While cleaning the jail cell, Andy tells Opie that the jail doesn't have many customers "since Otis started doing his drinking in Mount Pilot." The character of Otis had been dropped from the show early in this same season, reportedly because a sponsor objected to their products being associated with a funny town drunk. But in the 1986 reunion special "Return to Mayberry" it was revealed that Otis had successfully stopped drinking and was now driving an ice cream truck. Hal Smith, the actor who played Otis, continued to have a thriving career on TV, especially as a voice actor In animated shorts. Among many other roles, he supplied the voices for Disney's 'Goofy,' and for 'Owl' in "Winnie the Pooh."
Andy's truth-stretching about the wildcat, and his no-hit baseball game, places him in the same character position that Barney Fife used to hold.
The poem Miss Crump is reading to the class during the opening scene is from "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns. Some of the words however have been anglicized from the thicker Scottish brogue that it was written in.
Joy Ellison (playing Betsy in this episode) played another character, Iris, in Season 8, Episode 1 "Opie's First Love." *UPDATE* Joy Ellison also played Effie Muggins, Mary Wiggins, and Mary Scobey in Season 1.
At 11 minutes and 43 seconds into the episode, while Goober is sitting outside of the Courthouse with Andy and Howard, Goober says "You can say that again," but his lips never move.