Series star Edmond O'Brien and guest actress Inger Stevens had both famously played people terrorized by a hitchhiker: O'Brien when he and Frank Lovejoy are targeted by title menace William Talman in director Ida Lupino's The Hitch-Hiker (1953); and Stevens in the classic same-titled episode of The Twilight Zone (1959) when she is haunted by the continuously appearing hitcher apparition portrayed by Leonard Strong (The Hitch-Hiker (1960), directed by Alvin Ganzer)). O'Brien and Strong had once been castmates , in Backfire (1950); and "Twilight Zone" helmer Ganzer had directed Lovejoy and Talman from the 1953 film in separate television productions.