The orangutan sub-plot is similar in several ways to Every Which Way But Loose (1978), to include scenes from the Palomino club involving a female singer.
Charly McClain, who plays Callie, was a country music singer in the 1980's, having performed or presented at several of the Annual Music City Awards in Nashville. She also had a duet hit, "Paradise Tonight", in 1983 with Mickey Gilley, who appears as himself.
The hospital building is the same one that was the Sheriff's jail where Poncherello bailed out his brother's friend in Return to Death's Door (1982).
Poppy is actually played by two orangutans: Manis the Orangutan and Bobby Berosini's Orangutan.
They are the same animals that portrayed Clyde in the Every Which Way but Loose movie.
Over 15 years later, guest actors Clarence Gilyard Jr. and Cliff Emmich would be castmates again, as series regular and guest star respectively, in the episode of Walker, Texas Ranger (1993) titled Fight or Die (1999). Both actors would die on the same day, November 28, 2022, at the respective ages of 66 and 85.