Saturday Night Live

• The episode premiered less than three weeks following the terrorist attacks of September 11. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, along with members of the New York Fire Department appear in the cold opening to encourage New York and Saturday Night Live to carry on in the face of adversity. When asked by Lorne Michaels "can we be funny?", Giuliani replied "why start now?" In addition to appearances by Giuliani and the NYFD, Paul Simon played "The Boxer" during the cold opening.
• Amy Poehler, Dean Edwards, Jeff Richards and Seth Meyer's first episode as cast members.
• On the original airing of this episode and the next, Chris Parnell's voice-over remained for the Weekend Update opening sequence even though he had been fired from the show. It was subsequently re-recorded by Amy Poehler.

• Former cast member Ben Stiller was asked to host the episode, but backed out because he felt it was too soon after the 9/11 attacks to be funny.^{[citation needed]} SNL crew member Marci Klein said in the Live from New York book^{[citation needed]} that "Ben is from New York, he should be fucking showing up with bells on to help the city through this."
• Seann William Scott was originally booked to host the following episode, but he was bumped up when Ben Stiller canceled.

• Drew Barrymore nearly backed out of hosting, citing fear of flying after the 9/11 attacks.
• Rehearsals for this week's episode were interrupted when an NBC employee tested positive for anthrax in the same building where SNL is broadcast, though the show went on as scheduled.

• Former cast member Dan Aykroyd revises his recurring character, Leonard Pinth-Garnell, for the sketch "Bad Conceptual Theater". He was brought in to pad sketches during rehearsals while John Goodman was ill.

• The original version of this episode has a TV Funhouse cartoon about Michael Jackson proving to his weird entourage that he doesn't lust after boys anymore. On the NBC rerun, this was replaced with another TV Funhouse cartoon, a "Fun With Real Audio" about Pat Robertson promoting stem cells which turns into a cartoon about Britney Spears that played on the West Coast airing of this episode (the syndicated reruns don't air either cartoon).

• Future host Ashton Kutcher makes a cameo appearance during the monologue.

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• Bubba Sparxxx's performance is cut out in the 60-minute versions of the episode.

• Chris Parnell makes a vocal cameo appearance as Tom Brokaw during the "Narrator Who Ruined Christmas" cartoon. Robert Smigel did not agree with Parnell's firing and pushed for him to reprise his impression. Smigel notes on the "Best of TV Funhouse" DVD commentary that Parnell had nothing but good things to say about the show that had fired him when he came in to record his lines. Parnell will subsequently rejoin the cast a few episodes later.
• Will Ferrell pushed Lorne Michaels to have Ellen DeGeneres host the show and appears in many sketches with her.

• Will Ferrell does not appear in this episode since he was off filming the movie "Old School." He was removed from the opening credit sequence.

• Will Ferrell was prominently featured in the promos for this episode to assure viewers that he had not left the show (after being absent for the previous episode).

• With this episode, Britney Spears becomes the first (and only) female celebrity to be a host and musical guest twice for an SNL episode.
• With this episode, Ana Gasteyer becomes the first female castmember to be shown pregnant on-camera.
• Former cast member Dan Aykroyd (who played Spears' father in Crossroads, her first feature film, released two weeks after this episode aired) cameos in two sketches (the Mormon skiers cold opening and Jimmy Fallon's Leather Man sketch)
• Future host Justin Timberlake makes a cameo appearance during Britney's monologue.
• The Mormon skiers cold opening originally had Chris Kattan as the second skiier instead of Dan Aykroyd.
• The original cold opening was a piece where Martha Stewart (played by Ana Gasteyer) addresses the audience about her money troubles.

• Chris Parnell rejoins the cast after being fired at the end of last season for budgetary reasons. His return was not known about until this episode aired, and it was not actually mentioned on-air by anyone (although a mention was cut after dress rehearsal). Parnell appeared in a number of sketches in this episode an attempt to reintegrate him back into the cast.
• Darrell Hammond does not appear in this episode. Will Ferrell, who was originally not supposed to appear in this episode, was flown in from the set of "Old School" at the last minute to make up for Hammond's absence. Hammond's absence also contributed to Chris Parnell's return.

• Mike Judge, creator and voice artist for Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill, appears in the TV Funhouse "Fun With Real Audio" providing the voices for Beavis and Butthead.
• Chris Parnell is again featured in a number of sketches in an effort to reintegrate him back into the cast.
• Will Ferrell did not appear in this episode since he was off filming "Old School."
• Darrell Hammond returns with this episode.

• According to the book, "Live From New York: The Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live", the kiss between Maggie Smith (Ian McKellen) and Jimmy Fallon on Weekend Update was real and planned for the show, but McKellen slipping his tongue in Fallon's mouth, Jimmy's disgusted reaction, and Jimmy's lines "Maggie Smith should shave" and "Does this mean I'm knighted? Or did I just get queened" were not planned/scripted.
• This episode won an Emmy for writing, the show's first since 1989 (for the Alec Baldwin/B-52's episode)
• Will Ferrell did not appear in this episode since he was off filming Old School.

• With the filming of his scenes from "Old School" complete, Will Ferrell returns to full-time duty.

• The NBC rerun of this episode featured a tribute to SNL director Dave Wilson. The tribute consisted of behind-the-scenes footage of Wilson directing the beginning of the cold opening of his final show.

• NBC never reran this episode, and it has never aired in syndication for unknown reasons. However, sketches from this episode are included in the SNL clip show special, "The Best of Alec Baldwin".

• In the monologue, when Horatio Sanz throws up, he was originally supposed to vomit in a bucket, but the stage hand missed his cue. All NBC reruns and one-hour syndicated versions replace this with a dress rehearsal version where the stage hand doesn't miss his cue.

• Alex Trebek appears in the Celebrity Jeopardy sketch; in fact, this was Ferrell's final regular show appearance as he left the series to focus on his film career.
• Musical guest Moby appears in a Mango sketch parodying Winona Ryder's shoplifting incident wearing a T-shirt that reads, "I Heart Eminem", an ironic and humorous reaction to Eminem's comments regarding Moby in his song "Without Me".
• The real Neil Diamond appears in the live show version of Weekend Update, but not the dress rehearsal.
• Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer's final episode as cast members.