This would be the final new episode broadcast in the 9:00 Friday time slot until February 3, 1989.
Castillo mentions the (Arthur) McDuffie riots back in 1980, triggered by five Miami-Dade policemen beating McDuffie (who had a list of traffic offenses and a suspended license at the time) to death after claiming he was fleeing from a routine traffic stop. The officers were all acquitted (similar to the Rodney King case 13 years later) and Miami burned for two days until the National Guard and curfews restored order.
South Beach had the appearance of a blighted, neglected area in 1988. During the time the show was on the air, a reclamation project began that has turned South Beach into a mecca for celebrities.
This episode was inspired by the river cops scandal in 1986 that started in the Molino Rojo bar on SW 8 Street, where the cops hammered out their plan how to steal 350 kilos and that later inspired the episode. It was also inspired by the real issue that Miami Police had to hire cops from minorities after the 1981 riots and due to bad selection and scarcity of suitable applicants sometimes persons with serious juvenile rap sheets ended up at the police force.
Barbra Streisand makes an uncredited walk-by in the scene where Crockett and Tubbs pull up to Dominguez' yacht the first time; in fact, Crockett can be seen to noticeably turn and look at her as she passes. Don Johnson was dating Streisand at the time, and the pair would collaborate on the song "Til I Loved You" in 1989.