The original title of this pilot episode was "The Wolf Tree," which is what appears on Stirling Silliphant's 78-page script dated 10/27/59. At the time, the series was to be titled "The Searchers."
Although released on October 7, 1960, filming took place several months earlier as determined by the land appearing to be either winter or early spring. Some sources indicate that the pilot episode was filmed in February 1960. The blue 1960 Corvette is only seen in this episode as all others this season show the 1961 Corvette. The car does not seem to be modified much for filming as it has the interior dash mirror in place as well as the sun visors. This also indicates that filming was much earlier as Chevrolet would have provided an early production 1961 for filming had they been produced.
While the release date for this episode was 10/7/60, the calendar for the scenes inside the general store shows the month of July 1960.
A rebroadcast coincidence: The original broadcast of the 1963 episode entitled "I'm Here to Kill a King" (#4.21) was delayed because it had been scheduled to air only one week (11/29/63) after President John F. Kennedy's assassination. It appears as if in syndication that episode might be re-aired as the very final one of the series, as it recently was on RTV. So it is possible that in re-airings, the first series episode would be "Black November" (#1.1) and the final series episode would be "I'm Here to Kill a King".