A kid named Joel associates Batman with "tight rubber armor", and "a flashy car that can drive up walls", both references to Batman Forever (1995), which was directed by Joel Schumacher. (Joel is even seen standing outside a shop, under a partially-obscured sign that seems to read "Shoemaker" or "Shoemaker's", a nod to Joel Schumacher's last name.)
Both Dick Sprang and Frank Miller were given a tape before the episode was aired. Both liked the handling of their work.
At the end of the first story, Batman and Robin shake hands and Batman refers to Robin as "old chum", which are both references to Batman (1966) starring Adam West and Burt Ward. The handshake was part of the animated title sequence.
The two fantasy stories of the Batman are directly based upon Bill Finger and Bob Kane's and artist Dick Sprang's version of the Batman from the fifties and sixties, and Frank Miller's version of the Batman from the eighties. The episode as a whole is based upon a similar story with the same title by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams from the seventies.
The producers considered doing an additional tribute to the third major period of Batman, the gothic 1970s stories written by Denny O'Neil and drawn by Neal Adams. However, they decided that it would not be practical to attempt to emulate Adams's realistically naturalistic drawing style for animation.