The only episode of any Star Trek series to win a Peabody Award.
One of the headlines Captain Picard reads from the holodeck-generated newspaper is "DiMaggio streak reaches 37." According to the Baseball Almanac, Joe DiMaggio reached that number on June 25, 1941.
The scenes in the 1941 holographic San Francisco were filmed on Paramount Pictures' New York Street backlot.
The basic premise of the episode was conceived by Gene Roddenberry, who suggested doing a detective story on the holodeck. It was Tracy Tormé, however, who added numerous film noir references in the script, being a fan of the genre.
Maurice Hurley described the episode as being like a "breath of fresh air". He explained, "It was just fun to do. It's got humor and life to it. The thing is that Star Trek can't brood. If it broods, it gets self important and self-indulgent and preachy, like it has a tendency to do if it's not careful. But if it has some life to it, some humour, then it just jumps up and flies. It's different, but absolutely locked in the Star Trek format. Everything in there worked."