In the flashback, Fiddleford McGucket's house is modeled after the childhood home of Apple's founder Steve Jobs. McGucket is, like Jobs, working on computers. And on the garage wall there is a poster of a bitten, multicolored strawberry with the phrase "Ponder Alternatively," a spoof of the Apple logo and its slogan "Think Different."
The restaurant that was next door to where Stan and Ford lived as kids is called Hot Belgian Waffles. That is also one of the lines Grunkle Stan said in the previous episode Not What He Seems.
The original broadcast of this episode was completely ad-free.
After McGucket goes through the portal, he seemingly spouts gibberish. When played backwards, he says, "YROO XRKSVI! GIRZMTOV!" This is a reference to what he says in a flashback in "Society of the Blind Eye." "YROO XRKSVI! GIRZMTOV!" is "BILL CIPHER! TRIANGLE!" in Atbash code.
During Stanford's flashback about him building the shack, a young Manly Dan (Wendy's father) is visible working inside, wearing his future daughter's brown deerstalker hat. Other cameos include Major Tyler Cutebiker as a kid during Ford's experiment, his mother saying "Get out, get out" to inspire his catchphrase, and the Northwest family, who apparently own the real estate company that sold the Mystery Shack's grounds.