Whenever G.I. Joe and Cobra troops are engaged in a firefight, the Joes' gunfire produces orange muzzle flare, while the Cobras' gunfire produces blue muzzle flare. Just like in G.I. Joe (1985).
The female Joe Dial-Tone was originally just a background character, but due to the amount of dialogue she had, the producers said she should be a Joe. Warren Ellis named her Dial-Tone because he thought it was an amusing codename.
The series writer Warren Ellis had no prior knowledge of G.I. Joe, which he claims is why producer Sam Register brought him on board: "It went like this: Sam Register phoned me up and said 'We'd really like you to write a G.I. JOE animation, at a PG-13 rating, aimed at an older viewer.' I said 'I've never seen a G.I. JOE cartoon in my life. The closest I got to a G.I. JOE comic was drinking with Larry Hama. I've never even seen a G.I. JOE; couldn't tell you what they look like if you paid me. I know nothing about G.I. JOE. It is meaningless in my world.' 'Excellent,' Sam said, 'just the guy we need.' It was hard not to notice, at this point, that Sam Register is crazier than a shithouse rat. Therefore I decided to take the job."
The H.A.A.R.P. (High Frequency Active Aurora Research Program) program really exists in Alaska, and it looks almost exactly the way it is depicted in this cartoon.
Scarlett being forced to choose between Duke and Snake-Eyes is a reference to one of the splits between the G.I. JOE comic and cartoon: in most continuities, she is romantically linked with Snake-Eyes, but since G.I. Joe (1985) heavily downplayed his role, she was instead paired with Duke.