A young Kevin Bacon has a brief part as one of the teenagers at the beginning of the movie who gives Captain Avenger a hard time.
In an interview with John Ritter at a Kansas City Radio Station in 1980, John was asked about the home town of "Steve Nichols." Three times during the film, there are references to Cawker City as being his home town, as well as there being a Cawker City High School green and white banner hanging on the wall. John replied that he thought Cawker City was made up by the writers. Almost immediately, the radio station was flooded with calls informing John that there really is a Cawker City, Kansas, and that it is the home of the World's Largest Ball of Twine.
Robbi Morgan stated in interviews that she auditioned to play J. Marsh, and did not get the part, but the casting directors liked her enough, that she was immediately cast in Friday the 13th (1980).
Both "Teenager" (as in Teenager 1 and Teenager 2) actors would, in 1984, four years later, play high school seniors. Kevin Bacon in Footloose, and Niall Barry in Old Enough.
Several nods to Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), including showing cab drivers hanging outside of the Belmore Cafeteria at night, and the casting of Leonard Harris, who played Senator Charles Palantine in Taxi Driver (1976), playing the Mayor. In one scene, while the mayor is giving a speech, he has both arms raised in the same fashion as Taxi Driver. Also, the street drummer who pays homage to "Gene Krupa" appears in the beginning of this film.