Steve McQueen's first wife, Neile McQueen, plays Jim's client, Mrs. Brauder. Steve McQueen's one time girlfriend Barbara Leigh has a cameo as Sylvia. The McQueens and Garners were neighbors.
When Rockford is watching the card game, he asks who John Fiedler is and they tell him he thinks he's James Bond. Among the card players is Harold Sakata, who played Oddjob in "Goldfinger".
The card game between the inmates hearkens back to "Maverick", and the breakout alludes Garner's role in "The Great Escape." Dr. Brinkman's mental hospital calls to mind "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
A mental patient who thinks he's Doc Holliday (George Murdock) calls Rockford "Wyatt". James Garner played Wyatt Earp in Hour of the Gun (1967) and in Sunset (1988).
A few minutes into this episode Rockford's Firebird is shown parked at an entrance to a house. The Firebird shown is an earlier model.