In his short story "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" that the sequence was based on, Harlan Ellison named Jack Wheeldon after a bully he once knew.
Martin Landau (William Cooper-Janes) previously played Dan Hotaling in Mr. Denton on Doomsday (1959) and Major Ivan Kuchenko in The Jeopardy Room (1964).
"The Beacon" has no closing narration.
In the short story "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty", Gus is a collector of memorabilia from his childhood, including pulp magazines. As the apartment is scanned during the opening titles, very prominent is an issue of Startling Stories Vol. 13 #3 from 1946.
In the short story "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty", Gus is a collector of memorabilia from his childhood, including pulp magazines. He reads to his younger self from the story "12 Hours to Live" by Jack Williamson, published in the issue of Startling Stories Vol. 13 #2 from 1946.