This episode was inspired by the 1957 Warner Bros. cartoon, What's Opera, Doc?. The Michael Maltese story features Elmer Fudd chasing Bugs Bunny through a 6:11 operatic parody of 19th century classical composer Richard Wagner's operas, particularly Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) and Tannhäuser.
The title of this episode is an obvious reference to the cartoon.
In Helga's dream sequence, where she parodies Elmer Fudd's character in What's Opera, Doc?, she reveals her weapon to be a "golden magic slingshot". Gerald mentions that he thought the weapons were supposed to be a "spear and magic helmet"; these were what Elmer Fudd claimed as his weapons in the Looney Tunes short.
Toran Caudell does Arnold's singing voice in this episode, even though he doesn't provide his speaking voice anymore. This is due to Phillip Van Dyke not being comfortable with singing and Toran, who is a real-life singer and musician, still sounded like Arnold when he sang. Craig Bartlett was quoted as saying "It just worked out!"
Creator Craig Bartlett says this was his favorite episode to make because it was so much fun to record.
Mr. Packenham takes the 4th graders on their field trip. But in "Teachers' Strike", Gerald claims that Mr. Packenham was a 5th grade teacher.
Curly's line "Thank you very much!" is an obvious reference to the late rock and roll singer Elvis Presley.
This is the last 11-minute episode of season 2 in production order.
Despite that Arnold found out that he had "nothing in common" with Ruth in "Arnold's Valentine", Arnold still likes Ruth.
This was the last episode where Arnold shows an infatuation towards Ruth though. It's possible this episode was written and takes place before "Arnold's Valentine".
