In the comic book on which the film is based, Eubie is called Ebony White and he is usually depicted as a racial stereotype. The movie changed his name and characterization in an effort to make him more acceptable to audiences of the time.
The villain plans to use a fake ambulance to make her escape, which is the same idea that Hans Gruber has in Die Hard (1988). Steven E. de Souza was the screenwriter of The Spirit and a co-writer of Die Hard. When they couldn't figure out how Gruber and the robbers were going to escape, de Souza mentioned this TV movie, which was made just one year prior.
This TV movie almost didn't get seen at all. Due to a write-in campaign and a circulated petition at the San Diego Comic-Con it was aired on ABC TV in 1987, a full year after its making, and was a pilot for what could have become a series. One of the signers of the Comic-Con petition was future Batman: The Animated Series (1992) writer Paul Dini.