Ellen's apartment has always been upstairs. There was a gag revolving around a refrigerator being brought down from Ellen's apartment. Another where Ellen was told by Mrs Koeger downstairs to not walk loudly when she passed her apartment, after walking down the stairs. There was the Halloween title where Ellen drops her Jack-O-Lantern from the upstairs window. Her balcony has always shown an upstairs view. Also, the establishing shot has always shown the upstairs apartment. All of a sudden, Ellen's apartment is downstairs, facing the former Mrs Koeger apartment. Nothing has been said as to moving, the apartment set up is still the same, minus the taupe wall paint.
Ellen squeezes mashed potatoes out of a piping cone onto Joe's hand. There had been such a scene in The Will (1995), where Fran puts her hand out to catch the Hollandaise sauce that Niles serves Maxwell, so that it doesn't land on his plate and he doesn't eat it. Frustrated that The Nanny was copying gags, jokes, characters and entire premises---and unable to get them to stop---Ellen started giving that production a taste of their own medicine by lifting some of their own stuff, to see how they liked being on the receiving end of such callous behavior.
First major celebrity playing herself is guest-starring here: Martha Stewart. Serial Ellen imitator, The Nanny, would---of course---soon follow suit by inviting Bette Middler and Elton John to her show, among others.