The Kittridge siblings' dispute over the decision to cryogenically freeze the remains of their father may have been inspired by a similar dispute among the children of baseball great Ted Williams. Williams' remains were transferred to a cryogenic facility, which like the one in this episode, was based in Scottsdale, AZ. There was never any documentation signed by Williams found that indicated this was his wish. Two of his children asserted that it was. A third claimed it was not.
When Goren says to Spence, "however much you may like humanity, it's people that you can't stand," he's paraphrasing Linus van Pelt from Charles Schultz's "Peanuts" cartoon: "I love mankind - it's people I can't stand."