The show was considered a spin-off of Diff'rent Strokes (1978), but the connection wasn't explained until a few months after the premiere. Since both shows were produced by the same company, a cross-over episode with Larry Alder and Phillip Drummond as old army buddies from Korea was written to boost the show's ratings.
As an effort to help bolster ratings both McLean Stevenson and Joanna Gleason appeared on an episode of Password Plus (1979), hosted by Allen Ludden, playing the game as their "Hello Larry" characters. They played against Vicki Lawrence and Carol Burnett who played the game in their respective characters of Mama and Eunice from The Carol Burnett Show (1967). Lawrence and Burnett won the game.
The series connection with Diff'rent Strokes (1978) was established months after the series premiered. This was done to help bolster the series sagging ratings. The effort was in vain, however, as Hello Larry still continued to pull in low ratings and was canceled in 1980.
22 years after the show's cancellation, the show was mentioned in the NBC 75th Anniversary Special (2002). This special reunited all the network stars from throughout its history and one comic segment of the special listed all of the network's TV mistakes, including this show.