This is episode is probably best-remembered for Lorne Michaels making a statement requesting The Beatles to reunite on the show for $3000. Three weeks later Michaels offers them $3200.
In a 1980 Playboy magazine interview, John Lennon stated that he & Paul McCartney were at his New York City apartment watching SNL the night Lorne Michaels made his famous attempt to bribe The Beatles into reuniting on the show as musical guests. Lennon claimed they seriously considered catching a taxi to the studio and performing but that they were too tired.
Raquel Welch voted down several breast jokes that the male writers submitted, including a Al Franken & Tom Davis movie trailer for The Planet of the Enormous Hooters. Costume designer Franne Lee actually made size fifty-something tops for Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner, all of which were put on hold for the Dolly Parton show, thirteen years later.
A technical strike accounts for the stilted camera and lighting work in this episode.
The "Claudine Longet Invitational" provoked a legal threat from her estranged husband Andy Williams. One month later, Don Pardo delivered a convoluted apology.