The episode finishes in the same way as The Godfather (1972). Charlie is also seen earlier reading a biography of Francis Ford Coppola, the director of "The Godfather" trilogy.
Allison Janney (C.J.) was originally in this episode but had to be written out when she had to fly to London, England to film extra scenes for The Hours.
According to Aaron Sorkin, the reason this is set entirely within the West Wing was due to financial reasons.
The Spaldeen, the rubber ball, was incorporated into the story at the request of Richard Schiff as an ode to Steve McQueen's character in The Great Escape (1963). Schiff asked Aaron Sorkin to add the ball in the case of Toby figuring something out.
Toby (Richard Schiff) asks Leo (John Spencer) if dropping Hoynes (Tim Matheson) as Bartlet (Martin Sheen)'s running mate in the 2002 presidential election is being discussed. This is one of only two times in which The West Wing references the year in which the story is taking place. The other was in the Season 1 episode Mr. Willis of Ohio in which the manner of the 2000 Census is being discussed when it had been previously established that they had been in office for two years, or 1998. The West Wing never addresses why presidential elections take place in different years than in the real world, although one potential explanation would seem to be simply to make direct correlation to genuine campaigns (on a time basis) impossible.