Trivia: Here and in several other episodes, Burke's Law was one of the first TV series to break with longstanding Hollywood prejudices by hiring Latino actors like Cesar Romero to play Latino roles. In this episode, three years before becoming the Joker on Batman, Romero plays a Mexican police chief interrogating Amos Burke, whose rather prescient line to him is, "The joke's on the joker - I've been framed!" (00:06:30)
Trivia: Michael Mann was originally against casting Don Johnson. Prior to this TV series, Johnson had starred in four failed TV pilots.
Trivia: Sam mentioned an old case from 1999. In the German dubbed version, it's from 1990 (even in the German subtitles it's 1999). Obviously the missing nine years takes to long to fit into the mouth movements. (00:11:10)
Trivia: The news on the cell phone seen by Danny is written by Keira Morrisette - she is a co producer of the show.
Trivia: Only mentioned in one episode early in the series, Steve Austin's least-referenced superhuman power was his ability to hold his breath for extraordinary lengths of time. Steve's phenomenal breath-holding ability was due to the fact that, even though he had two normal lungs, he had a much smaller circulatory system than a normal human being. Also, the Steve Austin in Martin Caidin's original book, "Cyborg," had an entire array of weapons, flares, communications gear, retractable swim fins, and scuba tanks built into his bionic body.
Trivia: Willa is played by Timothy Olyphant's daughter Vivian.
Trivia: Although many realistic freeway numbers and exits mentioned over the 2-way radio are real, they were not used in the show. An unused section of the 210 freeway (close to the 118 freeway) in the San Fernando Valley that wasn't quite open to the public yet, was the location nearly always shown on the show representing whatever location is mentioned. If you see many episodes, you can see the same section of freeway always shown.
Trivia: Poirot in the ship's lounge is reading the actual May 1st 1935 issue of Bystander (recognizable by the cover and with the correct page order, does not seem to be a simple movie prop), roughly consistent with the time frame of the first season and a contest taking place on the 14th. (00:07:50)
Trivia: This series was roughly halfway through filming its 18 planned episodes when Marvel suddenly scrapped it and decided to start over and have just 9 episodes and hire a showrunner (a first for a Marvel Disney+ series). Reportedly, the original writing had a very legal procedural format, and Matt Murdock didn't even suit up as Daredevil until the 4th episode. In the process of revamping the series, Marvel decided to officially make the original Netflix show canon to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Trivia: When Barry and Oliver are fighting on the street, a police officer asks for backup and mentions Burton and Nolan street, as reference to Christopher Nolan and Tim Burton.
Trivia: Originally, the new "Ghost Face" mask was meant to be made out of human flesh that was being stretched over the killer's face, hence it distorts and resembles a "screaming face" like the original Ghost Face mask. This idea was dropped relatively early in filming. However, several scenes had already been filmed with the killer for the pilot, so in some shots, the mask is actually a CG model that's been added in over the original. (Though thankfully it's hard to tell which scenes have the digital mask).
Trivia: The name on Jenkins' disguise is "Chuck Spadina." When Keanu Reeves first came to Hollywood, he was told his name was "a little too exotic," and it was suggested he should change his name. Chuck Spadina was one option he considered, although apparently not very seriously.
Trivia: Though it serves as a "reboot" to the prior film series and is thus not related, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa reprised his role as the villainous Shang Tsung from the 1995 film due to the popularity of his portrayal of the character.
Trivia: Alan tells Denny that he'll outlive them all, and will still be out there "doing Priceline commercials". William Shatner did commercials for Priceline for many years.
Trivia: Elsbeth suspects that a "suicide" is actually a murder because the victim had recently used teeth whitening strips. This is similar to the last Columbo episode, "Columbo Likes the Nightlife", where the "suicide" victim has recently used mouthwash and trimmed his toenails. In each case they didn't believe a person would do those things right before taking his or her own life. Elsbeth also often turns around with "just one more thing" after walking away, just as Columbo often did.
Trivia: The lakeside cabin Jane bought was shot on location at Disney's Golden Oak Ranch. It is called 'Cabin by the Lake'. Http://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/scene-golden-oak-ranch-mentalist/.
Trivia: In 2014, the series creators and network were sued for emotional distress by the family of a man named Andy Abarca. Abarca had been killed in a shooting, and actual photos from his autopsy were used in the opening credits montage of the show, evidently without any permission from his family. His mother and sister just happened to stumble across the show on one night in 2013 and were greeted with grisly images of their deceased relative. It was evidently allowed as autopsy photos are considered public documents. As of 2018, there have been no updates on the case.