McCloud leaps from a second-story window into an open roadster, then scrambles into the driver's seat to take off after the jewel thieves. This shot is featured in the main titles of this and all subsequent episodes.
A TV detective (Larry Hagman) begins to believe that he really is one & keeps interfering with McCloud (Dennis Weaver), who is on a murder case related to the filming of Hagman's current production that's shooting in Manhattan's Central Park. At one point, Hagman says,"This reminds of an episode on my show, 'The Case of the Purloined Parrot'." "The Case of the Purloined Parrot" was an episode of the Hanna-Barbara cartoon starring cat & mouse detectives Snooper & Blabber (both voiced by Daws Butler) that aired on NBC on February 8, 1960.
"The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin is heard during the filming of the fictitious gangster movie, also titled 'The Gang That Stole Manhattan'. It was made popular by being featured in The Sting (1973), which was released about 1 year prior, and, like the movie being filmed here, was also set in the 1930's.
Detective Grover is mentioned several times, but does not appear.
It has been said that the series producers wanted J.D. Cannon for the role of Chief Peter Clifford, for the reason "he was the closest thing to a living, breathing version of Dick Tracy."