The final Twilight Zone episode where the ending shot rose upward, seeing the setting's higher point replaced by a starlit sky.
The Horace Mann quote Fowler reads, "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity", is the motto of Rod Serling's college, Antioch, of which Mann was the first president. After writing the script for "The Changing of the Guard", Serling accepted a teaching post at Amish College.
Student Dicky Weiss quotes John Donne, from "No Man Is An Island": "Any man's death diminishes me, / Because I am involved in mankind, / And therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; / It tolls for thee."
Student Bartlett quotes Howard Arnold Walter from "I Would Be True": "I would be true, for there are those who trust me; / I would be pure, for there are those who care; / I would be strong, for there is much to suffer; / I would be brave, for there is much to dare."
Although Donald Pleasence (Professor Ellis Fowler) played a teacher with 51 years experience, he was only 42 when this episode was filmed.
Ensign Dickie Weiss was killed saving the lives of twelve men who were trapped in the boiler room of the U.S.S. Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. In The Time Element (1958), the unofficial pilot for The Twilight Zone (1959), which was also written by Rod Serling, Ensign Janoski was killed on the U.S.S. Arizona during the attack.