Dick Van Dyke's hobby is computer animation. The animation seen on the computer screen was done by Van Dyke himself. He got interested in animation while working on Mary Poppins (1964).
Rather than make this special simply a clip-filled reunion show, creator Carl Reiner instead chose to produce it in the format of a regular episode.
During a sketch on the 1979 "Mary Tyler Moore Hour" , Mary and Dick again play Rob and Laura Petrie. In a similar plot to this show, Rob has to write a eulogy for the funeral of the recently deceased Alan Brady..
Carl Reiner had asked Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie and Larry Mathews if they would agree to do this special while they were on stage at TV Land Awards: A Celebration of Classic TV (2003).
The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) had Rob and Laura sleeping in twin beds because the censors did not allow couples on television to sleep in the same bed back then. (An exception was Ozzie and Harriet Nelson in "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet" TV series. This couple was married in real life.) In this special, Rob mentions that he and Laura have a king size bed.