Josh Peck's weight loss is mentioned when Helen tells Josh he can't be Santa because he lost so much weight.
This was shot the same week(s) that Miranda Cosgrove (Megan Parker) and Jerry Trainor (Crazy Steve) were shooting the Christmas special of a separate show ("iCarly").
This movie takes place at least five weeks, but less than a year after "Really Big Shrimp". Helen's marriage is mentioned as being "recent", but she got sick of her new husband five weeks after the marriage. How soon after this came the divorce, and the events of the series, are unknown.
The parents listen to a radio in their vacation hut. The same Packard-Bell AM Radio, Model AR-851 was used on L'île aux naufragés (1964).
This film originally came from an unmade project titled "Drake & Josh In Manhattan", though some sources have the script reportedly titled as "Drake & Josh Ruin Manhattan". The film, which was meant to be released in theaters as a final send-off to the TV series, would've involved the two traveling to New York City for one of Drake's concerts, only to be mistaken for two lookalike wanted criminals and falsely arrested. After being released, the two are forced to help an orphanage as part of their parole, only to face off against the lookalike criminals who are trying to rob the same orphanage. It's believed the project never took off due to a lack of theatrical interest and a high budget, causing the film to be scrapped in favor of "Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh". The unused script for "Drake & Josh Ruin Manhattan" was loosely rewritten and reused for this project. A 2008 Los Angeles Times article reported that it could be the third made-for-TV movie under the title "Drake & Josh in New York," but it didn't materialize.