In the 1980s, there were rumors that Peter Boyle might appear in a sequel. Citizen Joe, the sequel, would follow Joe as he tried to rebuild his life after spending ten years in prison and would also deal with his grown up kids who held more liberal beliefs. Cannon Films periodically took out ads for unmade sequels to Joe. In 1980, Cannon promised Joe II then, in 1985, announced the coming of Citizen Joe: The man has changed but the times have not...He's back. The film never materialized.
The shots of the foundry where Joe works were taken in Avildsen Metals, the family business of director John G. Avildsen.
Peter Boyle won the role of Joe with his ability to improvise in-character during his audition. The producers felt that Boyle was too young (34) for the role and wanted Lawrence Tierney cast instead, but John G. Avildsen insisted that Boyle was the best actor for the part.
Producers fired John G. Avildsen because the final movie ran 150 minutes long and was considered unwatchable by test audiences. They hired William Sachs to come in and try and salvage it. He said in an interview, "The first thing I wanted to do was start in reel five and throw away the first four reels, because it was boring. [Susan Sarandon's character] was with her parents the whole time and Peter Boyle wasn't even in it yet. It now starts fifty minutes into what was the movie. I didn't have money for shooting, but I brought Peter Boyle back, and every time he was off camera I gave him lines. I basically made Joe the main character; he was a minor character before. And I changed the ending. It went on for ten minutes, with everyone discussing what happened." Producers wanted to give him a co-director credit but he refused, so they listed him as production manager. He later regretted that decision because Jack Lemmon was so impressed with the film he hired Avildson to direct Save the Tiger (1973).