Matt Groening was nervous about "The Raven" because it did not have many gags, and felt it would be "the worst, most pretentious thing [they had] ever done" on the show.
To get the right drooling sound for the aliens, James Earl Jones chewed on a cookie close to his microphone.
Edgar Allan Poe is listed in the opening credits as a writer as the episode refers to and quotes from his classic poem "The Raven."
This is the only Treehouse of Horror episode to be set in the treehouse.