This episode serves as a reunion of the five female cast members of The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Georgia Engel, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, Mary Tyler Moore and Betty White), who here all act together for the very first time. Though all five were regulars on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, only one MTM episode ("The Last Show") featured all five actresses - and it did not have a single scene where all five acted together.
Many references to the Mary Tyler Moore Show are woven into the episode. The episode's title ("Love Is All Around") references the MTM theme song, as does Elka's line "Looks like she made it after all!" when she spots the character played by Moore. As well, Moore's concluding speech about how she and her friends spent their Saturday nights has many parallels with the MTM series' achievements in their Saturday night timeslot, and the episode concludes with a meowing kitten that is very reminiscent of the one in the MTM logo that concluded every episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Final acting role of Mary Tyler Moore.
Mamie Sue (Georgia Engel) makes a subtle reference for her role as Georgette on the Mary Tyler Moore. As the women are all describing who they were on their bowling team, they each end by saying she was "the ditz". Mamie Sue responds by saying, "You guys are none of those things anymore but I'm still ditsy". Both Georgette Baxter from Mary Tyler Moore and Mamie Sue o Hot in Cleveland share that character trait.