Timothy Hutton, Jim's son, starred on Las reglas del juego (2008), The 10 Li'l Grifters Job (2011). Nathan Ford (Timothy Hutton) attends a mystery-themed costume party and wears the same hat Jim wore on this show. When asked who he is supposed to be, he replied; "Ellery Queen, world's greatest detective", in tribute to his late father.
Numerous stories took place in or involve radio stations and broadcasts. Often heard are radio ads for "Vitacream", a nod to Vitalis and Brylcream, two popular men's hair products of the period.
Ellery Queen is both the name of the main character and of the author of his stories. There was, however, no real writer named Ellery Queen: it was a pseudonym created by crime writers Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, who invented the eponymous character and wrote his first stories. Other authors, including Jack Vance, later used the same pseudonym to write more Ellery Queen tales under the supervision of Dannay and Lee.
The show aimed to capture the essence of the original, by having a 1940s setting.