This episode appears to be following cases/incidents:
- The 1984 Libby Zion case. Zion was an 18-year-old woman with a high fever who died six hours after being admitted to New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center. A grand jury determined that the long hours of often unsupervised interns and residents contributed to her death. Although her father, an attorney and writer for "The New York Times," claimed inadequate care resulted in his daughter's death, the hospital was cleared of criminal charges. An appeals court exonerated the doctors. The subsequent investigation led New York State to form the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on Emergency Services, more commonly known as the Bell Commission. This committee developed a series of regulations that addressed several patient care issues, including restraint usage, medication systems, and resident work hours. One aspect of these regulations is commonly referred to in the medical community as "the Libby Zion Law" or "the Libby Law," which sets limits to working hours for medical "post graduates" (commonly referred to as interns and residents).
- The real-life malpractice lawsuits and other scandals against doctors with alcohol and drug addictions
- The term "impaired physician".
Although this episode is billed as Season 1, Episode 1, it is actually the second produced and filmed episode. Season 1/Episode 6 Everybody's Favorite Bagman (1990) was actually the first episode produced: it was the original pilot episode, produced and filmed in 1988 for CBS, which decided not to pick up the series. After NBC decided to pick up Law & Order, it chose to air the original pilot as Season 1, Episode 6. Evidence of that being the 'first' episode: the detectives meet Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty) and Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks) for the first time, and the District Attorney is an Alfred Wentworth, played by Roy Thinnes. Thus, District Attorney Alfred Wentworth would have been the original and first District Attorney, preceding Steven Hill's appearance as long-time District Attorney Adam Schiff.
This was the first episode of the series. Several instances of courtroom reactions can be noted: loud laughter when a witness says the victim could have died from "death rays from Mars," and several audible gasps during parts of testimony. Such reactions were phased out of later episodes of "Law & Order."
If a man of Dr. Auster's age, sex, and weight drank 6 standard shots of bourbon within 45 minutes, his blood alcohol concentration would be 0.12%/dL, almost twice the legal driving limit.
In Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone's office, there is a small version of the Irish Brigades Flag on the bulletin board.