In what would soon become Shirley's catch phrase, Yvette Nicole Brown admitted in an interview that her first utterance late in this episode of "That's nice!", as a response to a line spoken by Jeff Winger, was not actually scripted. In fact, she didn't even say it in character; cameras were still rolling between takes when the actress herself responded to something Joel McHale (not Jeff) had just uttered. Apparently, the editors thought it would make a charming cutaway within the scene, and the writers would add the line to future scripts.
The pilot marks the first time Abed utters, "Cool. Cool cool cool." He says this while writing on the sign-up sheet for the "study group".
Danny Pudi is half-Polish and 1/16th Filipino, as he himself stated for a Community promotional ad that aired on Fox Philippines.
A cover of the song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds plays during the final scene. The band performing the cover is L.A. based rock band The 88, the same band that plays "At Least It Was Here," the theme song of the series.
When Abed mentions that it feels like "Stripes", this is a reference to the name of Joel McHale's character on the show, Jeff Winger. Bill Murray's character was named John Winger and was the inspiration for Dan Harmon to name the character.