Series star
Jack Palance and guest actor
Brandon De Wilde had over a decade earlier both been Oscar-nominated as co-stars in the classic western
Shane (1953), the lead actor of which,
Alan Ladd, had passed away just months before this episode's airing at age 50 from an apparent accidental combination of alcohol and sedatives. Eight years later, De Wilde would die in a traffic accident at age 30, just under a year after another of his "Shane" co-stars,
Van Heflin, had died of a heart attack at age 62.