This is the first Peanuts special in which the adults actually speak words rather than be represented with the plunger-muted trombone sounds.
This special was based on a series of strips from 1974, which was one of the longest series in "Peanuts." The strip had some other subplots that were omitted in the special and some changes that were made to the story. The main differences: In the strip, after the fiasco with Patty's skating dress, Marcie's mother makes the alterations to the dress to perfect it. In the special, it was Snoopy who does this onscreen. After Patty gets her dress she wants to do something with her self-described "mousy-blah" hair so she decides to go to Charlie Brown's dad's barber shop, but Charlie forgot to tell his dad that Patty was a girl so he gives her a boy's haircut, much to her despair. To cover this up Patty wears a huge afro wig. In the special, the haircut scene was written out so the wig was a gift to Patty from Snoopy to go with the skating dress; she disliked it, so she threw it on Snoopy's head. In the strip, Patty makes it to the competition only to find out that it's for roller skating, not ice skating, but she realizes this too late when she gets into trouble for inadvertently damaging the rink floor with the blades of her skates. After her return from the competition, she realizes that she still owes Snoopy for her lessons. As she has no money, she puts the wig on Snoopy's head (much like the aforementioned scene in the special).
Woodstock, voiced by Jason Serinus, whistles Giacomo Puccini's "O Mio Babbino Caro" in the skating competition.
Both Linus and Lucy only speak one line in the entire program.
The wig given to Peppermint Patty in the special made her look like Little Orphan Annie. This was an inside joke as Patricia Patts, who voiced Peppermint Patty, was playing Little Orphan Annie in the west coast casting of Annie at the time.