Actor Fred Savage, who starred in the original series from 1988 to 1993, directs this pilot episode.
The comic book in the school bus scene is Avengers issue #52, where Black Panther joins the team.
Bill tells Lillian he might spend his first royalty check on "that pearl necklace I caught you staring at Parisian's." Parisian was a Birmingham-based chain of departments stores founded in 1877, with multiple locations throughout Alabama and across the southeast. In 2006 and 2007, Parisian sold, and the stores either closed or converted to Belks or Bon-Tons. From 1970 to 2006, the Montgomery location of Parisian was in the Montgomery Mall; in 2017, the Montgomery Advertiser reported the space that had been the Parisian at the Montgomery Mall would be renovated into the new school building for the Loveless Academic Magnet Program (LAMP) High School--the alma mater of Wonder Years showrunner Saladin K. Patterson.
Dean rides a Schwinn Stingray-style bicycle. Although the frame looks like a Stingray frame, the chain guard is a Schwinn Stingray, but the head emblem is not a Schwinn. However, the front sprocket is a Raleigh, and the bike is a three-speed handlebar shifter similar to Raleigh, only appearing in this episode.
This episode is set before the events of the original "The Wonder Years".