To explain who guest stars Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello are to DJ and Stephanie, Joey says that "they're the stars of all those classic Beach Party movies." Series regular Lori Loughlin had co-starred with Avalon and Funicello as their daughter four years before in the last Beach Party film, Back to the Beach (1987).
Note in this episode that Annette Funicello is always seen either sitting, standing behind something, or standing close to Frankie Avalon or another cast member. Funicello was diagnosed back in 1987 with multiple sclerosis. This prevented Funicello from embarking on a cross country concert tour with Avalon to capitalize on their 1987 film Back to the Beach, which co-started Lori Loughlin. Funicello had not yet publicly revealed her diagnosis, so the safeguards mentioned above were in place to prevent Funicello from possibly falling. A little over a year later, in 1992, Funicello would go public with her diagnosis.
When Danny tells Stephanie of how the kids would make fun of her new name Dawn by singing, he tells her they would chant her name in tune of William Tell Overture.
When Stephanie changes her name, she changes it to "Dawn Ariel Tanner".
D.J. and Stephanie don't recognize Annette Funicello until Becky says she was in the peanut butter commercials. Annette used to do commercials for Jif peanut butter.