In Chuck's room there is a poster for Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959). In that film, the lead character finds himself inadvertently working for the government as an amateur spy, chased by a criminal organization and protected by a blond female spy.
Chuck enters LargeMart and passes a display of 'Astro Diapers'; this alludes to an all-astronaut love triangle gone bad. A few months before this episode was made, Lisa Nowak, a NASA astronaut, drove non-stop from Houston, TX to Orlando, FL for the apparent purpose of kidnapping and eliminating her romantic rival. She failed miserably in executing her plan and was arrested. Police said Nowak had worn 'astronaut diapers' during the long drive to eliminate restroom stops. When this episode aired, Nowak was still awaiting trial.
This episode won the 2008 Eddie Award for "Best Edited One-Hour Series for Commercial Television". Plus, it was nominated for the 2008 Emmy Award for "Outstanding Main Title Design" and for the Casting Society of America's 2008 Artios Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Casting-Television Pilot-Comedy".
The contacts in Bryce's PDA are: Zulu Seven, Red Dawn, ChinoCasino, Jill, Tango Five, Little Longhorn, Early Mourn, The Unholy One, Florence H., Sarah Y., Kooks Allied, Victor Nine, Benjamin K., Orange Corruption, Cracker Bits, Alpha Two, The Bandage, Hairy Chicken, Tired Camel, Delta Charlie, Swiss Cheese, Zulu Commander, Terrence B., Deadly Forest, Robin Egg, Beta Charlie Four, Jester Court, and Buckles.
The computer game "Zork" which the episode references is a real computer game, originally written for a time-sharing computer, and later released for personal computers in the early 1980's.