> While the genre known as screwball comedy already existed in 1936, My Man Godfrey was such a perfect example of the form that many critics would point to it as the gold standard whenever a new comedy in the same vein was released. Among the telltale traits of a screwball comedy are farcical situations involving family relations, courtship and marriage and class differences. Fast-paced repartee and eccentric characters and behavior is also the norm for this type of movie which includes such other famous examples as It Happened One Night (1934), Twentieth Century (1934), The Awful Truth (1937), You Can't Take It with You (1938) and The Lady Eve (1941).

> The director of My Man Godfrey - Gregory La Cava - may not be as well known today as some of his contemporaries like Howard Hawks, George Cukor or Preston Sturges, but, like them, he found his own course to freedom within the studio system. A former animator who began directing two-reel comedies in the company of Leo McCarey and Frank Capra, La Cava freelanced for much of his career, holding studio bosses in contempt and preferring to find a more organic style of working, one that mirrored that of the screenwriter of My Man Godfrey, Morrie Ryskind.

> The Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of the play Of Thee I Sing (1932), with George S. Kaufman, and a screenwriter in his own right (A Night at the Opera, 1935), Ryskind was hired to write the script for My Man Godfrey. His usual method for preparing a screenplay was rather unorthodox - he usually work-shopped his scripts with an informal team of colleagues. In this case, he rewrote and improvised dialog, often on the set, with the film's two leads and the director. La Cava also preferred this method of working, and was known for reshaping scenes and rewriting on the set, often shooting without a finished script. This spontaneous approach influenced the role of Irene, which was actually based on Carole Lombard.

> La Cava was responsible for William Powell being cast in My Man Godfrey even though Ronald Colman wanted very much to do it. He had the script sent to the MGM star who loved it but would only do the film if the female lead was offered to Carole Lombard (Constance Bennett and her sister Joan were also considered for the part). MGM surprisingly agreed to loan Powell out for the film because the studio was in the midst of preparing a new project for him co-starring Jean Harlow (whom Powell was involved with romantically at the time).