Monk's irrational fears in order of severity from most to least are as follows: germs, needles, milk, death, snakes, mushrooms, heights, crowds, elevators.
The book Mrs. St. Claire is reading to the kids is written by Julie Breckman. This is the name of the daughter of Andy Breckman, the show's creator.
Jason Gray-Stanford, who plays Lt. Disher, originally auditioned for the role of Deputy Mayor Shelden Burger.
In this pilot, the character played by Jason Gray-Stanford is listed as "Lt. Deacon." Throughout the rest of the show's run, his name is Lt. Randy Disher.
Syndicated and streaming prints of the pilot use "It's a Jungle Out There" theme song by Randy Newman in place of the original pilot/S1 theme set to a montage of scenes from "Mr. Monk and the Candidate" and the original S1 theme. The footage in which the original theme song played (showing Monk cleaning his apartment and preparing his talk with Dr. Kroger) is shown without the Jeff Beal theme.