Oliver's "Stay alive. I will find you" speech to his bag of dips is a directly quoted from the 1992 The Last of The Mohicans.
In the opening credits, the cartoon Arconia has no power after the sun sets.
There have been several major blackouts in the history of New York City. Perhaps the one that is best known in the general public imagination is the 1965 one; though it actually affected a wide swath of the Eastern U.S. and Canada, it became known specifically for the the way that it seemed to draw New Yorkers together in a warm and convivial way that contrasted with the then-common stereotype of the city's residents as unfriendly and dangerous. It also gave rise to an urban legend--later proved to be completely false--that roughly nine months after the blackout, New York saw a sharp increase in births. Though several studies thoroughly debunked this notion, it continued to be linked to the story of the blackout for decades for prurient or comedic purposes.