Trivia

Berkeley Breathed was exceptionally displeased with the quality of the final product. In an exchange published in The Washington Post he said to a person trying to find the VHS or DVD version, "Hopefully (you will find it) in the rubbish pail. We can do better than that, and we will with an eventual Opus film, but I'm glad you enjoyed it. I presume your family was on speed when they watched it. I would imagine it helps." In a later interview, Breathed explained that the production of the special was very difficult, and that he was constantly at odds with the director, who wanted to include more crude and vulgar jokes.

During the production of Hook (1991), Steven Spielberg, who directed the latter film and served as one of the executive producers on this TV special, decided to utilize Robin Williams (The Kiwi) and Dustin Hoffman (The Cockroach) to record (in what little time he had) their voice-over work in a small studio. It is the reason why the quality of their voice recordings is not as clear as the rest of the cast.

The movie cut away of Opus trying to fly a DC-3 is referenced to a poster on his bedroom wall.

Based on a children's book that featured characters from the comic strips "Bloom County" and "Outland", both of which Berkeley Breathed wrote and drew.

The "support group" scene was adapted from an installment of the comic strip "Outland". The major difference being that, in the strip, Opus is leading the group, rather than Ronald Ann.

Dustin Hoffman: The voice of Milquetoast the Cross-Dressing Cockroach. One of Hoffman's most famous films was Tootsie (1982), in which he played a struggling actor who resorts to cross-dressing to earn a major role.

Robin Williams: The voice of The Kiwi. In place of his real name, Williams is credited as Sudy Nim, which is a pun on the word "pseudonym"