to relinquish his screenwriting fee in exchange for permission from the producers to rewrite several scenes, hire the now-available Saks as a substitute for Richards' performance, shoot a number of exterior scenes on location and extensively re-edit the film into its final version. (Ironically, Richards had taken over the part of "Leo" from Saks in the original Broadway production).