This was Red's final role. Reportedly, filming the animal was time-consuming with the amount of takes necessary before he performed correctly.
Melnik was named after Daniel Melnick, a partner in Talent Associates, the production company of Get Smart.
"The formula for the new hydrogen rocket fuel is C2H2O7", according to the recording being played to the parrot. This is also known as Carboxyperoxy hydrogen carbonate, which was first submitted for a patent by Sumitomo Chemical Co. in 1980 to be used in a process for the continuous casting of liquid polymerizable compositions as outlined in patent US4211742.