There's a pay phone on the first floor of the boarding house, but a non-pay phone on the second floor and both are dial phones. Meanwhile, Arnold has his own touch-tone phone in his room.
The title is a reference of the 1931 film 24 Hours.
The song I'm Crazy is a reference to the music of James Brown. Throughout the series James Brown's song Get Up Offa That Thing is sampled and used in several episodes showing another connection with James Brown.
Moral: Violence never solves anything.
Harold shouts "It's Clobberin' Time!" This is a catchphrase used by the Thing from the Marvel Comics series, The Fantastic Four.
The original pilot was only seven minutes long, so some bits were added or expanded to fill out the eleven-minute time period. These include:
After Harold tells Hegla to keep her shirt on, he makes an aside comment to Stinky and Brainy, "For all our sakes."
The conversation between Arnold and Gerald while walking down the street is made longer.
A bit where the boarding house phone rings, and Arnold answers it to hear Helga counting down the time he has to die.
The conversation between Arnold and Grandpa is longer.
When Grandma writes the message from Helga, a joke is added where she is asked to "underline three times".
There are also a couple of differences between the pilot and this episode, aside from the updated wardrobe of the characters and the length:
In the pilot, Iggy tells Harold to "Say something, man!" after he gets beaned. Here, it's Helga who tells him to, "Say something, pink boy!"
In the pilot, an unnamed dog hands Arnold the newspaper informing him of his impending death. Here, it is Abner who gives him the paper.
In the pilot, when Arnold and Gerald are walking down the street, it is sunset. Here, it is still daylight out.
Eugene and Park both weren't in the original pilot whereas they do appear here. Phoebe didn't appear in the original pilot either but she is nowhere to be seen in this episode.
