On the "West Wing Weekly" podcast, actor Richard Schiff, whose West Wing character Toby Ziegler features prominently in this episode, describes it as "tough to watch" and said, "It was... if not the hardest, close to one of the hardest acting challenges I've ever had."
As presidential hopeful Matt Santos, Jimmy Smits sings snippets of the Elvis Costello song, "Alison" in an early scene. Having Smits sing it, rather than having a recording of a Costello performance of it, would have significantly lowered the licensing fee for using the song. The Santos character's choice of this song relates to the mention in this scene of a fictional "Newsweek" columnist whose first name is Alison.