Trivia: Johnson's script originally featured an ending in which Jesse loses the game and yet finds himself still alive. Seeing this, Fats explains that he will die "as all second raters die: you'll be buried and forgotten without me touching you. If you'd beaten me, you'd have lived forever." This ending was eventually filmed when this episode was remade in 1989, during the first revival of The Twilight Zone.
Trivia: The effect of the melting artwork was accomplished by painting a picture in wax onto a hotplate and then simply turning the hotplate on. (00:21:10)
Trivia: Writer Richard Matheson based this story on a true incident. His young daughter fell out of bed one night and rolled against the wall just far enough away that when he reached under the bed, he at first couldn't find her. This inspired both a short story and this TZ script, where a child falls into another dimension.
Trivia: Close inspection reveals that all of the 9-foot-tall Kanamits are played by the same actor - Richard Kiel (later to become "Jaws" in several James Bond films). It's most apparent at the end, when two Kanamits stand near the spaceship in a split screen effect. (00:21:50)
Trivia: The weapons and giants' uniforms were reused from the movie Forbidden Planet.
Trivia: The inspiration for The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror VI segment "Homer3."
