James Cromwell plays the detective. At the time, Cromwell was best known for his recurring role as Archie's friend Stretch Cunningham on All in the Family (1971). His big breakthrough came after starring in the surprise hit movie Babe (1995). Vera played a small-scale animal rights activist in this episode, but Cromwell lives it out in real life, having participated in PETA-sponsored protests.
Series co-star Philip McKeon's younger sister Nancy McKeon makes her first appearance in the series as an orphan. Nancy will return three seasons later for another holiday-themed show: Alice's Halloween Surprise (1981). By that time Nancy was enjoying fame playing Jo on The Facts of Life (1979).
In one of his earliest roles, seven-year-old Corey Feldman (b. 1971) played the orphan boy who declared "turkey's for the birds!" Feldman built up a head of steam in the 1970s, playing character roles and co-starring in The Bad News Bears (1979) before securing enduring fame in a string of iconic 1980's films including Gremlins (1984), The Goonies (1985), and Stand by Me (1986).