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.
Troy says, "Man, you just wrinkled my brain", referring to the once-held belief that learning something new caused wrinkles in the brain. This was debunked long ago and it's now known that the "wrinkles" (really grooves and ridges called sulci and gyri, respectively) we're born with stay the same throughout our lives.