Mother Powers (Cloris Leachman) makes an unusual reference to the recent past when Caitlin (Valerie Mahaffey) suddenly remembers a Christmas Eve when the family was gathered around watching Miracle on 34th Street (1947), and her grandmother unceremoniously announced, "There is no Santa Claus." As Caitlin relives this unpleasant memory, Mother Powers goes to the next level: "That's nothin'. There's no Natalie Wood now, either." (Natalie Wood, who was nine years old at the time she played Susan Walker in the 1947 film, died by presumed drowning in 1981, 12 years before this episode aired.)