Mary Tyler Moore, Gavin MacLeod, Richard Schaal, and Frank Adamo all appeared on "The Dick Van Dyke Show." Penny Marshall's brother, Garry, was a writer for that series.
The bumper music for the first commercial break is the theme song of The Bob Newhart Show (1972); another highly successful MTM-produced series during this time.
Richard Schaal, who played Dino in this episode, was married to Valerie Harper, at the time. Harper had already left the show to do Rhoda (1974). Schaal had appeared in a total of 5 episodes during the series' first couple of years, including playing both Paul and his brother, Howard Arnell in separate episodes
Arlene Golonka (who, in real life, was a good friend of Mary Tyler Moore) makes her second appearance in the series. Her first was in, Ted Over Heels (1971) in which she played Betty Bowerchuck; Chuckles the clown's daughter.
Lou mentions not wanting to do another on-location feature like 'Hubert H. Humphrey's drug store'. Humphrey was the son of a pharmacist. The political candidate worked as a pharmacist at the corner of Washington Ave SE & Harvard, Huron, S. Dakota.