When the leaky pen drips ink on the newspaper, indicating which horse Renard should bet on, if you look closely you will see among the names of the jockeys Clemens, Houghton, Denault and Serling; George T. Clemens was the director of photography in this episode, Buck Houghton was producer, Edward O. Denault was assistant director, and Rod Serling created it.
Original story featured a machine that could foretell an individual's probable future. Rod Serling replaced this science-fiction element with a street peddler who could magically perform the same function.
When the bellboy brings the newspaper, The Daily Chronicle, to Fred Renard, the headline is seen to read "H-Bomb Capable of Total Destruction." This is the same newspaper prop used in Time Enough at Last (1959).
"What You Need" originally appeared in the Oct 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It was credited to Lewis Padgett, a pseudonym used frequently by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore.
The story this was based on, by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, was adapted for television seven years earlier on "Tales of Tomorrow (1951)."