Guest star Rory Calhoun had been the name-above-the-title star of the "sword and sandal" entry The Colossus of Rhodes (1961) ("The Colossus of Rhodes"), the first film on which Sergio Leone received full directing credit after impressive years as an assistant director under the likes of Robert Wise, William Wyler and Vittorio De Sica. Leone's next three films as the main credited director would be the "spaghetti western" trilogy that would make Clint Eastwood an international A-list movie star, the first one having been released the year before this episode aired, A Fistful of Dollars (1964) ("A Fistful of Dollars"), followed by For a Few Dollars More (1965) ("For a Few Dollars More"), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) ("The Good, the Bad and the Ugly").