Over 17 million people tuned in to watch the pilot episode - a record at the time.
The image of the kidnap victim with his eyes and mouth sewn shut would be revived by Chris Carter in The X-Files (1993) in Season 5 in the episodes Patient X (1998) and The Red and the Black (1998).
Lance Henriksen was particularly keen (certainly in the show's first season) not to make Frank Black a typical gun-toting detective. In fact, in this opening season, Black very rarely is seen with a gun in his hand.
Chris Carter was so impressed by David Fincher's Se7en (1995) that he recruited that film's production designer Gary Wissner.
Writing the Season 2 Irresistible (1995) gave Chris Carter the inspiration to pursue this darker series.