Regina specifying tongue of newt, not eye, might be an oblique reference to Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'. In Act 4 scene 1 the three witches (wyrd sisters) use eye of newt in their rather complicated cauldron spell. Out of the roughly two dozen items, eye of newt has become the stereotypic witch's brew ingredient.
The license plate of the station wagon for the previous author - "WED-1901" - represents Walt Elias Disney and his birth year of 1901.
The scenes in the Sorcerer's Mansion were originally supposed to take place in the forest but were moved indoors due to heavy rain.
For the opening scene where the Black Fairy is flying though the night, Jaime Murray was placed inside a room with at least fifty different cameras and photographed from every conceivable angle.
When Regina is making a potion, one of the ingredients that she asks Henry to fetch for her is tongue of newt and emphasizes that she needs the tongue, not the eye. Eye of newt was one of the potion ingredients Henry found while looking through Regina's potion ingredients in "The Apprentice".