The show was originally scheduled to premiere on Tuesday, March 22. It was pushed back to Thursday to bank off the ratings from Joey and Will & Grace.

This show was originally titled "The Office: An American Workplace" during its development.

This was the first NBC comedy episode to be shown in widescreen to non-HDTV viewers.

The episode was the third most-watched show on US TV for the night, with 11.3 million viewers.

Michael: What is the single most important thing for a company? Is it the building? Is it the stock? Is it the turnover? It's the people. The PEOPLE. My proudest moment here wasn't when I increased profits by 17%, or cut expenditure without losing a single member of staff. No, no, no, no. It was a young Guatemalan guy, first job in the country, hardly spoke a word of English, but he came to me and he went 'Mr. Scott, will you be the Godfather to my child?' Didn't work out in the end. We had to let him go. He sucked.

Michael: This is our receptionist, Pam. If you think she's cute now, you should have seen her a couple years ago.
Pam: What?

Michael: No, I'm not going to tell them about the downsizing. If a patient has cancer, you don't tell them.

Michael: I guess the atmosphere that I've created here is that I'm a friend first and a boss second. Probably an entertainer third.

Michael: It's simply beyond words. It's incalculable.

Dwight: You can't do that.
Jim: Why not?
Dwight: Safety violation. I could fall and pierce... an organ.
Jim: (crossing fingers) We'll see.

Michael: Any messages?
Pam: Yeah, just a fax.
Michael: Pam, this is from corporate.
Pam: I know.
Michael: How many times have I told you there's a special filing cabinet for things from corporate?
Pam: You haven't told me...
Michael: It's called the waste paper basket!

Visual: Michael's slow-motion running

This is a parody of the show, The Six Million Dollar Man, which was a cult TV show that aired on ABC in the 1970s.

Michael: Hey, I'm Moe.

Moe was a character from the well-known movie shorts "The Three Stooges," which centered around three good-hearted fools who had a knack for screwing up even the simplest task.

Michael: You've been X-ed, punk!

This catchphrase comes from The WB's The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, with a tag line referencing the show Punk'd. Interestingly enough, B.J. Novak, who is one of the show's writers and stars as Ryan the temp, also worked on the show Punk'd.

Michael: Wazzup?

This catchphrase was used in a series of popular and often-parodied Budweiser commercials.