General Mills breakfast cereal products are seen in the Unger household. The Underdog (1964) cartoon series was created by General Mills' ad agency to help promote their products.
Another reference to the original cartoon: the name "Shoeshine" refers to Underdog's secret identity as the shoeshine boy.
References to the original cartoon series include:
- Secret identity as "humble and lovable Shoeshine Boy"
- love interest "Sweet Polly Purebred"
- speaking in rhyme
- causing significant property damage during rescues
- pill as source of super powers
- changing into costume in exploding phone booth
- explaining to crowd that he is "not plane, nor bird, nor even frog, just little old me: Underdog".
When Underdog flies Polly over the city and gets a doggy bag of food for their dinner, it's taken from a couple outside Tony's Restaurant, which is the Italian restaurant in Disney's beloved dog movie Lady and the Tramp (1955). When they sit down to eat the spaghetti Underdog pushes a big meatball over to Polly, as Tramp did for Lady.
"Bar Sinister" is a heraldic term - a bar slanting to the left on a coat of arms signifying "bastard".