When Earl is being interviewed, he shows off the "newest member of the Sinclair family", a puppy named Checkers. This is a reference to Richard Nixon, who also had a dog named Checkers.
Veteran news commentator Edward R. Hero is named after broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow, and the name also foreshadows the episode's outcome.
The edition of The Pangaea Tribune with the headline "Richfield Defeats Singing Imbecile" was later seen in Working Girl (1994).