In an interview years later Mary Tyler Moore said that the scene where they embraced and then huddled to the tissues was not in the script, because of the emotion of the final episode the embrace was real and so were the tears. Moore also said when she did the famous 'light off before leaving' scene, they could only do it once as studio lights took forever to come back on.
The eight main characters of the show (Mary, Lou, Murray, Ted, Rhoda, Phyllis, Sue Ann and Georgette) never all appeared in the same episode until this series finale. Even in this episode the characters never all appeared in the same scene - although the actors portraying these characters do appear together at the very end of the episode for a curtain call.
The episode won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series.
When Sue Ann finds a new job as a traveling companion to an old man, Murray comments that she will be cruising on a ship. The following season, Murray (Gavin McLeod) will play the captain of a cruise ship (Captain Steubing) on The Love Boat, which itself was a successful series, running for ten seasons and 250 episodes.