Joss Whedon revealed that the portrayal of the fast food industry with the Doublemeat Palace caused sponsors to threaten to pull support: "The only thing that we've ever actually been stopped or asked to stop doing was the fast food run. When Buffy worked at the fast food joint it made the advertisers very twitchy. So apparently the most controversial thing we ever had on Buffy was a hamburger and chicken sandwich."
This marks the first time Tara has been missing from two shows in a row since the character was introduced.
When Willow is trying to find out what is in the Doublemeat Burger, you can see the God Janus from the second season, that Ethan Rayne used to make people become their costumes, behind her.
Willow tells Xander and Anya that the Trio's headquarters had "pictures of the Vulcan woman from Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)," a reference to T'Pol played by Jolene Blalock. Both Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) and Star Trek: Enterprise (2001) aired on UPN from 2001 to 2003.
Brent Hinckley, who played Manny the manager of the fast food restaurant, also played the manager of a fast food burger joint in "Falling Down" with Michael Douglas.