Production-wise, this is the last episode to feature Clive Revill's voice as Alfred Pennyworth before he left due to a previous commitment. After Revill left, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. took over Alfred's role for the rest of the series and the DCAU.
The producers disliked this episode, believing the script to be mediocre, the pacing bad and the method used to defeat Scarecrow to be overly cliché. To quote Bruce Timm, "It was written by Henry Gilroy, who had never written cartoons before. He was a film editor here and always wanted to get into writing. At the time we didn't have a story editor, so we gave it a go. When he turned in his first draft, which wasn't bad, we had hired our first story editor, Sean Catherine Derek. We immediately came to loggerheads over this show. Some of the dialogue she changed wasn't changed for the better."
Bullock calls Batman "Zorro" when talking to Commissioner Gordon. Coincidentally, Bruce had just seen a Zorro movie the night his parents died and the hero has had an influence on him.
This episode marks the first appearance of the Scarecrow in this series.
Batman's line "I am vengeance... I am the night... I am BATMAN!" became somewhat iconic, and was used by Cartoon Network throughout their advertising campaign when they first began airing the series. It was later used as the opening line of the Batman musical in Out of the Past (2000). The line has also become a signature of Kevin Conroy, and he often performs it the start of his appearances at conventions. Conroy later said the line in Batman vs. Superman (2013) starring Tim Daly (the star of Superman: The Animated Series (1996) and his son, Sam. Conroy also said the line when reprising Batman during Batman: Arkham Knight (2015). The line is also part of Green Arrow's "Batman impression" in Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil Mutant Hellbound Flesh Eating Crawling Alien Zombified Subhumanoid Living Dead, Part 5 (2011) and Night of the Batmen! (2011).