On the Season Five DVD interview, Alison Arngrim said this was one of her favorite episodes of the entire series.
The creature in this episode is inspired by the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland, and it is referred to several times. Laura Ingalls Wilder was born outside of Pepin Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Pepin. Lake Pepin also has folklore of a lake monster named "Peppie" which is reputed to be a cousin of "Nessie" in Scotland.
The Brer Rabbit story Caroline was reading aloud to the family was from The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus book written by Joel Chandler Harris in 1881. It is a collection of Deep South plantation folktales written in Atlanta dialect.