At one point Ted makes a joke about his reaction to 9/11. Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane narrowly missed being on American Airlines Flight 11, one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Wahlberg was booked on the flight, but decided to drive to New York City and fly to California later. MacFarlane arrived at the gate ten minutes late and was not allowed to board. He was sitting in the airport when he saw that his plane had hit the World Trade Center's North Tower.
James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli traditionally never allows any James Bond theme to be used in other movies, but Seth MacFarlane wrote her a letter asking for permission to use "All Time High" from Octopussy (1983), as it was his mother's favorite song. Broccoli made a rare exception to her rule, hence John gets to slaughter the tune in a performance in front of a dismayed crowd.
The integrated archive footage of Ted on Folge #23.31 (1984) was culled from the broadcast of February 29, 1984. Johnny Carson's actual guest that night was Emmanuel Lewis. This can easily be determined by when Johnny, upon Ted's arrival, says, "I thought you'd be taller." Although Ted responded, "I thought you were gonna be funnier," Emmanuel's actual response was, "Me too."
According to astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson, Seth MacFarlane called him in advance to make sure he would get the stars in the night sky scenes right.
Various teddy bears were used as stand-ins for post-production editing. Ted's movements were done by Seth MacFarlane through motion capture.
Ted Danson: Appears on a fictional Cheers (1982) DVD interview mentioning the size of Woody Harrelson's penis.