Parts of the speech Ronald Reagan' is heard giving is taken from his famous "Rendezvous with Destiny" speech Reagan gave in 1964 in support of Sen. Barry Goldwater 's run for President. Conservative Republicans were so impressed by that speech that it led to Reagan's later election as Governor of California and then President of the U.S.
The title comes from the O. Henry story of the same name. Peggy (Kirsten Dunst)'s act of selling her car so that Ed (Jesse Plemons) can buy the butcher shop is similar to the events of the story, in which a woman sells her hair to be able to purchase her husband a new chain for his pocket watch, only to find that he has sold his pocket watch to buy her a set of hairbrushes.
Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson) accompanies Ronald Reagan's campaign in Minnesota. Minnesota was one of the few states that Reagan lost in the 1980 election, and the only state he lost in the 1984 election. This was because Sen. Walter Mondale was the Vice Presidential candidate in 1980 and the Presidential candidate in 1984.
The song Let's Find Each Other Tonight is a song by José Feliciano, and in this episode it's sung by Wilco's Jeff Tweedy. In the movie Fargo (1996), Steve Buscemi's character takes a prostitute to go see Jose Feliciano in concert, and features him playing Let's Find Each Other Tonight.
Both Jeffrey Donovan (Dodd Gerhardt) and Bruce Campbell (Ronald Reagan) were the main characters in the series Burn Notice (2007) as best friends Michael Westen and Sam Axe.