The first of two episodes in a row that refer to the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). This episode is titled "The Monolith"; a large black monolith plays an important (if mysterious) role in the plot of 2001. And in the next episode, "The Runaways," Ginsberg spies Lou and Jim talking in the glassed-in computer room which is staged like the scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) where HAL reads the lips of the astronauts, right down to the rapid pan of the camera between the two sets of silently-moving lips.
When Don takes Lane's old office he finds a New York Mets pennant that he tosses in the trash. Another pennant is later seen on the office wall. The Mets went on to win the World Series later that year.
The show that Lloyd Hawley and Harry Crane are discussing outside of Don's office is Turn-on (1969), which was supposed to have been produced by a computer. Filled with tasteless sex jokes and characterised by disorienting rapid-cutting and loud music, the show generated huge complaints almost immediately during its premiere episode on 5 February, 1969. Some stations ended the broadcast at the first commercial break, but the show was effectively cancelled before the end of its first episode, making it one of the shortest network shows in TV history.
Not only is this episode's title based off 1968's film & book series "2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)" (The Monolith), but the new product/client discussed throughout this episode is IBM, rumored to be the basis of Space Odyssey's character HAL. Each letter of "HAL" is one ahead of the letters "IBM" in the English alphabet. In truth Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, the creators of 2001: A Spacy Odyssey, unknowingly named HAL based off IBM. They publicly thanked IBM for all of their help in creating the series.
The computer salesman blames his lighter not working on "human error," which is what Hal 9000 said in 2001: A Space Odyssey, thoroughly parodied here.
