Two days after this episode aired. President John F Kennedy was assassinated.
The name of the reputed underworld figure played by Sheldon Leonard in this episode, Big Max Calvada, is an inside joke based on the name of the partnership that produced "The Dick Van Dyke Show," Calvada Productions. "Calvada" was actually an acronym incorporating the names of the partners - "CA" for Carl Reiner, L for Sheldon Leonard, "VA" for Dick Van Dyke, and DA for Leonard's business partner, Danny Thomas.
The special features on the DVD series collection contains a rare color photo of one of the office scenes; Max Calvada (Sheldon Leonard) is wearing a black suit with white pin stripes, Dick is wearing a light blue jacket, Rose Marie is wearing a yellow sweater and green dress, Morey Amsterdam is wearing a yellow vest and grey pants,
Big Max Calvada has a fondness for polysyllabic words (e.g., describing the writing of the Alan Brady Show as "neither too esoteric nor too mundane"). This was an inside joke that was based on the actor playing Calvada, Sheldon Leonard, having a similar penchant for such words in real life.
In his American Television Archives interview, Sheldon Leonard said this was his personal favorite episode.