The episode won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Drama Series - Cloris Leachman for playing Phyllis Lindstrom.
Doris Roberts of "Remington Steele" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" fame makes an early television appearance in this episode as Helen Farrell the employment agency agent who doesn't suffer Phyllis's foolishness gladly.
In 1975, when the episode originally aired, the US was suffering from several years of inflation (termed 'stagflation'; i.e. 'stagnant + inflation'), and under President Gerald Ford, the government put together a campaign nicknamed 'WIN'; 'Whip Inflation Now'. The program had little effect on turning the economy around.
Phyllis Lindstrom (Cloris Leachman) explains the drop in the price of her Polaroid stock is because the company hired Laurence Olivier to do their television commercials. She says that they should have saved money, and hired Durward Kirby. Kirby, who had served as spokesperson for Polaroid about a decade earlier, made an on-air gaffe while appearing live on The Garry Moore Show (1958).