Alfre Woodard's first appearance as a series regular.
The title comes from the French autobiography In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past written in seven volumes by Marcel Proust from the early twentieth century.
Dr. Chandler visits the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, which was relatively new, having been dedicated on November 13, 1982. As he looks at the memorial there's a tight shot on the name of "Nathan Chandler." There is no Nathan Chandler on the actual wall.
Early in the episode, Fiscus says: "First day of Fall. Way to start a new Season, huh?" . An obvious reference to the fact that this is the first episode of a new TV season on St Elsewhere.
Nurse Papandrao (Jennifer Savidge) shouts at the computer and calls it "HAL" - a reference to the artificial intelligence voiced by Douglas Rain in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984).