In the audio commentary for this episode Ray Romano and writer/creator Phil Rosenthal said they saw this episode as perhaps the first "classic" episode of the series as it was a self contained story focusing on the relationships of the characters rather than on events. Romano also lets slip one of several comments he made on various episode commentaries about the strained relationship between him and co-star Patricia Heaton. In a laughing voice Romano tells Rosenthal that he enjoyed doing script readings with Rosenthal playing the part of Debra for romantic scenes because Rosenthal was better at hiding how much he hated Ray better than was Heaton.