The Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago was instrumental in the development of the atomic bombs that were used in WWII. The world's first controlled nuclear chain reaction took place there just before World War II.
At the beginning Kolchak stated the Manhattan Project "took place very close to here". Kolchak is referring to the University of Chicago Metallurgy Laboratory ( Metlab) theoretical research on plutonium for the Manhattan Project in the 1940s which was conducted in the Chicago, Illinois area, not to be confused with the work done on The Manhattan Project laboratory, in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
The murder of Robert Gurney (Craig Baxley) is preceded by a television screening featuring Lon Chaney in The Mummy's Ghost (1944).
Thomas Kitzmiller (Pat Harrington, Jr.) states that in his role as vice-president of public relations, he can deal with gas prices going up to five dollars a gallon. In 1975, the year this episode aired, the average gas price was $0.57 per gallon. $5.00 per gallon is nearly nine times the price of $0.57 per gallon.
While talking about Kitzmiller Kolchak jokingly says that the worst problems are caused by vice presidents. This was filmed not long after Richard Nixon (who had been a Vice President under Pres. Eisenhower) was forced to resign in the wake of Watergate. It also refers to Spiro Agnew, Nixon's Vice President, who had been forced to resign the year before due to allegations he had taken bribes while Governor of Maryland.