Ron originally had a poster of Indiana basketball coaching legend Bobby Knight in his office, but it had to be removed for legal reasons.
Aziz Ansari improvised some of his dialogue during the pilot, including his awkward flirtation with Ann during the community forum and the things Leslie has done while drunk.
In a deleted scene, Tom explains that the autographed photo of Larry Bird on Leslie's desk (in which her name is misspelled "Lesly") was faked by him, as part of a long-running prank in which Leslie believes Tom and Larry Bird have lunch once a month.
The original pilot received mixed responses from focus group screenings, leading to parts being rewritten and new scenes shot in order to make Leslie and Mark more likable. Originally, Mark was interested in Ann and asked Ron to green-light the park project purely so he could pursue her romantically. This was rewritten so Mark asks for Ron to help Leslie because he genuinely thought she deserved to succeed.
In the original pilot script, Mark Brendanawicz tells the documentary crew that he doesn't care about the Pit project or believe Leslie Knope can do anything with it, but he likes Anne Perkins and greenlit Leslie's effort so he can pursue Anne. Because this made Mark seem to be a total asshole, another scene was filmed and used where Mark says that Leslie's optimism impressed him and that's why he decided to help her. They did keep in a scene in the S1 finale where Mark hits on Anne and she tells him off for doing that.