Heide Perlman, real life sister of Rhea Perlman, co-wrote this episode; she was a writer of 17 episodes of the show during its run.
Per the title, long before reality television came along the TV show An American Family (1973) consisted of a weekly documentary which followed the real life daily adventures of the Loud family.
In the opening, Norm mentions that relief pitcher Jesse Orosco hit a home run the night before. In reality, Orosco never hit any home runs in his career; all 10 of his career base hits were singles.