This was the first and only episode that James Garner directed. He agreed to do so because the original director was unavailable at the last moment.
The fictional town of Bay City was created by Raymond Chandler in Farewell, My Lovely (1940), a Philip Marlowe novel. In the novel, Bay City represented Santa Monica, whose administration was notoriously corrupt at the time.
Bob Dylan's "Self Portrait" album is visible in Angel's apartment.