The production team regarded this as the worst episode of the series.
Bruce Timm said of this episode, "I can't even watch that show. It's the epitome of what we don't want to do with Batman. Strangely enough kids like it. The script came in and it was terrible. Normally, I tell the director to do what he can to make it interesting, and nobody could figure out a way to make it interesting. The storyboard artists didn't care, and it shows."
The series creators weren't quite sure what to do with the Penguin. Initially they thought of him as a cerebral sort of villain who relied on his wits rather than his fists. They considered turning him into "a bird-loving, Norman Bates-style mama's boy always under the thumb of of his overly protective but unseen mother." But these plans were scrapped after the theatrical release of Batman Returns (1992), and the animated Penguin was retooled to more closely resemble the live-action film's Penguin. Bruce Timm even visited the set to sketch Danny DeVito in full costume.
This episode marks the first appearance of the Penguin.
This is an unusual episode where Batman spends most of it unconscious. Also, he never appears as Bruce Wayne, just Batman.