The official premiere was originally set to premiere on September 6, 1997, but due to ABC covering Princess Diana's funeral, the premiere date was moved to September 13 after the rest of One Saturday Morning original series such as 101 Dalmatians: The Series (1997), which already premiered on syndication before ABC premiered it, the second season of Disney's Doug (1996) premiered, and the upcoming Pepper Ann (1997) was premiered.
This episode was adapted for the Disney Chapters book collection in 1998.
On ABC's official Recess website on the One Saturday Morning site, video clips of when Gus was crying tears of joy about finally having friends and later when the student body does everything they can to make Gus feel welcome at his new school were put on Gus' character page.
This episode was the first to premiere, but instead aired as the second episode after the first episode The New Kid (1997) premiered that ABC could air the news coverage of Princess Diana's funeral.