Given his absence from the following episode Three Hundred (1989), this ended a streak of 208 consecutive episodes, beginning with Denial (1982), in which Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes) appears. The only actors to appear in more consecutive episodes are Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing) at all 357, Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing) at 307 and Victoria Principal (Pamela Barnes Ewing) at 210.
The title is based on the quote "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child," from William Shakespeare's play "King Lear".