Noam Pitlik won the 1979 Emmy for best directing in a comedy series for his work on this episode.
The plot of a man who chooses to be a successful beggar rather than carry on with his day job may have been inspired by the Sherlock Holmes short story The Man With the Twisted Lip by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Michael Lombard's first of four appearances on "Barney Miller".
The $186.00 Stanford Whitney (Michael Lombard) had collected by begging would be the equivalent of about $880.00 in the year 2024.