Vote of Confidence

This episode was reportedly inspired by the 1987 political scandal involving presidential hopeful Gary Hart and his affair with Donna Rice, airing less than a year after said scandal hit the news. There are multiple similarities between the scandal and this episode: Larry Pine's hairstyle in his portrayal of Tom Pierce clearly mimicked Hart's at the time; like Hart, Pierce suspended his campaign only to resume it later (Hart however permanently withdrew from the race later in March 1988); the local Miami paper (The Herald in real life) broke the story, and so forth. Hart's second and permanent withdrawal from the race happened less than a month after this episode aired.

Ironically just five months prior to the scandal, Rice, then an unknown television commercial actress, played a small uncredited role in Forgive Us Our Debts (1986) as Mrs. Frankel (Det. Frankel's wife).