Man-Bat originally killed people instead of merely stealing from the drug companies.
This marks the first appearance of Man-Bat and his alter-ego, Kirk Langstrom.
This episode was the first one to feature Batman bleeding. Bruce Timm stated on the DVD commentary for this episode that he and Paul Dini fought with the censors to allow this shot, which was deemed inappropriate for younger viewers.
Bruce Timm states he wanted this series to focus on "mystery, mood, drama as well as super hero action sequences" and that Man-Bat fit into those categories perfectly. In an interview, he says, "Man-Bat was chosen specifically [for the first episode] because he wasn't familiar to very many people outside of comic book fans. Nobody had any preconceived notions about him. It wasn't like the Joker, where you had to deal with people expecting him to be Jack Nicholson or Cesar Romero."
In Mayor Hill's office Harvey Dent is seen flipping a coin. He is not seen doing this again until the two-part "Two Face" episode.