In 1998, French Stewart (Harry) married actress Katherine LaNasa, the woman (Kate) who takes the dog for her daughter.
In this episode, Dick (John Lithgow) performs a High Commander salute for the first time. A less complicated salute as Dick merely slaps his forehead. Later, the salute starts with a forehead slap, which then transitions into the hand moving to the back of the head and sliding the palm forward to the forehead again.
The comic book that Tommy is reading at the end of the episode is "Superman: The Man of Steel #49."
At the beginning of the episode, Dick is reading a book with no food on the table in front of him. The dog then enters the scene, and Dick is suddenly shown feeding a treat to the dog (presumably so the trained animal will enter).
This was one of seven episodes in which James Earl Jones added an unique one-liner to the standard narration under the opening credits. Here, the one-liner is "They say earth started with just two humans. Now there are five billion. Someone needs to turn a hose on them."