The Debate was advertised as a "live presidential debate" and was actually telecast live twice, once for the East and West coasts, with limited commercial interruption. It was also one of the few times actors were allowed to go "off script."
Congressman Santos's defense of the term "liberal" is a paraphrase of Kennedy's 1960 NY acceptance speech.
This is the only episode of the series in which none of the original main cast appeared.
The episode won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Multi-Camera Sound Mixing for a Series or Special.