I'm thinking, this is Robert Redford. You know, he's won an Academy Award, he's talking to me about directing a movie he's in. So you just think that it's Hollywood stuff or whatever.

(Levinson appeared in a cameo as a doctor. He has a television production company with Tom Fontana (The Levinson/Fontana Company) and served as executive producer for a number of series including Homicide: Life on the Street (which ran on NBC from 1993–1999) and the HBO prison drama Oz. Diner was the first of a series of films set in the Baltimore of Levinson's youth.

His most notable films include The Natural Good Morning Vietnam Rain Man Bugsy and Bandits.