The series is well known to draw influence from Stephen King's books and movies. The song playing over breakfast with Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Murray (Brett Gelman) is "Blue Bayou" by Roy Orbison. This song heavily features in the book/movie Dreamcatcher (2003) by Stephen King, a story about a group of kids who make friends with a supernatural, psychic boy who helps them fight aliens and work against a government agency, trying to keep it under wraps.
At Murray's (Brett Gelman) house, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) retreat to separate sleeping locations, where we see different scenes of each in their room muttering to themselves while trying to resist the heavy sexual tension between the two. This scene is cut like, and is a reference to, a similar scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), where Indy (Harrison Ford) and Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) are doing the same. Nancy's sleeping quarters even have double doors just like Willie's. They each come out of their room to find the other right there.
This episode takes place from November 3 to November 4, 1984.
When Dustin and Steve are "chumming" the train tracks to attract Dart, watermelon was used in place of meat because the vibrant red color showed up better on camera.