The ghost of Phillip Spade looks and sounds like Humphrey Bogart. Bogart played Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade, the inspirations for Phillip Spade, on film.
The name Phillip Spade is a nod to Dashiell Hammett's famous, hard-boiled private investigator, Sam Spade and Raymond Chandler's noir detective, Philip Marlowe.
The voice cast recorded this episode on September 26, 1986.
In the first draft of the script, dated July 25, 1986 draft, Peter and Ray ran into a junkyard while running from the bulldozer. Peter sees a red rusted sports car and remarks he had one like that.
In the first draft of the script, Janine fielded calls from Mayor Lenny, the Governor, and a salesman pitching a set of encyclopedias.