This is the only dramatic role John Wayne performed in a TV series using his 'John Wayne' moniker. Two other dramatic series employed his talents, but he chose to bill himself as Michael Morris in The Colter Craven Story (1960) and as Marion Morrison, his birth name, in Flashing Spikes (1962)
John Ford not only directed John Wayne here but also was the director for Wayne's only other performances in dramatic roles on a TV series: The Colter Craven Story (1960) and Flashing Spikes (1962).
All the characters in this story are fictional, but the character played by Ward Bond is strongly suggestive of a combination of the real "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and George Buck Weaver, both banned from baseball due to the Black Sox scandal.
The newspaper where John Wayne works is set in the fictional town of Emeryville, Pennsylvania. However, there is a real city named Emeryville in California. It is in the San Francisco East Bay area, located between Oakland and Berkeley.