When Mother Goose (Rue McClanahan) brings her class to the diner to persuade Mel to change his mind, a young Brice Beckham who went on to fame in the cast of Mr. Belvedere, and a young Benji Gregory who would go onto star in the television sitcom were two of the children. They are the two boys with striped shirts.
Every season for the entire run of the the show, Mel's Diner gets destroyed. This was the final time the diner got wrecked.
The title is based on the song "Big Bad John" performed by Jimmy Dean and composed by Dean and Roy Acuff released in 1961.