Guest star Ed Ames played "Johnny Shannon," a popular entertainer inspired by Frank Sinatra. Interestingly, Joey Bishop, a member of Sinatra's Rat Pack, also guest-starred on this episode.
Unlike 99.9% of TV and film writers, some of whom know better and put it wrong deliberately, the writer of this episode knows guns. Sgt Barnes (Ken Howard) corrects Jessica on "silencers." The actual term is not "mufflers," but suppressors. They lower the decibels, and take most of the ring out of a shot, but the sound is still unmistakable.
Guest stars Ken Howard and Piper Laurie had appeared two years earlier in the highly successful ABC miniseries "The Thorn Birds."
Linda Purl (Terry Shannon) appeared in three episodes as different characters (S1.E20, S4.E15, S9.E13). Purl played Pam Beesly's mother Helene in The Office.
Linda Purl, who plays Terry Shannon, was briefly married to Desi Arnaz, Jr.